All people are created with dignity and value in the image of God, to live in a vital relationship with God. Through our sin (failing to live by God’s moral standards), we break our intended relationship with God. On our own we fall short, and experience the destructive consequences of that broken relationship. We see the effects spiritually and socially, in this life and beyond. However, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to rescue us from those consequences and to restore our broken relationship with God and others. Through Christ’s atoning death on the cross, we are redeemed. Salvation comes to people on the basis of God’s grace through faith in Jesus alone, not by any works we could do ourselves. We receive the free gift of forgiveness and are spiritually reborn through repenting of our sin and believing in Jesus Christ. Good works and a holy life, although totally unable to save us, become the natural product of repentant, believing people.