There has always been one God eternally existing in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Gen. 1). Even before all creation, He was in relationship with Himself. Then, He created all things, including humans, and all throughout history God has provided a way for people to be with him (Gen. 2). That is our purpose, to be with God and to love him and serve Him well by totally giving ourselves to Him, to glorify Him, to honor Him, to praise Him. More than knowing about God, we can know Him. 

Despite being with God, with a clear purpose, humans either reject God, our purpose, or how God says we can best fulfill it (Gen. 3). We want to be God and define good and evil on our own terms. Because God knows the best way to be with him, on our own, we inevitably put an uncrossable distance between ourselves and our perfect holy God. This rejection is known as sin. This rebellion introduces death and destruction into God's good world. This death is physical, but it is also spiritual because the separation we experience now would remain eternal unless someone would intervene to bridge the gap between us and God.

How do we bridge this gap? Many people think it is by being a good person and to claw our way back to God. However, our good deeds are like dirty rags compared to God's perfect holiness (Isa 64:6). The human heart is desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9-10) and despite Him reaching out to us, we constantly reject Him. We cannot do enough good to balance out the bad we have done. It isn't merely quantitative it is qualitative (Eph. 2:8-10). When you are convicted of a crime, you are guilty no matter how much good you do. So we don't bridge the gap at all.  Rather, God bridged the gap for us. 

To bridge that gap, God came as a human, Jesus who was fully God and fully man. He lived the perfect life we couldn't  (2 Cor. 5:21) yet fully experienced humanity (Heb. 2:17). He gave the devotion we couldn't and loved us perfectly. He loved us so much that he was willing to pay the death penalty that we earned because of our sin. Yet, he did not stay dead. Rather, he rose from the dead breaking death's power to separate us from God (1 Cor. 15). Instead, we have access to eternal life with God, fulfilling our purpose to love and glorify Him forever after we die. But how?

Jesus calls us to repent and believe (Mark 1:15). We must believe that Jesus is God, that he died for our sins, that he rose from the grave, and that He is the only way to be with God. We do not just believe these as facts (James 2:19),  but we place our faith and trust in it as truth which leads to a changed life (John 3;16). Repentance is an abandoning our sinful life of rejecting God, asking God to forgive us, and choosing to live for God every day (Eph. 2:1-10). Jesus is our savior, and He is also our Lord. Our commitment and love for him is not distilled into a single moment. Rather, it is a life-long commitment (Rom. 12:1) where Jesus makes us more like Him (Heb. 10:10).

One day, the whole world will be judged and there will be a new heaven and earth where all evil is cast out and we will live in perfect harmony with God forever (Rev. 21-22). However, we do not wait until then to live life with God. In this current world we live for God and with God and all who follow Him, the Church. We are called to spread the good news of who He is and what He has done for humanity (Matt. 28:16-20). We fulfill the two greatest commandments to love God and love others (Matt. 22-36-40) as we Jesus transforms us making us more like Him until the day we are united with Him.