I believe that God created the world and everything in it, including human beings, see Genesis 1:1-27. God created a perfect world. In the beginning, there was no sin--no hatred, and no death. But God also allowed humans to make their own choices.
The first humans, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God, allowing sin to enter God's perfect world. From then on, every human has been born with sinful desires that lead to separation from God; see Genesis 2 and Romans 5:12-17. However, I believe God loves his creation and the people in it. Because of his love he made a plan to take away our sin and resolve the conflict between himself and his creation, see John 3:16.
God sent his son, Jesus, into the world, fully human and fully divine. Jesus gave his life to pay the price for our sins, sins he didn't commit. Jesus accepted the punishment for our sins so that we don't have to. Three days after Jesus was crucified, God raised Jesus from the dead and brought him to life again, defeating the power of sin and death. Jesus lives today, eternally in heaven with God the Father. One day he will physically return to earth to put an end to sin, death, and pain--and renew all things. He will gather all who have believed in him from every time and place to live with him forever.
I believe our faith is founded in our understanding of God's love for us, demonstrated in the birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection, return of Jesus Christ, his son.
When we accept Jesus' sacrifice for us and commit our lives to following him, God sees us as if we had never sinned, perfect, the way we were first created to be. We cannot manufacture such faith on our own; it is the result of God's Spirit working within us.
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