Good News!

Do I have good news for you or what?

Have you ever wondered who made you? Or who made the world we live in? Or who made barking dogs and waddling penguins and lazy sloths and weird-looking duck-billed platypuses?

Have you ever wondered what life is all about or why you’re even here?

Do you ever look at our world and think, "Whoa, something’s not right! Bad stuff keeps happening. People are mean to each other. And sometimes, I do bad things, even though I know better!"

Well, if you have questions like that, I have good news. I know the perfect place for us to find the answers!

We have a message from our maker!

In a special book called "The Bible," we have a God-breathed message from the One who made you, me, and everything we see. It's a great big book filled with important, wonderful, wild, and even weird things to tell us. The Bible is so big, we would have to read day and night for three days straight in order to make it all the way through from the beginning to the end.

Thankfully, I've read the Bible all the way through already. And I want to share with you the quick version of the seven most important things it has to teach us. We'll read little bits of the Bible at a time, and I'll explain exactly what it means for me and you!

I have bad news... and good news!

As we go along, you’ll quickly learn that the Bible has some bad news to tell us. And I won't lie – the Bible’s bad news is really bad! In fact, it’s pretty much the worst news ever!

But the Bible also has some good to tell us, too! So when we get to the bad news, don’t give up and put this book down. Why? Because the good news the Bible has to tell us is actually the…

BEST. NEWS. EVER!

So what are we waiting for? Let’s dive in and see what the Bible has to say!

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The Bible says...

Genesis 1:1, NIrV

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Psalm 100:3, NIrV

Know that the Lord is God. He made us, and we belong to him. We are his people.

What this means...

God is our maker and king.

Nobody living in this great big world is here by accident. We exist because someone made us. And the name we use for that someone is God! God made us, and he made the world we live in, too. In fact, he made everything!

To explain exactly who God is would take longer than a lifetime. Since we don’t have that much time, here's the short version. God is a forever-old being who has always been around. He’s sometimes called “the Lord.” Even before the very beginning, the Lord God was there. And unlike you and me and everything else, God didn't need anybody to make him.

God is smarter than smart because he knows everything there possibly is to know. He's stronger than strong because he has the power to do absolutely anything he wants to do. And God is bigger than big because he fills every inch of our great big universe. Anywhere you go, God is there already. Nobody can hide from him – he’s the Hide-and-Seek World Champ!

If all that sounds a little scary, don’t worry. God isn’t just big and powerful – he’s also good-er than good! Everything he does is completely perfect, every time, all the time.

God is the reason anything exists. He’s the one who made you, made me, made the stars, made the seas, made sloths, made Saturn… made everything! He’s our Creator.

Since God made us, that also means he’s the Boss. He’s in charge. He’s King of the World! We are God's creatures living on God's planet, breathing God's air, and eating God's food. Because of all this, we must live by God's rules.

Life in God's great big world can get a little tricky sometimes. But the big ideas behind his rules are pretty simple. Our job comes down to two things: to love our Maker and King more than anything else and to love our fellow human beings like we love ourselves.

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The Bible says...

Romans 3:23, NIrV

Everyone has sinned. No one measures up to God’s glory.

Romans 3:10-12, NIrV

No one is right with God, no one at all. No one understands. No one trusts in God. All of them have turned away.

What this means...

We are sinners who have broken God's commands.

Because he is our Maker, God is in charge of everything he has made. And as our King, he decides what is right and wrong. God’s made it crystal clear how he wants us to behave in his world. In the pages of our Bibles, there are lots of rules and commands. You’ve probably heard a few of God’s commands before. Rules like…

Do not tell lies.

Obey your parents.

Love God with

all your heart.

Do not steal.

Do not murder.

Love your neighbor

as you love yourself.

Take a quick moment and be honest with yourself: have you ever broken any of those rules?

Have you ever told a lie? I know I have! And what do you call someone who lies? A liar, of course!

Have you ever taken something that didn't belong to you? Sadly, I’ve done that, too! And what do you call someone who takes things that don’t belong to them? That’s right – a thief!

If you’re like me, you’re a liar and a thief. But those are only two of God’s many commands.

Have you treated someone unkindly? Have you ever secretly thought to yourself, “Ooh, I really hate that person!” Have you ever complained about not having all the cool things your friends have? Have you ever loved anyone or anything more than you loved God?

If you’ve done any of those things, you've broken the commands of your Maker. You’re not just a liar and a thief – you’re a lawbreaker, a rebel! Or, to use the Bible's special word for this, you are a sinner!

Sin is when we break God’s commands with the actions we do, the words we say, or even the thoughts we think. The Bible tells us that everyone has sinned. Everyone has broken God’s laws. You've sinned. I've sinned. Your parents and brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and teachers and friends... they've all sinned, too! Not just once or twice, but many times in many different ways.

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The Bible says...

Romans 6:23, NIrV

When you sin, the pay you get is death.

Proverbs 10:16, NIrV

People who do what is right earn life. But sinners earn sin and death.

What this means...

The pay for sin is death.

Back at the beginning of this little book, I told you that the story of the Bible had some bad news and some good news. Well, brace yourself: it’s time for the bad news part!

Whenever someone does wrong, they earn a consequence. If you stole candy from your baby brother or sister, your parents would probably give you a timeout or send you to your room. If you drove your car over 100 miles per hour, a cop might pull you over and give you a speeding ticket. And if you robbed a bank, a judge might throw you behind bars for years and years. These are some of the consequences you might earn if you disobeyed your parents’ rules or broke your country’s laws.

Well, when we sin, when we disobey God our Maker and King, there’s a consequence, too. And because there’s nobody greater than the King of the Entire Universe, there's no consequence bigger than the one we earn when we sin. And what is the biggest consequence of all? It’s death!

The Bible says, “When you sin, the pay you get is death.” And to make things even worse, this isn’t just a one-time kind of death, either. The Bible describes the consequence for our sins as a forever fiery death far away from all the good things our great God can give us. It’s a forever kind of death after we die, a forever death where every day is the worst day of your life!

This isn’t just bad news. It's the...

WORST. NEWS. EVER!

Why? Because all of us, including you and me, have sinned. That means all of us are facing sin’s price of forever death!

You might be wondering, “Forever death! Why would God give sin such a big consequence?” It’s an understandable question. But it also shows us that we probably don’t really understand just how bad sin really is. If God says sin deserves forever death, then sin must be far more evil and awful than we realize. It must be the worst kind of wrong you could possibly do—to rebel against the God who made you and the world you live in.

After all that, I bet you’d like to hear some good news. And thankfully, the Bible has some very good news to tell you!

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The Bible says...

John 3:16, NIrV

God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son...

Ephesians 2:4-5, NIrV

But God loves us deeply. He is full of mercy… He gave us life even when we were dead in sin.

What this means...

God so loved the world, He sent his Son to save sinners.

Now that we’ve got the bad news out of the way, it’s time for some good news. And boy, is the Bible full of good news! It starts with this idea: even though you and I disobeyed God’s commands, even though we were all sinners, even though we earned the consequence of forever death... God still loved us a whole bunch anyways!

God loved sinners with a big and forgiving and never-stopping kind of love. And God's great love for sinners like you and me is what drove him to send someone to rescue us from the forever, fiery death of sin!

Incredibly, the person God sent to save us was his own Son! About 2000 years ago, a special miracle baby was born to a woman named Mary. This little guy's name was Jesus. And he was the most incredible person ever to walk our planet.

This Jesus was 100% a human being just like you and me. Everything that makes a human a human, Jesus had it! Jesus had a flesh-and-bone body complete with eyes and ears and teeth and toes. He had a heart that sometimes felt happy and sometimes felt sad. And he experienced all the things human beings experience. He had to learn to walk as a baby. He had to obey his parents as a kid. He had to breathe and eat and sleep. And when he got sweaty and smelly, he had to take a bath!

But – and here’s the mind-blowing part – Jesus was also 100% God! Everything that makes God… God? Jesus had it! All the power and love and goodness of God, Jesus was all those things, too! Jesus was smarter than smart and stronger than strong. Because of that, he had the power to do miracles like turning water into wine, walking on top of water, healing those who were sick, and even raising dead people back to life!

Jesus was a one-of-a-kind guy. There’s never been anyone like him. He was the God-man: totally God and totally human. And this special combo made him the perfect person to rescue us from sin!

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The Bible says...

Romans 5:8, NIrV

But here is how God has shown his love for us. While we were still sinners, Christ (Jesus) died for us.

1 Peter 1:18, NIrV

Christ (Jesus) also suffered once for sins. The one who did what is right suffered for those who don’t do right. He suffered to bring you to God.

What this means...

God's Son Jesus died to pay for our sins.

Let's think back to all we've covered so far. First, we learned that God is our Maker and King. We are God’s creatures living on God’s world, and so it’s our job to follow God’s rules!

Next, we learned that we are all sinners. Every one of us has disobeyed the commands of our Maker and King. And disobeying the King of the Universe comes with the biggest consequence of all – forever death! This is, of course, the worst news ever!

But then it was time for some good news. Even though we were still law-breaking sinners, we learned that God loved us anyways. His love for us was so great, God sent his own Son to rescue us from sin. And to accomplish this mighty mission, Jesus came to live as one of us: both God and human at the same time.

Here's the story of what God's Son Jesus did to save us from sin. Since the pay for sin is death, Jesus decided he would pay that price for us. He was willing to die for our sins so that we wouldn't have to. And so, even though he had the miracle power to zap an entire army into piles of dust with just a snap of his fingers, Jesus let a small group of bad guys capture him. And those bad guys dragged Jesus back to their bosses, who ordered him to die, even though Jesus had never done anything wrong!

The way Jesus died was awful. He was crucified. Soldiers took Jesus and laid him down on a cross, a piece of wood shaped like a letter T. Then, using a hammer, they drove huge nails through Jesus’ hands and feet so that his body was stuck onto the cross.

Dying on a cross was a bloody and painful and shameful way to die. But Jesus was willing to go through the absolute worst in order to save you and me from the worst news ever – forever death!

By dying on that cross, Jesus saved us from our sins. He paid sin’s price of forever death in our place. And because he was the all-powerful Son of God, he was able to pay for all of your sins, all of my sins, and all of the sins of the whole world, all in one day!

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The Bible says...

1 Corinthians 15:3-4, NIrV

Christ (Jesus) died for our sins... He was buried. He was raised from the dead on the third day...

Matthew 28:5-6, NIrV

The angel said, “...I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here! He has risen, just as he said he would! Come and see the place where he was lying.

What this means...

Jesus rose from the dead on the third day.

After Jesus died, some of his friends took his body down from the cross and wrapped it up in cloths (sort of like a mummy). Then they laid him inside a tomb (a bit like a little cave). And that's where they expected Jesus' story to end. Because, for most people, death is the end.

But Jesus wasn’t like most people; he was God's Son! He had the power to do whatever he wanted. And the thing Jesus did after his death was the greatest miracle anyone has ever done.

On the morning of the third day after his death, Jesus rose from the dead. His lifeless body came alive again and he walked right out of his grave like he had just woken up from a long nap!

When his friends saw him for the first time, they couldn't believe their own eyes. They were certain that they were seeing a ghost! To prove he was no spooky spirit, Jesus let his disciples touch and poke and squeeze his back-from-the-dead body. He let them poke their fingers into the nail scars in his hands. He even let them watch as he munched on some cooked fish!

For the next 40 days, over 500 people got to see for themselves that Jesus had really risen from the dead: not as a ghost, but in a real body!

This amazing Bible story is a huge deal. By raising himself from the dead, Jesus made a couple of things crystal clear. First, he demonstrated that he really was the all-powerful Son of God. Beating death and coming back to life? No ordinary dude could pull off a mighty miracle like that! This was something only the God-man had the power to do.

By walking out of his grave on the third day, Jesus also let us know that he had finished paying sin’s price of forever death. If he had never risen, we could have always wondered, “Did it really work? Did this guy really finish paying for all of my sins?” The moment Jesus raised his lifeless body from the dead, he answered all our worries and doubts with a great big, “Yes! Yes, you’re sins are gone!”

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The Bible says...

John 3:16, NIrV

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 6:23, NIrV

When you sin, the pay you get is death. But God gives you the gift of eternal life. That’s because of what Christ Jesus our Lord has done.

What this means...

If we trust in Jesus as our savior and king, we join his forever kingdom!

Back when we began, I said that the Bible had bad news and good news. The bad news was this: we are all sinners, and the pay for sin is forever death. In terms of bad news, it doesn't get much worse than that. It’s the worst news ever! But thankfully, the good news I have to share is so unbelievably good, it will blow your mind!

Here it is: God has a gift for you! And God’s gift is more valuable than a swimming pool filled with gold coins or a stack of $100 bills that stretched all the way to the moon. So what is this amazing gift?

God’s gift is eternal (or forever) life in his kingdom! Instead of suffering sin’s price of forever death, God promises us a forever future where we can enjoy our good God in a perfect world, with perfect bodies, where every day will be the best day of our lives. That’s not just good news – it’s the best news ever!

So what does God ask us to do to receive this special gift? What do you and I have to do to join God’s forever kingdom?

Does God say, “Try your best to be a good person and I'll let you join my kingdom?” Nope!

Does God say, “Give me a million dollars and I'll let you join my kingdom!” No way!

Instead, the Bible tells us, “Anyone who believes in Jesus… will have eternal life.”

To receive his wonderful gift, God simply says, “Believe!” Now, God isn’t asking you to believe in yourself. And he’s certainly not asking you to believe in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. When God says, “Believe,” here’s what he means:

Believe that you are a sinner and need to turn away from your sins.

Believe that Jesus is the Son of God and must be the King of your life.

Believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay sin’s price of forever death.

Believe that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day.

Believe that no one but Jesus can save you from your sins.

God’s promise to every sinner is this: if you believe in Jesus, if you trust in what he did to save you from sin, and if you understand he needs to be the king of your life, God will forgive every single one of your sins. He'll save you from sin and its price of forever death.

Instead, you’ll become a part of God’s forever kingdom. And after you die, you’ll live forever with him, where every day will be the best day of your life!

There are no magic words you have to say to receive God’s gift of forever life. There’s no special building you have to visit, no magic motions you’ll need to perform. Instead, God simply asks you to turn away from your sins and trust in his Son Jesus to save you. And the moment you believe, you are forever saved. God’s gift of forever life will be yours, and no one can ever take it away from you!

If you believe what you’ve just read in this little book, it’s a good idea to talk to God about it! Talking to God is called “prayer.” And because God is everywhere, he can hear what we say, no matter where we are.

Your prayer might sound something like this...

Dear God,

I know I have sinned and broken your good commands. I know I need to turn away from my sins and follow Jesus.

I believe that Jesus died to pay sin’s price of forever death, and I believe he rose again. I trust in Jesus to save me. I want him to be my Savior and my King.

Thank you for forgiving me and making me part of your forever family. And help me find others who believe in you who can help me grow.

Amen.