A respected friend who does not yet know Christ or the Bible recently asked me what he was missing. These four gracEmails repeat what I shared with him in response.
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I am humbled and honored at this privilege, and I commend you for your inquiry. This is the most important topic possible. It is foundational for abundant life now and for life eternal. I pray that God will give me clarity as I attempt to respond.
We live in a broken world -- fractured relationships, inner turmoil, guilty consciences, civil and domestic strife, war, famine, natural disasters of flood, hurricane, drought. This is not the way God made the world originally. It is the cumulative result of millennia of bad human decisions.
The fundamental bad decision made by our original ancestors, and by all of us since, is the decision to live our lives independent of God, our Creator, who longs to enjoy intimate companionship with us each moment of our lives. That decision of independence (even rebellion) toward God is "sin," as are all its manifestations -- such things as pride, greed, envy, lust and coldheartedness toward others. Those are the attitudes and deeds which have turned an original Paradise into the broken world we now inhabit.
It is God's plan ultimately to restore his universe to a perfect condition (actually to create a "new heavens and earth"), where he will live in personal contact with all those people whom he redeems. We who live with God eternally will also be fully redeemed, forgiven of all sin and guilt, purged of all evil desires, equipped with a body suited to the Age to Come -- a body which will never be sick, be in pain, or die. We will live forever in that Paradise restored.
A respected friend who does not yet know Christ or the Bible recently asked me what he was missing. These four gracEmails repeat what I shared with him in response.
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God decisively accomplished this redemptive work about 2,000 years ago, through the representative, substitutionary life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus was the physical son of a Jewish girl named Mary, who conceived him without human father by the power of God himself. In some mysterious sense, God was "in" Jesus in a unique way which has never been true of anyone else. Jesus is called "Immanuel," which means "God with us." The "fullness" of God lived in him. He was the eternal "Logos" or "Word" of God in human form.
Jesus lived a life of total faithfulness to his Father, the Creator and only true God. He "went about doing good." He healed the sick, forgave sinners, made lepers whole, gave sight to the blind, restored paralyzed limbs, cast out evil spirits which tormented people, and raised the dead. He stilled storms, fed thousands of inquirers with a little boy's lunch, and perfomed many marvelous acts of kindness and power. Jesus' closest band of followers, the Apostles, later gave their lives as martyrs for the sake of their testimony to these things. They willingly accepted deprivation, torture and even death rather than to deny what they announced -- events to which they were eyewitnesses.
Jesus matched his works of power and compassion with his teaching about the Kingdom of God. This is a kingdom which spreads quietly, he said in parables, changing the world from within the heart of one person at a time. Yet it will eventually fill the whole earth. This is a kingdom in which the greatest realities are now unseen, except through faith -- but one day they will all become visible. It is a kingdom of peace, of caring, of serving rather than being served. It is a kingdom of forgiveness -- by God, and then by those who have been forgiven. It is a kingdom quite contrary to the world's values, and one which the world will never understand. But it becomes understandable to those of humble heart, who are willing to surrender their thinking and their lives to the Creator God, to be informed and taught and shaped by him.
Moved by jealousy at Jesus' growing popularity, the corrupt Jewish establishment conspired with the Roman authorities to put him to death. The religious establishment charged Jesus with blasphemy because he said he was the Son of God. The political authorities charged him with treason because he taught concerning a kingdom other than Caesar's, which they did not understand. He was beaten, flogged, crowned with a twisted thorn branch, spit on, mocked and finally crucified between two brigands.
One of Jesus' Apostles had betrayed him (Judas). Another denied him three times (Peter). The rest turned tail and ran. John came back to the Cross, but he alone of the Apostles is known to have done so. The earth quaked. The sun eclipsed. God himself turned his face from his Son on the Cross.
A respected friend who does not yet know Christ or the Bible recently asked me what he was missing. These four gracEmails repeat what I shared with him in response.
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Unknown to the Jews or the Romans, or even to the Apostles, all this was being used by God to redeem the world and to forgive and to transform us sinners. Jesus had lived as a representative of all who will finally be saved -- his faithfulness and obedience counted for us. He also died as a representative of all who finally will be saved. God put our rebellion, our transgressions, trespasses, sins (different ways of saying the same thing) on him. Jesus died as the ultimate anti-God rebel -- but he was the only person who ever lived totally faithful to God. He was and is the Light of the World, but the sun went out as he died. He was tormented and tortured to death, but he overcame Death and opened the door to eternal life.
Early Sunday morning, about three days later, God raised Jesus from the dead. For a period of 40 days, Jesus appeared to his followers, in varying numbers, at different times, places and circumstances. He ate with some of them. He talked with many of them. They became convinced that the same Jesus they had known closely for three years was with them again -- in the same body as before, yet somehow transformed. The Apostles then watched as Jesus went up into the clouds -- returning to God from whom he came. Ten days later, on the Jewish festival of Pentecost, the "Holy Spirit" came upon Jesus' followers, to be with and in all who believe on Jesus forever. (The "Holy Spirit" is the personal, powerful Presence of the Creator God, and of Jesus himself.)
These Apostles, who once hid for fear after the crucifixion of their leader Jesus, now were emboldened to proclaim his resurrection in the city that saw his death seven weeks before. They eventually carried the "gospel" (good news) throughout the Roman world. They did this, despite imprisonment, banishment and even death. As two of them stated very early, "We cannot help but declare what we have personally seen and heard!" Through the New Testament Scriptures -- which all were written within 35-65 years after Jesus' death and resurrection -- and through the Jesus-following fellowship ("church"), the message continued through the world and down the centuries in both documented and living streams until our time and place.
One day, Jesus promised, he will come again in person, in power, with millions of angels. All the dead will be raised and every person will face God in judgment. Those who have known God now in saving faith will be given bodies that are immortal and suited for life in the everlasting Age to Come. Those who reject God's overtures of love and fellowship now will be banished into a place of total, irreversible destruction, figuratively called "hell" or "Gehenna" -- the name of the city dump outside ancient Jerusalem.
A respected friend who does not yet know Christ or the Bible recently asked me what he was missing. These four gracEmails repeat what I shared with him in response.
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Jesus invites every person to come to him, to believe on him, and to enjoy eternal life. "Eternal" life basically means life in fellowship with the Living God. It begins even now, when we believe on Jesus. But it goes beyond our present death, into the Age to Come for all eternity. It is "eternal" in a qualitative sense and also in a quantitative sense. The bottom line, however, is life in conscious fellowship with the Creator God himself, the Father of Jesus Christ, the only living God who wishes to be gracious and rich in mercy and kindness to sinners.
Jesus once said, "If anyone would be my disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." This is not a cheap grace. Jesus calls us to "repent" (to make a mental U-turn, and to give ourself over to God and to his leading). He calls us to "believe" (to accept Jesus as God's Son and to trust in his sacrifice on the Cross as sufficient to set us right with God). Perhaps the best-known Gospel summary is this: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life."
This is the beginning of a transformed life. It is not principally a matter of rules and regulations, but of joyfully following one who has died and risen from the dead to be our eternal Savior and friend. It is not a matter of denomination, but of fellowship with other believers for mutual encouragment. We cannot buy our way in, bargain our way in or rationalize our way in. All we can do is to accept what Jesus has done for us and to rely on that. God already demonstrated his approval of Jesus' sacrifice by raising Jesus from the dead and receiving him back into heaven.
You can approach God about this matter for yourself. Tell him where you are coming from. Tell him your fears and doubts and reservations. (He knows them all anyway.) Ask him to make known to you whether these things are true. If you are willing to believe, ask God to give you faith. I encourage you to read (in a modern translation such as the New International Version, or The Message) the Gospel for yourself. You might begin with the Gospel of John, the fourth book of the New Testament.
No earthly joy -- whether gained through possessions, sensation or power -- can compare with the joy of knowing Jesus Christ and God his Father. Nothing gives purpose and meaning to life like serving the Creator who made this universe and put us in it. I am happy to share with you more, if, when and as you might be ready. I have nothing of which to boast myself. I make no personal claims. I am only a sinner, saved by God's marvelous grace, dependent on him every moment for life, and a grateful recipient of his kindness each new day that comes. I wish you nothing else, and nothing less!
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