We all love great stories. The greatest story of all is God's story, the gospel. This good news shapes every part of our lives as a church. We're convinced it's the one story with power to tranform lives, our community and our world.
The Gospel
The Bible tells us that God - perfect in beauty and power and the source of all love, goodness and delight from eternity past - created this world and everything in it. He didn’t need to do this. He has always enjoyed perfect relationship within Himself - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He made it all out of an overflow of his glory and generosity.
As human beings, God made us in His own image. So every human being, regardless of race or background, has incredible dignity and worth. We were all made to enjoy Him and to live in relationship with Him. We were made to love each other, to care for this world God gave us and to bring Him the honour and glory He deserves.
The Bible also teaches that the first people God made, as representatives of the whole human race, rejected God’s rule. Since that time, we’ve all inherited the same nature to reject God. We live instead for ourselves and for the things He has made. The Bible calls this rebellion sin - the cause of all death, hatred, strife and misery we see in this beautiful yet broken world. Sin is the reason why all people by nature deserve God’s rightful rejection and punishment. God’s rejection means an eternal end to everything good, since all good comes from Him. Without a doubt, the human race has no more serious problem. Try as we might, there’s nothing we can do to eradicate sin. We’re all in desperate need of rescue.
The astonishing good news offered in the Bible is that God in his great love and mercy took initiative to rescue us, even when we were His enemies! God’s Son came into the world as a man. This Jesus, fully God and fully man, lived the only perfect life, and died on a cross as our ultimate representative. He took upon himself the punishment for sin that we all deserve. Because of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice in our place, the offer of full forgiveness for sin is available for all who trust in Him. Because God raised Him to life, Jesus has defeated sin and death forever.
As a people rescued by Jesus, God’s great story has become our story. This good news is the reason we exist as a church. It’s the message we celebrate, sing and learn about. It’s the reason we have hope, joy and confidence. This same good news brings us together and also takes us out to the world. We want people of all nations to know this good news of God’s glorious grace given to us through His Son Jesus.