The following was written by one of our high school students. It's awesome to see our high schoolers not only thinking about God but also trying to answer the questions they have about Him while also sharing with others. So enjoy and make sure to leave a comment...

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
God brought everything into being within a week.
Day 1: day and night
Day 2: sky and water
Day 3: land and plants
Day 4: the Sun, moon and stars
Day 5: fish and birds
Day 6: animals and man
The sixth day… the day God created man. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). Male and female. Adam and Eve.
In those beginning times, Adam and Eve were blameless. They didn’t do anything wrong, so they could walk with God. Literally. God would walk side by side with Adam and Eve in their home of the Garden of Eden.
All that changed because of an ability God gave to Adam and Eve.
He gave them free will, the ability to choose, by giving them a rule. “And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17).
God gave Adam and Eve the ability to choose because he wanted them to choose to love and obey him. Which they did… for a time.
Then the devil, Satan, disguised himself as a serpent and spoke with Eve. He twisted God’s rule to make it appear that the LORD was keeping something wonderful from the humans by telling them not to eat from that one tree. So Eve broke the rule and ate from the tree. Adam followed her lead.
Sin had entered the world.
Because they chose to do this, Adam and Eve could no longer walk with God. They were kicked out of the Garden of Eden and the nature of the human race changed and became sinful. From there on out no human was ever blameless.
So God established rules for man to follow so that they could continue to have a connection with Him.
He created laws and complicated rituals that usually involved killing a perfect animal to make up for whatever someone had done wrong. Men who wanted to obey the LORD followed these for centuries.
During all that time, God sent prophets to foretell of the coming of someone who would save the people from their sins. Someone who would set them free.
The people imagined a warrior. A king. Someone who would come into the picture with trumpets and worldwide announcements.
So they didn’t recognize their salvation when he came.
Jesus. 100% God and 100% human. The Son of Man. The Son of God.
Within his lifetime, Jesus healed the sick, cured the blind and lame and mute and deaf and raised the dead. He taught people God’s will and love.
Not once in his life on earth did Jesus sin. He never thought something wrong. Never did anything sinful. Never. The only human ever to not once have sinned.
But because he claimed to be (and, in fact, was) God, he was sentenced to death like a criminal would be—by crucifixion.
Why?
Jesus was like the perfect animal that God had required for sins in the old times. He was the Ultimate sacrifice. He was God himself taking all of our sin on himself and dying for it.
But that wasn’t enough.
Six hours of suffocation, nails, thorns, mockery, and bearing every sin ever to be committed by every person to ever live was not enough.
Jesus spent three days dead. The ‘legal’ time for a person to be declared ‘officially dead’.
Then he came back to life. He resurrected.
Satan’s best punch is death. He intended to make Adam and Eve and their children die. He intended to use sin and death to keep us from our Maker.
Jesus destroyed that punch by taking it and then defying it.
What does this mean for us?
Everything.
We can go back to the perfection of the Garden of Eden. We can walk side by side with the LORD. We can take back that original connection with our Father that Satan attempted to ruin for us.
By his death, Jesus made us a gift that could make us blameless before God.
By our choice, we can accept that gift and be blameless.
How do we accept it?
Simple. “…confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your hear that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
‘What if it doesn’t apply to me’, you might think.
How could it not apply to you?
“For all have sinned…” (Romans 3:23, italics mine).
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, italics mine).
“For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13, italics mine).
This is for you. So accept the gift. He’s waiting with open arms. He’s listening. He has “loved you with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3). He wants you.

By Alyssa Scott 10th grade