God offers you complete forgiveness and the promise of heaven.

By far, what is most important to us is that you understand the Gospel. In short, the Gospel is the Good News of what God has done and offers you. This is important to us because it is important to God. It is important to us because of the love God has put in our hearts for you. It is our prayer, as a church, that you not only understand but will place your faith in Jesus to be your Savior. This isn’t about joining Park Lane Baptist Church because belonging to a church has nothing to do with getting to heaven. This is about your relationship with God.

Please endure the important bad news which will help you understand the great news.

THE BAD NEWS

God made you – which is not the bad news but where everything starts. When God created the first man and woman (Adam and Eve). They were completely perfect. God created them with the ability to choose to listen to Him or to ignore Him. They did fine until they chose to rebel against God by eating from a tree which He told them not to eat. Their disobedience is called sin. Because of their sin everyone has the desire to sin and does sin. Sin is anything you think, say, do, attitude, or motive that you have that is contrary to God. Not just murder, adultery, stealing and lying, and but also complaining, gossip, bitterness, lust or other things you might not think is a sin. Clearly everyone sins (Genesis 1:27, 31; 2:15-17; Genesis 3; Romans 3:23, 5:12).

God must punish sin. God is absolutely holy and righteous. He has no moral imperfection and is the absolute standard of right and wrong. Because He is righteous, He must punish sin. For God to ignore, overlook, or approve of sin would make Him unjust and unrighteous. Since God is perfectly righteous, His justice must take place – that means punishment for sin. Because everyone sins, everyone deserves punishment (1 Peter 1:16; Exodus 34:7).

The punishment for sin is death – physical and spiritual. Your sin makes you presently separated from God. You may feel you have a good relationship with God but according to Him, you instead will be punished. Even if you feel as if you have come to terms with God, the Bible says you must come to Him on His terms, not your own way. Your sin must be punished, so at the end of your life you can expect to spend forever in the flames of hell and the Lake of Fire. God is an infinite and eternal God so the punishment for sin is also eternal. There are no “second chances” and simply saying you’re sorry or even changing the way you live your life isn’t enough to make up for your sin (Isaiah 59:2; Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:1; Revelation 20:11-15).

GREAT NEWS

God actually does love you. It may not feel like it at times. When you look at your life you might think that He is against you. The bad news you just read might give you the impression that God only hates you. Nothing could be further from the truth. He hates sin, but He loves you. Think of it this way: if you have children, you understand that you love your child while still having to discipline them (1John 4:8).

God has shown his love to you by sending His only Son to die for you (John 3:16).

God is uniquely one while simultaneously God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit. It is a mysterious but very clear teaching of Scripture. Jesus, who has eternally existed as God became man while remaining God. Jesus was naturally born and lived a life with absolutely no sin. This qualifies him as an acceptable substitute for your sin (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 44:6; John 1:1; 1 John 5:20; Acts 5:3-4; Mt 1:21, 23).

Jesus suffered and died to take the penalty for your sin upon himself. God must punish sin but Jesus took your sin upon himself. The penalty for sin that you deserve, Jesus took upon himself by suffering, dying, and coming back to life again for you (1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:22-24).

God offers you complete forgiveness and the promise of heaven. You can never earn heaven. Many people think that if your good deeds outweigh your bad that God lets you into heaven. Your good deeds to not erase the bad things you have done. That is why your good works will never get you into heaven. God’s offer is a free gift. It is given, not earned, not deserved – that is grace. (Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 4:4-8; Titus 3:4-5).

Forgiveness, salvation, is received by faith. God’s offer is accepted by faith. Faith is complete trust in God’s word and work. It is not just believing the facts of what God has done, it is fully trusting in Jesus - that He is God, He is your sinless sacrifice, He died and rose again to pay the penalty for your sin.

Romans 4:21-22
and being fully convinced
that what He [God] had promised
He was also able to perform.
And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

If you understand these truths, are willing to turn from your sin and put your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Tell God – pray. Ask God to forgive you for your sins and tell Him that you believe that Jesus paid for your sin and that you want to be saved. Simply saying words of a prayer do not save you, your faith in Jesus does (John 3:16; Acts 16:31; Romans 3:21-26).

NEW FAITH

Having put your faith in Jesus as your Savior, you have been “born again,” adopted into God’s family, given God’s Holy Spirit Who now permanently lives in you, and you are promised that will one day you be with God forever. Welcome to the family of God! We invite you to come and grow in your relationship with God.