The Meaning of Life | Grace Fellowship in Santa Rosa, CA

We didn’t get here by accident. The universe was made, not randomly assembled. Who made it? YHVH, commonly called God. YHVH means “I AM.” That is, “I am the self-existent one.” He always existed and always will. He is the “first cause.” God holds the universe together. Naturalistic explanations of the creation of the universe stumble on the question “Why is there anything at all?” So an eternal something must be posited. But naturalistic explanations have it backwards: MIND came before MATTER.
YHVH (hereafter simply called God) created human beings in His own image (i.e. a three-part being; body, soul, and spirit). Originally we were sinless, but unfortunately our first parents (Adam and Eve) rebelled and disobeyed God, breaking their connection to their Creator. God then subjected the universe to a curse, which is why things aren’t perfect anymore. God didn’t create an imperfect universe — we messed it up.
God exists in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Specifically, the Son, Jesus, the only begotten of the Father, was the Creator.
Jesus is the Messiah (which means “the Anointed One”), both man and God. He was born of a virgin. He never sinned. While on Earth he performed many miracles, including creative ones. As was planned from the beginning He died a criminal’s death, crucified on a cross, a common Roman method of execution. His death satisfied God’s justice: Jesus took our punishment upon himself, though he was absolutely innocent, thereby atoning for our sins and taking back dominion from satan (more about him, later). He is now King of King and Lord of Lords. But Jesus didn’t stay dead, he rose on the third day and appeared to many, many people. After that, he ascended to Heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father. Sometime soon (no one but the Father knows when) Jesus will return to Earth in power and glory. Meanwhile, our job is to spread the Good News (Gospel) of Jesus to those who don’t know Him.
The Holy Spirit is not just “The Force.” He is a real person. Anyone who has accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior (a “believer”) has the Holy Spirit living in him or her (we call this concept “indwelling”). Every believer should be filled with the Spirit and live according to His dictates. The Holy Spirit gives us gifts (called “spiritual gifts”) according to His sovereign will. Those gifts are as available today as they were when the first believers started to spread the Good News (see the Book of Acts).
That’s the Good News. The Bad News is that anyone who hasn’t accepted Jesus as his or her savior is lost. It’s a simple concept: no one comes to the Father except through Jesus. The unsaved (as opposed to those who have accepted Jesus and have been saved) are lost in sin (rebellion against God). But back to the Good News: Jesus’ death provided a way to get right with God. He literally shed His blood for you! And guess what? Salvation is a free gift! You can’t earn it by being “good.” You receive it by simply repenting of your sins and accepting Jesus as your Savior and Lord. That’s why we want to share Jesus with everyone: neither God nor we want anyone to die without meeting Jesus. Because only Jesus can give us eternal life — and the advent of the Kingdom of God on Earth.
And that brings us to our next subject: salvation doesn’t just restore our relationship with God – it gives us eternal life. That means that someday, when Jesus returns, all His friends (the “saved”) will be bodily resurrected (and these new, “glorified,” bodies won’t be subject to sin and the curse, as ours are now) to live and reign with the Messiah. Sorry, we have to give you some Bad News again: those who are not Jesus’ friends (the “lost”) will be judged by the Righteous Judge (Jesus), condemned to eternal destruction.
Back to the Good News: despite all the factionalism and denominationalism rampant in the Church, all true believers in Jesus are really just part of His (spiritual) Body. So, in reality, despite what the sign says that’s hanging over your particular place of worship, all believers are part of One Universal Church.
How do we know all this stuff? Well, we have a book that gives us all the particulars. It’s called The Holy Bible. It’s comprised of the Old Testament (Jewish Scriptures or Tanakh) and the New Testament. They basically cover the Old Covenant (the Law) and the New Covenant (the Gospel, or “Good News”). Of all the other books in the world, the Bible is unique: it’s divinely inspired, infallible and inerrant (in its original manuscripts), and completely authoritative. In short, anything that contradicts it is just plain wrong. Look at it as the owner’s manual for the Human Race.
Do we have any rituals? After all, isn’t Christianity a religion? The answers are No and No. We do believe that the two New Testament ordinances of waters baptism (immersion) and Communion (the Lord’s Supper) should be observed in obedience to the instructions of our Savior. But they’re acts of love and devotion, not mechanical acts that must be repeated mindlessly (rituals). And no, true Christianity isn’t a religion (an invention of man, the goal of which is to be “enlightened” or “touch God”) – it’s a relationship. So why doesn’t everyone get saved? The answer is complex. But two things stand out: we’re born with a rebellious (sinful) nature that so blinds us to the truth that we need God to remove our spiritual blindness; and we have an Enemy who doesn’t want us to know God. That enemy is satan (we mentioned him earlier). Satan is a created being who rebelled against God before Adam and Eve fell. In fact, he lied to our first parents, and they believed him instead of God. That began the rebellion here on Earth. Satan (except when his name starts a sentence, we don’t capitalize it, because we don’t want to honor him in any way) is the Enemy, the Adversary. Jesus destroyed his power at the cross. He also took away satan’s dominion over the Earth (that our first parents gave away when they rebelled). However, satan still has one power left: the power to deceive. And he keeps on using that power to deceive the world. But if you want the Truth, it’s there for the asking, because Jesus is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”