Christians believe that the Triune God; the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit eternally existed. The Trinity possess a set of attributes (love, holiness, justice, mercy, etc.) that are immutable. Out of this love, God created both the spiritual Angelic Beings, and mankind. They each were given a free will to worship, obey and fellowship with Him as He placed them in perfect settings.
Many angels and mankind (Adam and Eve) rebelled against a holy God with acts of pride and disobedience. This is called sin. As a result of sin, there are temporal and eternal consequences. The consequence for the Angelic Beings was eternal banishment from heaven. The consequence for mankind was estrangement from God and physical and spiritual death.
In His infinite wisdom, God had a plan to reconcile mankind back into fellowship with Himself, without compromising any of His attributes. He would send His unblemished Lamb, Jesus Christ, to earth to atone for our sins. To accomplish this God became incarnate, both perfectly human and perfectly divine. This was only made possible through the virgin birth of Jesus.
The big picture of the Bible (God’s Word) tells of God’s plan for mankind’s salvation throughout the Old and New Testaments. The Gospel story is one of faith and grace from beginning to end. Because of mankind’s sin and the failure to live up to God’s perfect Law (10 Commandments), mankind is justified only by God’s grace through faith, alone, in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. There is nothing anyone can do to earn their salvation! God ordained Jesus’s blood on the cross to be a propitiation to all those who believe in Him by faith. Jesus died and rose again forever conquering sin and death; proving to mankind that He, alone, is the Savior of the world. He currently sits, in heaven, at the right hand of the Father interceding for us until His return.
When mankind humbles themselves, repents of sin, and trusts in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they glorify God and are born again. At that moment, Jesus imputes His righteousness into them in exchange for their sins! As a result, they are forever perfectly righteous in God’s eyes and receive the assurance of heaven and future rewards. In the Christian’s everyday walk to be like Christ, they are sanctified through the work of the Holy Spirit with eternal glorification being their ultimate goal.
The Great Commission of Christians (first the Apostles and then the Church) is to use their spiritual gifts and talents to evangelize the world and keep non-believers from Judgement Day, where Jesus will return to cast all unrighteous people into Hell for eternity. He will then create a new heaven and a new earth for the chosen elect. The prayer, as true Christians, is to be a “light in a dark world” in order to lovingly proclaim the Gospel to deceived members of other religions, whose mandates are “works” based and whose gods are fictitious.
This is what Christians believe…THE GOSPEL.