Part 1: Our problem and God’s solution

Welcome to Starting out as a Christian. This is study one: becoming a Christian. Let us begin with a question. Are you a Christian? It is the most important question you will ever have to answer. And yet many people are confused by it, because they do not really know what the Christian message is. This study makes that message clear, and shows how you can become a real Christian.

Here is an outline of the Christian message. It begins with God's plan.

God wants us to have the best He has to offer. In the beginning He made a good world to live in.

The Bible says that God looked upon all that He had made, and indeed, it was very good. And He still wants us to have the best He has for us.

See what Jesus said. Look up John chapter ten, verse ten.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness. (John 10:10, BSB)

Life, in all its fullness. Notice what kind of life this is. Jesus is not promising an easy life, or a wealthy one. The fullest life is the life we were made for: life with God, knowing Him, and living as He intends. That is what He came to give.

But here lies the problem. To enjoy the full life God wants us to have, we must be in a right relationship with Him, and live as He intends.

And our relationship with God is in ruins. Why? God is the rightful Ruler of the world, but we have all rebelled against His rule.

This is what the Bible means by sin. It is not only breaking a rule here and there. It is a whole attitude: I will run my own life. We have lived our way, instead of God's way.

Look up Romans chapter three, verse twenty-three.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… (Romans 3:23, BSB)

All have sinned. Not only the people we think of as wicked. All. And the consequences are devastating. We are cut off from God. The prophet Isaiah says: ‘Your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God.’

That is why God can seem so far away. Many people say that their prayers go no higher than the ceiling. Isaiah tells us why. It is not that God is unable to hear. It is our sin that has come between us.

And there is worse. We now live under God's judgement. Look up Romans chapter six, verse twenty-three.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23, BSB)

The wages of sin is death. Wages are what we have earned. And the result is death: eternal death, separated from God for ever.

People try to find God in many different ways. Some try to be good. Some try religion. Some hope that their good deeds will outweigh the bad. But we are powerless to put our relationship with Him right. We cannot undo our rebellion: what is done, is done. And we cannot live as we should. We simply cannot stop sinning.

Although we cannot make our own way back to God, He has not given up on us. God's love for us is so great that He has found a way to mend our broken relationship, at great cost to Himself.

God's justice is perfect. So He cannot pretend that our rebellion never happened. That would not be true. A judge who ignored crime would not be good. He would be unjust.

Instead, God dealt with our rebellion as justice demanded, but without destroying us. He sent His Son into the world to die in the place of all who believe, and to come back to life once the penalty was paid.

Here is the heart of the Christian message. Paul says it is of first importance. Look up First Corinthians, chapter fifteen, verses three and four.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures… (1 Corinthians 15:3–4, BSB)

Christ died for our sins. For our sins: in our place. The apostle Peter puts it like this: ‘He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree.’ He was buried. And He was raised on the third day. The resurrection shows that the penalty was fully paid.

So forgiveness and new life are available through Jesus Christ. And all who become His followers will receive the Holy Spirit, as Peter promised on the day of Pentecost: you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Christ has paid the debt we owed, and now the way to God is open. God will forgive everyone who is willing to return to Him.

Below this video, you'll find the passages from this part. Take a few minutes to look them up.

Then mark this part as complete and continue with part two, where we shall see how we should respond.