The Gospel: Good News or Deceptive Superstition? Am I Crazy to Believe in Jesus of the Bible?

“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. 

When I Am Weakest

Low places. Darkness. Depression. Pain. Confusion. Questioning. We’ve all felt them. I’ve spent my time lying in bed unable to move, because I am discouraged or my spirit is upset.

I often experience the most grace in my life at my lowest points. I feel that in our hardest times we can experience more of God’s grace. It’s still tough, but it’s better by far than being comfortable while remaining distanced from God.

One reason I look back on my time living in India so fondly is because life there was difficult physically, but in that, I experienced God more fully.  I was sick a lot, my intestines never quite felt right, the culture was different and the country frankly isn’t as comfortable as America. Yet in that uneasiness, I learned to better trust God, and for that reason alone I consider my time on mission in India to be the best of my life thus far. (read about it: biolansinindia.blogspot.com)

When we are weakest, He is strongest.

In his second letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul wrote that when he had pleaded with the Lord to remove his thorn, God replied, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (12:9). Paul goes on to say that he will even gladly boast in his weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon him.

Wow. Not something you’ll find me doing often. Paul continues, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Here’s a guy who’s seen it all when it comes to hardship, but he turns weakness on its head in a beautiful paradox and says that Christ in fact is our strength when we are weak.

It’s likely you are more acquainted with suffering than I, but this last year has had its fill of hard times for me.

Last semester starting my master’s degree in a new city with a new job was probably the hardest time of my life yet, and it was mostly psychological. I dealt with loneliness and isolation. I was away from friends in California, distanced from family, too busy for new friends. Yet each time I thought I would break, God provided necessary relief.

One of my answered prayers was when I was trying to plan out my summer. I’d asked my boss if I could transfer to the R+D Kitchen in Newport Beach, California, for a month to be with Biola friends. After waiting and waiting, the answer was… “No”. Ugh. Could I even afford to go back to Los Angeles after all? The night after I heard back “no”, I couldn’t sleep. I felt sick to my stomach. What am I supposed to do this summer?? Plans were not falling into place.

Restlessly I prayed and struggled with God for at least two hours into the middle of the night. I was so confused.

The next morning I awoke to a message from my boss: “Just heard back from the Newport GM. Don’t know why they changed their mind, but they said they WOULD approve a short term transfer.”

Woohoo!!

May have seemed like a coincidence to my boss, but I view this as a direct intervention from God for my good. I was at a low of turmoil and confusion, and after turning that struggle over to God, He provided relief.

Trusting is a habit of confidence that God will provide.  

Despite many, many experiences in my life where God has proved faithful, I still tend to forget to trust Him.

This week, I’ve been trying to return to my job after my transfer to California and my hiatus working camp in North Carolina. I’ve been trying restart for the past week, and now school starts soon. Only yesterday I woke up with anxiety—at my breaking point. After a time of turmoiled prayer, I read Psalm 22. David begins, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?”

I can relate to that. I feel like I’ve been praying hard for weeks that returning to work would be smooth, but it hasn’t been so easy. I had to wait; I got frustrated with God.

But in his despair, when he can “find no rest,” the psalmist turns to God and declares His faithfulness: “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.” King David continues to speak the history of trust fulfilled: “In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them… in you they trusted and were not put to shame.”

David affirms his trust in God while still in a dark, difficult place. We have to look back at evidence of God’s rescue and redemption, remembering to live with expectation for deliverance.

I took that too heart. Still feeling a bit hesitant to make the phone call, I felt peace and confidence that after seeking God’s will for a couple hours, He would provide for me. I’m amazed at how wonderful a perspective time in God’s Word gave me, and I truly felt sure God would prosper my path at this point.

I called work, and... voilà! My boss kindly apologized for forgetting and immediately scheduled me to come in that night. Just like that. Last night I had a great night back at work; I joyfully felt the truth of Psalm 5:12, "For you bless the righteous, O LORD; you cover him with favor as with a shield." 

It seems so easy, but that morning the future was turbulently unclear. What I did know is that in the past when I've been anxious, if I turn to God, humble myself, fast and pray, He takes care of me.

This is not Greek; it's Christian disciplines 101.

Remembering God’s faithfulness and acting upon it is a habit that must be nurtured. We learn a practice of turning to God in prayer and humbling ourselves.

Will you believe it? Will you trust the LORD?

“Be joyful in hope,

patient in affliction,

faithful in prayer”

– Rom 12:12