Good News

The Good News: The creator of the universe says that you are His child. He says that you are awesomely and wonderfully made! (Psalms 139).

God loves you and wants a relationship with you. He says, "come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). He promises to give you a new life and a fresh start (Isaiah 43:25). God doesn't ask you to 'clean-up' your life, and He doesn't demand that you change. No, He invites you just as you are. He says that when you call on Him, He will meet you where you are and pour out an unimaginable love on you - a love like you've never experienced.

Questions & Answers - What does the Bible Actually say?

What are Christians supposed to do?

The bible actually tells us that God commands Christians to Love. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself." (Matthew 22:37-39). God is first and other people are second. That order can sometimes lead Christians to justify unloving behaviour towards others, but a Christian cannot profess to love God without actually loving others. With that said, love does not mean accepting a person's actions (see below, "love does not rejoice in unrighteousness").

What does it mean to Love?

The bible gives a beautiful description of what love is: "Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of wrong suffered, it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails". (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). This verse gives Christians an awesome list to assess our own actions to determine if they are loving or not.

Aren't Christians just hypocrites?

Too often those who profess to be Christians are also the ones who say one thing but do another behind closed doors. These people judge and point out flaws in others but do the same things. The bible actually tells us that Jesus hates hypocrites. To those 'holier-than-thou' people, Jesus says: "you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. So you too, outwardly appear righteous to people, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." (Matthew 23:27-28).

Christians aren't perfect, but Jesus actually says, "he who is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone" (John 8:7). This means that we aren't supposed to judge other people (throw stones). Instead, God calls us to recognize that we are all flawed, we all make mistakes, and we all have wrong motives from time to time. Jesus tells us that every action is rooted in a motive of the heart: anger, lust, love, joy, etc. And while we may not do the exact same thing as other people, the motives of our heart are all the same. For that reason, we have no business judging other people. God says that when we do, we are actually casting judgment on ourselves: "you foolish person, everyone of you who passes judgment; for in that matter in which you judge someone else, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things." (Romans 2:1).

Isn't Christianity all about rules?

No, true Christianity is actually not about rules at all. Let me explain in 3 parts:

First, the bible is divided into two sections: the "Old Testament" and the "New Testament". A 'testament' is an agreement. In Law, we know that term in reference to a person's 'Last Testament' or 'Will'. It's an agreement to give somebody something. The bible's Old and New Testaments are God's testaments/agreements/contracts with His creation.
Second, the Old Testament is about rules. The Old Testament contains the ten commandments and 600+(!!) other rules (also known as the "law"). God was essentially saying to His creation, "If you do this and this and this, you will have earned 'righteousness'". But human nature is such that rules drive us to break them. God's purpose for the rules was to show us that we are incapable of earning righteousness on our own. We all fall short. "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin." Romans 3:20.
Third, the New Testament is God's new agreement with His creation. Or, put another way, the New Testament describes how God fulfilled His promise to creation. God promised to send us a savior to do what we could not do ourselves: earn righteousness. He fulfilled His promise by sending His Son (Jesus) into this world to live a sinless life, die a criminal's death (take the punishment for all of our wrongdoing), and overcome death. Now, instead of trying to earn righteousness by doing good things, all we need to do is believe that Jesus earned it for us, and when we do, God imputes His righteousness to us. We call this "grace" (an unearned gift). "...being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus..." Romans 3:24.

What is righteousness and why does God require it?

Righteousness is perfect love. God requires righteousness for two reasons: first, because perfect love and imperfect love cannot coexist; and second, because God wants us to experience perfect love.

We can think of it this way. Picture an empty, dark room. When you enter that room and turn on a light, all the darkness leaves. That's because light and darkness cannot coexist. The same is true with perfect love and imperfect love, good and evil. God is perfect love, and anything (or anybody) short of perfect love cannot coexist with God.

In the world, we try to separate good from evil as best we can. Sometimes we put people in jail. Other times, we stop being friends with people who cause us grief and try to harm us. We do this because it is impossible for good and evil to coexist. Evil wants to cause harm, destroy, and kill, but good wants love, peace, joy, and life. God's Word says, "For what do righteousness and lawlessness share together, or what does light have in common with darkness?" 2 Corinthians 6:14.

God wants us to experience righteousness (perfect love, perfect goodness). He wants to keep all evil away from us. There will come a time when He does just that for us - when God will separate good from evil.

In Matthew 25, we read:

"But when the Son of Man (Jesus) comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, just as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left."

Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You as a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it for Me.’

Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you accursed people, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or as a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for Me, either.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

What is sin?

Sin is anything that contradicts God. It is an offence and the opposite of righteousness.

In the same way that the government has laws, and when people break those laws, they commit an offence, sin is an offence committed against God. Sin is often thought of as breaking the Ten Commandments and the other rules set out in the Old Testament (murder, adultery, stealing, worshiping idols). But Jesus actually tells us that sin is everything that falls short of God's perfection.

In Matthew 5, Jesus explained what sin truly means from God's perspective by comparing the true meaning with the common understanding:

"You have heard it said, 'You shall not murder ... but I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgement.'"
"You have heard it said, 'You shall not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.'"
"You have heard it said, 'Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you".

Jesus tells us that our previous understanding falls woefully short, and that even the slightest deviation from God is sin. He's saying that, yes, murder and adultery are sins, but so are holding a grudge (unforgiveness), lust, and hatred. Jesus is saying that sin is not the outward action, but the inner workings of our heart.

Doesn't that make God impossible to please? Yes and No.

Yes, because imperfect beings (people) cannot please a perfect God. The moment we deviate from perfection, we fall short and become incompatible with God. But this truth isn't a bad thing; it's a statement of God's greatness.

And no, because God knew we would be incapable, on our own, of being able to co-exist or please Him. He never intended to leave us to our own devices. Instead, He created us knowing and promising to make a way for us to co-exist and please Him.

God knew that no matter how many 'good' deeds we did, it would never be enough to wipe away the bad (there might be 1000x more 'good' than bad, but it does not erase the bad). Consider the crime of murder. When a person commits murder, he is a murderer forever. He can turn his life around and be a good person, but that blemish - that crime - will never be undone. It's the same with sin. The moment we sin, we carry that blemish with us forever. And it's for that reason that we are incompatible with a perfect God.

While that may be hard to hear, it is the reality of perfect goodness; perfect goodness cannot coexist with anything that falls short.

Knowing this, God sent His son, Jesus, into the world to redeem us - to make a way for us to coexist with Him. Now, instead of relying on our deeds (which fall short), we rely on Jesus, and when we do, God imputes His perfection onto us. It's simple and yet so difficult to understand. God loves us and wants us to experience perfect love. The only perfect love that exists is in Him. He says, 'Just know me - know that I am God and you are not, and you will be with me forever.'

In Isaiah 43, we read, "But now, this is what the Lord says - he who created you, he who formed you: 'Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior ... Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you ... Do not be afairad, for I am with you ... Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth - everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made ... You are my witnesses ... and my servent whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior.

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