God’s Word, the Bible, tells us that as human beings we were created to be in a relationship with God. But men and women rebelled against God; we chose to live by our rules rather than God’s – the Bible calls this sin.

Every person alive has sinned. God tells us this in the Bible in Romans 3:23. We have all failed to live up to the standards that God has set for us, and therefore our relationship with God has been broken. There is nothing we can do to bridge the gap. In Romans 6:23 we learn that the punishment for our sin is death – eternal separation from a loving God. And there is nothing we can do about it.

But God is a loving God, and in Romans 5:8 we see that God made it possible for the gap to be bridged. He sent His Son, Jesus, to live on earth, and then to die on a cross, taking our punishment. And after Jesus had been dead and buried for 3 days he came back to life.

A Christian is someone who accepts that they have done wrong, and deserve to be punished by God. And they believe that Jesus died in their place, and that he rose again, and is now living as their Lord – this means that Jesus is now in control of their life.