The bible is the word of God, written by men but inspired by God. It was written so that people can know who Jesus is and believe in him (John 20:31). The bible is the final authority on matters of faith, and all claims about God ought to be tested by, and examined with, the bible. It is therefore, from the bible that we can know the most about God and from which I base my Christian beliefs.
God created the universe and the world. (Gen 1:1). He also created humans in His image, and gave us authority over the earth (Gen 1:26). Humanity’s purpose is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30).
Humanity however has misused this authority, and instead of following God’s way, we have chosen to live our own way (Gen 3). Due to the actions of Adam and Eve, sin entered the world (Rom 5:12), and now all people have sinned and fall short of the God’s perfect standard (Rom 3:23).
God will judge us for our sin (Acts 17:31) and the punishment that we deserve for our sin is death (Rom 6:23). However, because God loves us, he has dealt with the problem of sin by sending Jesus to save those who believe (John 3:16, Rom 5:8).
Jesus humbled himself to become human and lived a perfect life on earth (Phil 2:8). His death on the cross was a once for all sacrifice for all of humanity’s sin (Heb 10).
Believing in and following Jesus is the only way to be saved from sin and death and the only way to know God (John 14:6-7). To be saved you must confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead (Rom 10:9).
God gives all of us a choice to either follow Jesus or reject God. Following Jesus will give us eternal life (John 3:36, Romans 4:25). Choosing to reject Jesus and continue to live in rebellion against God will bring eternal condemnation (John 3:36). However, whilst we have a choice, it is ultimately God who chooses who will follow Him and who will rebel (John 6:44, Eph 1:4-5).
Our faith in Jesus is given to us by God’s grace and it is through our faith in Jesus that we are saved, not any good works we do (Rom 4:16, Rom 5:1). However, our faith in Jesus will produce good fruit, and a faith without deeds is worthless (James 2:14-26).
As followers of Jesus, we are given the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our inheritance in the
Finally, we are currently living in a period of time where Christ has been victorious over death and sin, but where we are awaiting the final coming of the Kingdom of God – termed the ‘now not yet’ time (1 Cor 15:12-28, Revelation). As Christians we are to live as citizens of God’s kingdom in this world and await the return of Jesus.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I'm sure there is much more to it, this is just a chance to get to some of the simple core realities of what i believe.
If you are still working on beefing this you might ad something about the Great Commandment - its pretty important. You did a pretty good job of being fairly exhaustive in a brief essay.
ReplyDelete