A Gospel Tract of the Christian Religion

We did not make ourselves, and we did not arise from nothing out of random chance. God made us. He made everything, and we are one of the things he made.

Because God made us, he owns us. We belong to him. As a man who makes a machine owns that machine, so God owns us.

But we are not like machines because we have a will. That is because God put something like his spirit into us. The Bible says that we are made in God’s image. We are not God, but we are like God in that we have the ability to think and to choose.

The Bible says that from the very beginning we have chosen badly. That is why the world as a whole and we as individuals are such a mess. God made us in order that he might love us and that we might love him. The Bible says that God is love. But our refusal to love God - our rebellion against him - has broken the relationship between him and us. Though God loves us, our bad behavior has opened up a gulf between him and us that we cannot cross.

But God did not abandon us to our misery and sin. The solution he devised for our wretched condition apart from him is both beautiful and heartbreaking. The Bible says he became one of us. Like a playwright becoming a character in his own play, God in the person of Jesus inhabited a human body and walked among us.

And he did so for an amazing purpose: so that he could die at our hands. The Bible says that Jesus came “to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus died a cruel death by torture on a Roman cross. The Bible describes his death as God’s way of bearing our sins. God himself absorbed our rebellion and hatred and selfishness and experienced the death that results from it.

Then Jesus rose from the dead. As a man, Jesus could die, but as God he could not remain dead. The Bible says he lives forever, and it describes him as the first of all who will some day rise from the dead.

The Bible says that Jesus reigns forever as king and master. It also says that all who believe in him are rescued from their rebellion against God. God saves from their sin all who trust in Jesus and acknowledge him as their king.

Believe in Jesus. Confess your sin to God and he will forgive it. Be baptized as a sign that you believe in Jesus and wish to follow him.

If you have further questions or concerns, please write to me, Paul, at paullundquist7@gmail.com.