“What is life all about?”… “Why are we here?”… “Who is God?”… “What’s wrong with the world?”… “Is there life after death?”…

These are the sorts of questions that we find answered in the Bible, (along with much, much more). The Bible tells us that the world as we see it now is not as it is meant to be; not as it once was, (when God first made it); and not as it will be one day.

What is the Bible about?

The Bible is a story. It's not a fairy story, but all fairy tales go some way to capturing the wonderful, fantastic, epic nature of God’s story. It's a true story. What is the Bible's story about? It’s the story of everything: everything that God has made, and it tells us much about God in the process. Much is left out in this short history of everything, but we are given exactly what we need to understand the story.

There are 4 great phases in this story:

Creation – How God makes everything. (First two chapters of the Bible – Genesis 1 and 2).

The Fall – How our sin changes everything. (The 3rd chapter of the Bible – Genesis 3).

Redemption - How God saves his people from sin. (The rest of the Bible from Genesis 3 onwards).

Re-creation - How God remakes all things - the new heaven and the new earth. (The last 2 chapters of the Bible - Revelation 21 and 22).

Above all it’s the story of God restoring and saving his Creation.

Things go bad pretty soon in the story, (page 2 in most Bibles!), and the rest of the Bible is the story of how God will put it right. The first two people – Adam and Eve – rejected God’s good rule over them and rebelled against him. They rejected God himself, and thought that they knew better than him. God punished them for their rebellion against him, (what the Bible calls "sin"), and cursed the world because of their disobedience. This is why we have pain, suffering and death in the world: God is telling us that the world is not as it is meant to be, and that we need him to make things right.

Every human being since Adam and Eve have followed them in their rejection of God and his ways. Every person, that is, except Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that God sent his own Son into the world to make things right, and that he was born as a man in Bethlehem. Jesus, who was God himself, lived the perfect life of obedience to God that none of us could ever live, and he died on the cross to take the penalty for our sin. On the third day after his death he rose to life again, as he had predicted, and now sits at the right hand of God the Father in heaven.

The good news is that anyone who believes in and trusts Jesus personally can be saved from God’s anger at sin, and are promised eternal life with Him, instead of being judged guilty and sent to hell. Jesus is alive and ruling over his people - the church - and he alone is able to make things right with God for us, and bring us to be with him in heaven. Jesus said "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).

The whole purpose of your life is to know God and love him and enjoy him forever. The only way you can do this is to trust in Jesus Christ, God's Son, sent to save us.

Do you know him?

We’re glad that you’ve taken the time to read this. We’d love to discuss these matters more with you, or hear any other questions that you have about life and about God. You’re welcome to attend one of our regular worship services when you will hear more about Jesus from the Bible, or, if you prefer, you can meet up with someone informally to talk further. We would love to give you a free copy of God’s word – the Bible – to read for yourself, and we also have a range of further books and leaflets that can be provided free of charge if you want to find out more about Jesus, and the difference He can make in your life.

From time to time we also run Christianity Explored courses, which meet in an informal setting, allowing you to ask any question you like, and to explore the basics of Christianity over the course of a few weeks.

You can also visit the Two Ways to Live website which outlines the main points of the Christian message and the choice that we all face in a series of easy-to-understand pages.