The Gita and the Gospel

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Made to know and be known

Is there someone behind all this? Does He know me? What am I here for? Everyone asks these questions, whatever they grew up with. Underneath them is a longing to be loved by someone greater than ourselves.

The Bible says the longing to be loved by God is real

You were made for it. God is love, He made you to know Him, and He has come looking for you.

Three things the Bible says about you

1. You are loved before you do anything"God is love" (). "We love him, because he first loved us" (). He is pictured as a God who "will rejoice over you with joy" and "calm you in his love" ().

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2. You were made on purpose, women and men alike"In God's image he created him; male and female he created them" (). Both are given the same calling: to be fruitful, to care for the world, and to live together with God (, ). When Jesus rose, He sent a woman, Mary Magdalene, to tell the others ().

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3. You were made to know God, and joy is what that is like"This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God" (). "In your presence there is fullness of joy" (). Jesus said, "that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full" ().

Of Jesus, Peter wrote to people who had never seen Him: "Though you have not seen him, you love him ... and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory" ().

What stands in the way

Something has gone wrong between us and the God who made us. The Bible does not describe this first as a broken rule but as a broken relationship: "your iniquities have separated you and your God" (). Most people sense it: the gap between how we know we should live and how we do, between the love we want and the love we manage to give.

The good news is that God did not wait for us to fix it. "God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (). Jesus invites: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest" ().

God's answer is a person

Jesus is God come to us (). He died to forgive our sin and rose from the dead (). He says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me" (). We believe that, and we say it plainly. It is a large claim, and it is also an open door: the invitation is to everyone, from every background.

How to use this guide

This guide walks through the Hindu texts, from the and to the and the , the and the , and sets each one beside the Bible. It asks what each says about God, sin and how a person can be made right with God. It shows where the Hindu texts go wrong, why the Bible can be trusted, and where its one story leads: to the cross, and to Jesus Christ.

The aim is not to win an argument. It is that you would know God and His love, find your place in what He is doing in the world, and find joy there.

Christ above all

The One who made you is the One who came for you. All things were created through Christ and for Christ (), so the joy you were made for is to know Him. Everything in this guide leads here.

In short

We were made to know God and to be loved by Him. Something has broken that relationship, and God's answer is a person, Jesus.

Why the next step followsBefore comparing anything, here is how to walk through hard questions fairly.Before you begin →

Pause and reflect

When have you most sensed that you were loved, or known, or made for something? What did that feel like?