If you're new to our church and new to Christianity, this page might be helpful in explaining some of the basics of what it means to be a Christian and how to become one. At its core, Christianity is a relationship. It's a relationship between a person and the one and only true God (as highlighted in our statement of faith, we believe "In one God, eternally existing in three persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit"). One of the old creeds of the Christian church states that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy his presence forever. That's the reason for life - the reason we were made is to glorify the one true God and enjoy relationship with him.

The single most important obstacle in a relationship between a person and God, is that while God is utterly perfect and holy, us people are sinful to our core. The bible says that our God is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24) who lives in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16) and is so pure and holy that he cannot even look on evil (Habakkuk 1:13). While on the other hand people are selfish and proud and arrogant and hurtful towards God and others in word thought and deed. Instead of worshipping God (recognizing his worth and directing our lives towards bringing glory to him) we worship idols like self, sex, money, fame, power, comfort and success. We have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for gods of our own making (Romans 1:23). Because of this we have all fallen far short of God's standard of holiness. We are therefore not only incapable of having a relationship with God, but we deserve to be punished by God (Romans 3:23). Not only that - but the bible goes so far as to say that even the very best things we do are no better than filthy rags in comparison to God's standard of holiness (Isaiah 64:6). It's clear then that there's a serious divide in the prospect of us having a relationship with God.

So, if having a relationship with God - being able to live a life of rich contentment in his presence and being able to look forward to a resurrection from the dead - is dependent on having a right standing before God, then we're all in a pretty rotten position.

Throughout history, people have tried to make atonement for their sin. In fact, in the early days of Israel, God gave strict instruction on how they should go about making sacrifices and offerings to cover over their sinfulness so that God could have a relationship with them. But ultimately, none of these sacrifices were (or are) sufficient. Instead, all of these sacrifices are just a precursor to the one true sacrifice - the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world

This is where the Gospel of Jesus Christ really is good news. Through the historical atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on the cross, we can have forgiveness for our sin and be declared righteous by God (Romans 4:24-25). The outcome of this is that we can then have peace with God. We can enter into a relationship with him whereby we can find satisfaction and fullness of life by having our lives aligned to the purpose for which God created us - to glorify him (the only one worthy of our worship), and enjoy his presence forever.

If you're interested in finding out more about this fantastic news, please get into contact with us!