WHAT WE BELIEVE
The Gospel
'Christ-ianity' centres around the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ lived 2000 years ago in Roman occupied Judea - modern day Israel. He wasn't rich or born into a well known family. But he became famous because of the claims he made about the world and himself. Now around 2 billion people, in all countries of the world follow him.
Jesus taught that every single one of us deserves to face God's anger because we have not lived the perfect lives he made us to live. Instead we live as we want. This is known as sin, and there is no way we can save ourselves from it.
But Jesus said that he himself was God, and had come down to save us by taking our place. Jesus Christ lived the perfect life we should have lived, but then died the death we should have died. He faced the punishment we deserve, so that anyone who chooses to trust in him, will not have to face it.
Instead their sin is forgiven. They look forward to living with him in a new, perfect world after they die.
Jesus's claim to be God on Earth seems unlikely. But he proved it was true by performing many miracles, and then raising himself from the dead.
Almost all we know about Jesus' life comes from 4 biographies of his life, written not long after he was on earth. These are known as the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They can be found in any Bible for us to read today and decide for ourselves...
Who do we think Jesus is?
Don't just take it from us, though. At St Andrew's we run a number of courses that enable those exploring Christianity to discover for themselves. These usually run on a weekday evening or morning for 4-6 weeks.