Got Jesus?

It’s a simple question, really. Yet there’s a lot of confusion around about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Is he a good teacher, a dead guru we should try to copy?  Or more? And if someone more than that, what difference does it make to me today that he lived and died, and whether he came alive again after he died?

Sometimes Christ’s followers say some weird-sounding things that are hard to understand. But boiled down, here is the essence:

There’s good news and bad news …

                        OK. Give me the bad news first …

• God is loving, good, and just. You’ve heard before that God is love. That’s actually in the Bible, which we believe reveals God’s nature and his plans to people. God also is good – so good, in fact, that nothing that is not good – flawless – can exist in his presence.  Because he is loving and good, he has a loving and good plan and purpose for your life. He loves you, yourself, individually and personally.

So far, so good, right? Most people would agree that God is loving and good. It becomes a little less comfortable when we understand that God also is just, meaning that when he sits as a judge, crimes need to be punished. Makes sense – we all would agree that a judge who does not punish crime isn’t really good at all, just lazy, stupid, or worse.

  
That’s the “bad” news?

Of course it isn’t “bad” that God is good.  But it doesn’t bode well for any of us, because …

• Everyone else is broken. Ever told a lie?  Lost your temper? Deliberately hurt someone?  Had sex with someone you weren’t married to?  Taken something not yours?  Been greedy or envious, or wanted what someone else had that you don’t?  Of course you have, and so have I, and so has everyone else.  Maybe not all of these things, but some of them – and many more.  The Bible says it this way: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  No kidding. 
  
  
• Our flaws are fatal. Most people will agree that God is loving, good, and just.  We will even accept that he loves us individually. Every honest person also will admit they’ve done wrong.  “Nobody’s perfect, right?” Exactly.  But because of God’s justice, being less than perfect is a big problem.  Because God’s goodness is so good and his justice is so just, every one of us is doomed unless we are perfect. The Bible confirms for us that the payment for our wrongs is death.  Our crimes are capital crimes – and every one of us is a serial offender. 
  
  
• We can’t make up the gap with our own effort or goodness.  Most of us think that we can make up for our wrong-ness by doing good things – or even by being less bad than the next guy. Religion – every one of them – is all about this. Do this, do that, don’t do that … and God will let you off the hook. Sadly, this just doesn’t work.

Imagine you’re charged and convicted of murder. The penalty for the crime is death. You go before the judge to be sentenced. Will he let you walk free if you tell him you have been kind to dogs and cats? Of course not. The Bible says it this way: “There is no one righteous,” – meaning right from God’s point of view – “not even one.” 

 Now, for the good news:

·         Through Jesus Christ, God made up the gap. There’s a lot to talk about here, but the bottom line is that God himself became a man in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, becoming fully human yet retaining his divine nature, and without the wrong-ness that every other human has. Jesus was executed by the imperial Roman government in Palestine (an historical fact that no thinking person denies).  His death was part of God’s plan to offer himself through Jesus to pay the penalty, to satisfy his justice toward every broken human being.  And Jesus did not stay dead, but broke death itself by coming alive again, walking the earth again for more than a month, and returning directly to heaven. Because he died and rose, we can live forever – beginning now – as a son or daughter of God.

·         How do I get in on this?  So if Jesus’ death pays for my wrong-ness and closes the gap between me and God, and if by coming alive again he broke the power of death over humanity, is there something I need to do to make it work for me?  This is where a lot of people try to make it hard and complicated. Each of us has an individual part to play, for sure. But in fact, it is not complicated. In a text written by one of the eyewitnesses to Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Bible says it like this: “

“But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan—this rebirth comes from God.”

That’s it: believe and accept. That is, God offers Jesus as a substitute for our punishment and asks only that we believe it, and accept the opportunity to become his son or daughter. That believing and accepting is what the Bible calls “faith.” Our wrong-ness goes away as we are reborn, spiritually and morally, into God’s family. We no longer relate to him as the judge who will sentence us to capital punishment, but as a loving, perfect father.  

• No, I mean really, how do I get this going?  The mechanics are pretty straightforward. If you really believe it, you just tell God you believe and accept it. You might tell him:
  • I know I’m wrong.  I have done wrong. I am guilty and deserve condemnation.
  • I believe that Jesus was punished as my substitute, and you raised him from the dead
  • I accept the forgiveness you offer me through Jesus
  • Thank you for forgiving me, setting me free from guilt, for making me part of your family.
    
    

·         And that’s just the beginning. Once we become reborn as a child of God through faith, we begin a different quality of life. It is as if a part of us, the essence of who we are, has come alive. We begin a process of “growing up” and learning how this kind of life, as part of God’s family (or in his “kingdom,” as Jesus himself called it) really works. The Spirit of God actually comes to live in us. Our troubles in life on this earth don’t go away, but we have different resources and perspective in dealing with them.  And when our bodies decay and die, we live on forever with God and the rest of the family, experiencing directly the goodness and love of God himself forever.

This is hope, and it’s real.   

This is a big deal, and if you want to talk about it, please shoot us a note through the Contact page  We’d love to hear where you are in your journey and come alongside as friends on the road with you.