In order to fully understand and appreciate the Good News, you must first understand the bad news...

The bad news is that we're all sinners...each and every one of us.  We all fall short of the glory of God.

Luckily, for our sake...by the grace of God and through our faith in Jesus Christ, there's hope!

The Big Question:  Have you come to a place in your spiritual life where you know for certain that if you were to die today that you would go to heaven?

1 John 5:13 "These things have I written, that ye may know that ye have eternal life."

Suppose you were to die this very minute and were to stand in judgment before the Lord God Almighty.  What if He were to say to you "Why should I let you into my heaven?"  What would you say?  What could you say?  Are you aware that only perfect souls are granted access to heaven?

Mathew 7:21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."

Romans 3:20 "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His site by observing the law; rather, through the law, we become conscious of sin."

Deuteronomy 4:13 "He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets."

Are you perfect?  Are you completely and totally without sin?  Have you never once in your life violated one of the ten commandments?  Are you worthy in the eyes of God to be granted access into heaven purely on your own accord?

If your answer is anything short of an unequivocal "YES", then please...for the sake of your salvation, read on. 

The first thing that you need to understand is that Sin separates us from God...

WE BELIEVE IN GRACE (Gods Riches At Christ's Expense)
Heaven is a free gift.  It is not earned, deserved or bought.  Although the promise of Heaven is freely given, to be rightfully claimed, it must first be received.

Proverbs 14:12 "There is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."

Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord."

WE ACCEPT THE TRUTH ABOUT MAN
Man is a sinner.  God's standard is perfection.  There's no possible way that any man can hope to enter the kingdom of heaven by his own accord...each of us is flawed.

Romans 3:10, 23 "There is none righteous, no not one...for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

We sin in thought, word, deed, omission, and ignorance.  To be human, is to sin.  God gives us the gift of free thought and free will; the first time that we exercise this freedom and turn away from the perfect example that God expects, we fall prey to sin.  When we fall prey to sin, we fall short of the will of God.

Man cannot save himself.

Titus 3:5 "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us."

Ephesians 2:8, 9 "By grace are ye saved through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast."

WE BELIEVE IN A JUST GOD
God is just, He must punish sin.  By virtue of God's infinite perfection, any deviation from His archetype (e.g. violating any one of the ten commandments) must therefore result in punishment...every sin, every time...no exceptions.

Exodus 34:7 "He will by no means clear the guilty."

Psalms 89:32 "I will visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes."

Deuteronomy 32:4 "He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he."

God is Merciful - God does not want to punish us.  He did not give us free will simply to tempt us with the weaknesses of the flesh, knowing full-well that we would surely succumb.  God gave us free will so that we would have the ability to know and freely seek the truth.  God didn't create mindless machines. 

God gave us the ability and intelligence to make our own decisions; and man, infinitely flawed, always chooses to sin.  Our heavenly Father loves us, so he doesn't want to see us suffer. However, God must punish sin, because He is infinitely just.  This dilemma causes a paradox which God resolves through his son, Jesus Christ. 

WE BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHRIST IS THE SON OF GOD
Jesus Christ is the only perfect human being that ever lived; Jesus was completely without sin and absolutely unblemished in the eyes of God.  Jesus was and is the infinite God-man.  He was the only sacrifice worthy of atoning for the sins of man.

John 1:1, 14 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."

Isaiah 53:6 "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

John 19:30 "Jesus on the cross said: "It is Finished"

John 14:2 "In my Father's house are many mansions; I go to prepare a place for you."

Romans 6:23 "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Ephesians 2:8, 9 "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any should boast."

What Jesus did was pay the price of our sins and purchase a place in heaven which He offers to us as a gift, that we may receive by faith.

WE BELIEVE IN FAITH
Faith is trusting in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.  Faith is not merely a matter of intellectual assent or simply believing the facts illustrated in the Bible.  It is not enough to decide in your mind that Jesus Christ was the son of God.  Even the devil, himself believes that Jesus is the son of God; simply acknowledging the truth is not sufficient to guarantee salvation.

How then can I be saved?

The Bible reveals four steps for salvation:

1. Believe in Jesus and put your faith in Him. (See Ephesians 2:8-10)
    
2. Repent of your sins. (See Acts 17:30, 31)
    
3. Confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. (See Matthew 10:32,33 and Romans 10:9,10)
    
4. Be baptized. (See Acts 2:38,39)

Being baptized literally means being immersed in water.  Typically, a person would stand in water, be lowered into the water (by another Christian), and then be brought back up out of the water.  The significance of the act of immersion baptism can be seen in Romans 6:1-7 and a direct example of it is given in Acts 8:26-39.