“Coming
though, Jesus Boy!” the bartender announced as he slid by me during a busy
shift. We’ve had a few conversations about religion before, and apparently my
commitment to follow Jesus has earned me a new title.
I’m proud to
be identified by Jesus—I long for him to become greater in my life as I become
less—but after growing up in such a predominately Christian culture, I never
expected to be nicknamed for my beliefs about Jesus.
I don’t know if you think Christianity is
foolish or normal, but if you think those of us who believe in Jesus are crazy, please keep reading. I’d love to hear your response.
The Gospel
The “Gospel”
is the core of what we believe as Christians. It is the message of “good news”
that out of his love for us, God has sent his son into the world to provide a
way for us to get right with God. We as humans have disobeyed God, breaking
relationship with him and deserving death, but God made a way for us to get
back to him.
The verse in
the Bible that most clearly states the gospel is John 3:16:
“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.”
With any
exposure to Christianity, I’m sure you’ve heard this verse and know the
reference. There’s nothing magical about this one verse; it simply states the
good news of God’s love and salvation through belief in Jesus in a concise,
helpful way.
But what does
all this mean? I don’t need to be ‘saved’ from anything, you may say. Allow me
to explain…
The Human Predicament
The Bible
describes humankind as being in a certain predicament shortly after God created
the world. God made the world to be a place of peace and perfection (in Hebrew:
“Shalom”). The first people on earth, Adam and Eve, lived in a perfect world
for some time, before they broke the one command God had given them.
We too have
followed after those first humans, going against the way God told us to live
and instead following our own desires and wants. Breaking God’s commandment
cannot go unpunished, for God is perfect and holy. The Bible tells us that
“all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans3:23)
and
“the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
I’m not trying
to be condemning and judgmental; I’m just stating what the Bible says is true about
our human condition. I consider this to be a loving warning to a friend as if I
were pushing you out of the road as a semi-truck races toward you. Do you
believe in an absolute difference in right and wrong? Then if there is a
perfectly right God out there don’t you think he should punish our wrong-doing?
So in the big
scheme of things, we as humans corrupted God’s intent that the world be a good
and perfect place. We brought
brokenness and pain and war and suffering into the world by not following God. We do not live as we ought to. We deserve punishment for sin, even the
slightest imperfection.
Don’t stop
there. This isn’t good news. This is awful, but you have to understand and
believe that this world is not as it should be before the rest makes sense.
I find it easy
to believe that humans are screwed up, because I’m constantly hurt and
disappointed by other people and feel the pain of all the bad things going on
the earth.
Just this week
a friend of mine in India died of TB and asthma, being weakened by HIV+.
She was only
14.
This world is
messed up. Thankfully this sweet little girl became a Christian before she so
abruptly passed away, but it’s still difficult to accept the death of a child.
Right now I am wearing a bracelet she made for me, keeping the reality of death
fresh on my mind.
God’s Provision
Now back to
the good news: God did not want all men and women to just die off as punishment
for sin into eternal damnation. Instead, he works to restore humanity to himself. God loves us. God provided a way for
us to get right with him, and that is by sending his Son—God becoming man—who would
die in our place and then show victory over death by rising from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 states that the message of first importance is
“that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the
Scriptures, and that he appeared to [many of his disciples].”
Jesus Christ
is the substitution for the punishment we deserve.
He died a
horrifying death on a Roman cross as payment for my sin. You could say Jesus
took my spiritual cancer and healed me by putting it on himself. Then after
being killed, he conquered death with victory over the grave. Wow.
That is the
Jesus I’m willing to be called crazy for following. He’s amazing.
Our Response
The good news
also has a requirement: we must believe it to receive it. The message sounds a
bit loony: God became man 2,000 years ago, died for our sins and rose from the
dead. But I believe the Bible, and it resonates with my experience of the
world.
Ephesians 2:8-9 says,
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is
not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no
one may boast.”
These verses point out for me what is fundamentally different about Christianity from every other
world religion. Other religions strive to appease God or gods by sacrifices,
rituals, or good works, but in Christianity, nothing we can do is good enough
to reconcile us to God—we cannot get right with God on our own.
BUT the gospel
is the all-important clause that means we don’t have to. We don’t have to earn our way to
God; God came to us. So Christianity requires the humility of faith to believe
that God saved me and I cannot save myself. I respond with faith, and works are supposed to flow out of the life of faith. Faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation.
My “religion”
is exclusive in that I believe faith in Jesus Christ is the only way humans
find salvation, get right with God, and live for eternity with Him. However,
Christianity is all-inclusive in that anyone is invited to accept this message
as truth and respond to Jesus. For me to be more “open-minded” would be to deny
the core of my faith. The Bible says,
“There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other
name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
Jesus himself
said,
“I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the
father [God] except through me. (John 14:6)
If you’ve
gotten this far and still think all of this is ridiculous, the Bible addresses
this too:
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are
perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians1:18)
I don’t mean
for this to be an accusation, but that I understand, according to the Bible, why
you don’t believe. I understand why I’m you’d think what I believe is
foolishness; maybe it is. Yet my hope, desire and prayer is that you will come
to believe the good news of Jesus Christ and share in the joy that I have from
following Him.
