christ alone
New to Bethel
Find out where we are located, what we believe, how to get involved, how to stay connected and how to become a member.
sermons
Catch the Livestream of a Sunday worship service, or access the video sermon archive.
ministries
God’s Word says we are designed for community. At Bethel, we want to create opportunities for people to be known and to know others..
Give
Giving financially is a personal way to worship. It’s convenient, immediate, and most importantly, SECURE.
what is the gift
Very simply, the gift is His Son, Jesus Christ.
Our “salvation strategy” is self-improvement. We all know areas of our life that can be cleaned up, made right and changed. But, the reality is that even our best renovation efforts will not produce perfection. The best we can hope for is a better version of our imperfection. And that is still not sufficient for the perfection of God.
What makes Jesus Christ such a valuable gift is that He is God’s Son, and He is perfect. He is perfect in everything He is and does. He is God. The gift of God is God Himself in the Person of the Son – Jesus. The gift is actually an exchange. Jesus takes our sin from us onto Himself. And He gives us His perfection. The balance in our account changes to reflect not our worth, but the worth of the Son.
2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Why must I accept God’s gift?
In 1 John chapter 4, John tells us that God’s love looks like this:
- He loved us – we didn’t love Him.
- We were dying, so He sent His Son to rescue us.
- The way Jesus rescues us is by dying in our place, so that we can live in Him.
The reason we are dying is because of sin. The reason we don’t have hope is because in our sinful condition, we only interact with the anger of God.
Anger? I thought He was Love?
He is. The reason we are not safe in His presence, however, is because our sin is an offense to His glory – His perfection. We have offended the perfect and holy God and the only just response from God to our sin is holy wrath.
But instead of pouring out His wrath on you, God poured out His wrath on His Son. Jesus took your sin. He actually became your sin. He died for it. He bore God’s entire wrath so you could experience all of His love. (1 John 4:8-10)
Christ took our place… and by doing so, He absorbed the wrath of God that was meant for us.
This is so important because mankind is not able to absorb the wrath of God. We would not be able to bear it. But, Christ, who was both God and man, was able to bear that wrath for us. He became our substitute. He took God’s wrath on himself, so that we would not have to.
The sacrifice cost Jesus His life. He died on a cross. And if that is all that Jesus had done, He would be our hero. He would be a man above all men. He would be a man we would revere and celebrate and even commemorate. But, if all He did was die for us… He would only have been a man. Still dead. Laying in a grave. And we would still be in our sinful condition.
Jesus did more than die. He rose from the dead. He is resurrected. That means He is not merely a hero – He is our Savior. He is our Victory. He is our Life!
He took our sin to the cross and then to the grave. He defeated it. And after the great defeat, He rose from the dead in victory. He rose with a new body, a resurrected body. A body that will live forever. Incorruptible, immortal, perfect, and glorious, created for eternity in the presence of God. And He offers us that same resurrection.
That is the Gift of God!
You cannot earn this gift. You can only receive it. And it is offered to you this very moment.
To speak to someone about your relationship with Christ contact Chad Bradley at chad@bethelbible.com.