EXPANDED

A RIGHT RELATIONSHIP with God and right relationships with each other are the reason for the gospel and the result of our faith.

God sent His Son JESUS to offer a RESTORED RELATIONSHIP with Him.

The right pointing thick arrow always represents God. 

A new element has been added...

The cross. 

Even in our brokenness God pursues us and provides a way for a RESTORED RELATIONSHIP through the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

But God…in His great love for us, showing His great mercy, offers us the opportunity of a RESTORED RELATIONSHIP and the hope of eternal life by grace through faith in His son Jesus. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin by giving His life on the cross and shedding His blood...so that...we can choose to be free of the consequences of our sin. It is through God's grace that we are given the opportunity to be reconciled, meaning the right relationship with God we were originally created to have can now be restored. Our choice is to trust in our own efforts and good works which always falls short of God's perfect standard...or...to accept and trust Jesus gift and payment made on our behalf. That's why we call Him savior. He saved us from the sin that we cannont save ourselves from. 

• 2 Corinthians 5:17–21 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

• Ephesians 2:4–9 “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”

• Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

• 1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.”

• John 14:6 “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

• Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”