Most people only know about Christianity and God from what they have heard other people tell them. I will answer this very important question based on what the words in the Bible say. And from the words we read, we can use common sense to apply their meaning.

Firstly, I want you to consider what the quote below implies, and then store it in your brain as you read the rest of the article.

"The sound of keys will not give you hope unless you see the shackles on your own hands." _ Anonymous.

See if you can follow my train of thought:

1. God is Love. He defines love. – John 15:12-16.
2. Because God is perfect in love, He gave us a free will.
3. Free will makes it possible for us to do what God hates.
4. Satan tricked Adam and Eve into disobeying God which created a chain reaction of evil. (Evil is the absence of good).
5. Adam and Eve stepped out of their God-given purity by choice, and therefore passed on their sinful nature to their children.
6. God wants His creation to reflect who He is! (in other words, Glorify Him).
7. Satan wants to steal God’s glory by distracting mankind from God.
8. The Ten Commandments tells us what God wants.
9. But our continuous disobedience to them shows us what our deviant nature and sinful hearts want.
10. Exodus 20:5 states as follows:

 “…I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of theirs fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments”.

The price for sin is eternal separation from God – eternal unbearable sorrow and pain - for lack of better words.

Genesis 3:22
“And the LORD God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

Genesis 6:5-8
“The LORD Saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth – men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air – for I am grieved that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”

God’s Plan – To reconcile mankind back to Himself.

God had a plan to redeem mankind all along. We can see evidence of this in Genesis:

Genesis 3:15.
 “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

1. God knew that the only way we could be saved is if He died for our sins.
2. God is Just, so if He judges us based on our actions, we would be punished for all eternity.
3. We have all failed the test of perfection. Romans 3:23 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"
4. God is Holy and He hates what is evil.
5. He wants to save people from His coming wrath.
6. So He offers us His eternal grace through Christ - the substitutionary sacrifice.
7. Grace is the unmerited or undeserved favor and love of God.
8. God is going to get rid of evil once and for all and He started the process by reversing the curse of sin within our hearts.
9. He wants to win our hearts and sweep us off our feet, so that we will bless His name and give Him all the glory He deserves.

When Jesus was bleeding on the cross, he was experiencing everything we deserve. On the cross He experienced:

1. Excruciating physical pain.
2. Psychological Torment.
3. Shame.
4. Extreme sorrow.
5. He was denied by His Father. (“Father, why have you forsaken me?”)

But since Jesus is God and he’s not guilty of sin, He resurrected and conquered death on our behalf.

Ephesians 2:1-10 states:

"And you were dead in the trespasses and sinsin which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Let me repeat the first thing I quoted at the begining: "The sound of keys will not give you hope unless you see the shackles on your own hands."

John 12:25
“The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

In other words, if you do not consider yourself in need of God's redemptive work on the cross, it is simply because you do not see the seriousness of your sin. If you don't think that you're sick, then you won't go to the Doctor - Jesus/God in the flesh.

John 6:54 - Jesus shocked his listeners when he said:

 "Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." Jesus was basically saying "If you do not treat me like food - your source of life, you will die!"

So...what does God want from you???

If you read everything I said up until this point, you would see that God wants to save you, mold you into Christ-likeness and use you to display His awesomeness to the world! And when He welcomes you into Heaven, you will experience unexplainable joy in His presence forever and ever and ever.

2 Corinthians 5:17-19

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.