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Jesus Christ is the Lord God Creator. And that’s as crucial to us today as it was to his twelve disciples two millennia ago. Because if it’s true, that Jesus is who He says he is, it changes everything. It would be the single most important truth ever.

It means that our Creator-God didn’t just leave us alone in our messes, but He chooses to reach out to us, to live among his creation and to redeem us back to Himself.

Why do I believe in a God in the first place?
As I look around I see an amazing universe. It’s obvious to me that a great intelligence planned such an intricate system of physics, time, and life. If an intelligence had the power to speak the universe into existence it would make sense that this intelligence would care about the lives He had created and would reveal Himself to His creation. I believe that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is that Creator-God.

Houston, we have a problem
As I take another look around I see that we are not a happy people. Something’s missing in our lives. Life’s unfair and then we die. We try to fill the void within us with thrills and new things, but the effect is short lived. The Rolling Stones got it right with the song “I can’t get no-o sa-tis-fac-tion”.

Scripture says that we are broken beings living in a world that was broken by sin. So if we want to find peace we need to think about what broke us in the firsts place. What exactly is sin?

If you took a poll and asked 100 people what the greatest sin was, I’d bet that murder, war crimes, rape and crimes and against children would be at the top of the list. And those sins are definitely on God’s list too. But I don’t think those sins are the root problem. 

Infinitely Broken
It makes sense that the greatest sin, the greatest brokenness, the root of the problem is violating the highest law. When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, He quoted the Shema (which means hear or listen), the scriptures that the Jews receted daily,

Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. – Deuteronomy 6:4,5

The reason we can’t find peace is that we are so far from our created purpose. In the beginning, God created us with a purpose: to serve God, to praise God, and to be image bearers of God on Earth. We are hard-wired to be worshippers. When we don’t worship God, we find something else to worship instead. Money, romance, intelligence, education, beauty, elegance, love, feasts and celebrations, inner peace, and happiness might all be good things when used appropriately, but if we worship them instead of worshiping God then they are idols in our lives. and, our lives are empty of meaning.

Hurts against other humans are finite offences against finite beings. But when we think we’re capable of running our own lives and doing good without God that’s an infinite offence against an infinite God.

The root of our brokenness and lack of peace is just that – our attempt to be our own god (little g) in our eyes. This is how Satan initially deceived Eve. “Eat of the fruit and you will be like God.” Even today, many cults draw people by teaching that they can become a god. We like trying to be in control rather than trusting God to be in control. But, trust me on this, I’m not god. You’re not god. And we never will be like god.

Our sin causes several problems for us. Sin causes death. Before Adam and Eve sinned they would have lived eternally. The entropy of the universe started with the first sin. The death that sin causes is also a spiritual death. It separates us from God both now and eternally. The profane simply can’t exist in the presence of the pure. We have as much chance living in God’s presence in heaven as an ice cube on the face of the sun.

Our sinful condition also prevents us from being capable of moving toward God. It thwarts us from our created purpose of glorifying God, serving God, and serving others. Perhaps our biggest problem is that we are completely stumped. It is absolutely impossible for us to solve our sin problem and climb our way back to God.

God has it all figured out
In the Holy Scriptures we read,
through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for. - Proverbs 16:6

We can’t atone for our sin, we don’t have enough love nor faithfulness. It’s a good thing God’s wisdom is higher than ours! God knows all. He knows us. God is not bound by time. He was not surprised by Adam’s fall. Scripture says that before the beginning of time, God planned a way to solve our sin problem for us.

God loves us, but He is also a just God and won’t simply ignore our sin. To simply forgive our sin without satisfying justice would violate God’s Holiness. God can’t just wink at sin and pretend it’s not there. He had to make a way to truly solve the problem and reconcile us back to himself.

God’s solution is for God Himself to pay the penalty for our sin. God became a man and lived a perfect life among us. Jesus Christ is God made flesh. It had to be God who could rescue us because only God can met the requirements of God. Then, having kept all the law with a pure heart, he was faithful to His Father’s will and Jesus accepted the penalty for our sin. When Jesus was crucified, it was more than the physical pain. He took upon himself all the guilt and shame of the creation’s sin. He died in our place.

The death of an innocent God is sufficient to pay the price for all the sins – finite and infinite.  

When Jesus was crucified his disciples went into hiding. They were confused and afraid. Several others had claimed to be the Messiah, but their following had disappeared like mist when the leader was killed. Everyone knew they weren’t he Messiah because they were killed.

Psalm 16 said that the Messiah would not be killed.

No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice. My body rests in safety. For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave.  – Psalm 16:9,10

If Jesus was dead he couldn’t be the Messiah, all was lost.

But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus. As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes.

The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.” – Luke 24: 5-7

In the weeks that followed, Jesus appeared to 500 of His followers several times, and they worshipped Him as their Lord and God. The disciples were no longer afraid, they preached boldly and all died horrible torturous deaths without recanting their faith. Who would die for what they no is a lie?  

His resurrection conquered sin and death forever. The living God can freely redeem whom he desires. The good news is that God provides the love and the faithfulness to atone for our sin.

Come, Follow Me!
Jesus is calling us to become His followers – to turn from trying to find satisfaction on our own and trying to be our own little gods, and to return to our created purpose of worshiping the living God as our God, and to trust His mercy.

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. – Ephesians 2:8,9

The mark of Jesus is that He forgives and our life with God begins by accepting his gift of forgiveness. We stop trying to earn our own way, trying to be our own god, and depend instead on God to be God. We rest in God’s ability to solve our sin problem. God alone gives to us the gift of real life here and now, and in eternity.

This isn’t how most “religions” work so let me explain the good news again; It isn’t about being good, cleaning up our act, or mustering up enough faith to impress God. Jesus even said the faith of a mustard seed was enough. Mustard seeds are pretty small. It’s not about us. It’s about God. Salvation is of the Lord. The hardest part about becoming a follower is stopping to trust in our “whatever” to get us to heaven. It boils down to doing nothing and resting in God’s hands, knowing that He solved our sin problem for us.

It isn’t head-knowledge ether. It isn’t simply agreeing that Jesus lived, or that he was a good rabbi, or even agreeing that Jesus is God-incarnate-risen-from-the-dead. It’s a trusting in your heart that Jesus is your God. The Bible says that even the devils believe that Jesus is God. But they don’t worship Jesus or trust in Jesus to be their God.

When we trust in Christ to be our God, He does several wonderful things for us. First he gives us eternal life beginning right now. He also births new life to our hearts so we can once again serve and glorify God. He makes us one of His brothers, with God the Father as our Father. God’s Holy Spirit comes and dwells within our heart. God promises that followers of Jesus will always have eternal life. Being alive spiritually is something God did, so only God could undo it. Keeping our salvation is up to God; not us.

Being holy means being set apart for a special purpose. When we believe we are declared holy right away. As far as God is concerned we qualify as perfect for entry in heaven, because God sees not our sin, but the righteousness of Christ covering us.

Walking with Christ
Once we become followers, the Holy Spirit begins working in our hearts to mature us. God begins a wonderful work within us, making us more like Jesus in our ability to love, forgive, and serve. God begins to ‘work-out’ our salvation into the rest of our life. God cleans up our act from the inside out, by changing our hearts. Our part is to grow in Christ in the same way we become a follower, by resting and trusting Jesus to be our God. As we grow closer to God, we find that God truly is our Father, and Jesus our friend and brother.

Be Wise
Finding truth is a lot like walking on an iced-over pond. You may be completely convinced the ice will hold you, but if it’s only a half-inch thick, you’re going to get wet. But even if you have a few doubts, ice a foot thick will hold you once you walk on it. Truth is like the ice. You might sincerely believe in your ability to be good enough, or some sacrament, or even some religion to get you to God. But if it’s not the truth you’ll end up very cold and very wet. It’s not the sincerity of one’s faith but the object of one’s faith that makes the difference!

It may feel good to believe that there are many roads up God’s mountain. But the prophet Isaiah quoted the Lord as saying,
I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior.
- Isaiah 43:11

and Jesus said,
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
- John 14:6

Beware of false teachings. There can only be one truth. Is Christianity exclusive, yes. It’s very exclusive – it claims to the the only truth. But it’s also the most inclusive religion, all are welcome.

The Apostle Paul once preached this same good news to the Bereans. Their enthused response was to check what Paul said according to the scriptures. The Apostle declared them noble. Don’t just take my word for it. Read the scriptures behind each point. Check this out. Read the Gospel of John. This is too important to leave it to someone else to figure out for you. Ask God to reveal Himself to you in a powerful way.

If you feel God calling you to be a follower of Jesus, you can follow Jesus by telling him so;

Jesus,

I believe that You are the living Creator-God and I’m awed by Your power and love. I have been selfish and I have failed to worship You. I confess that I have a sin problem that I can’t fix. I can only ask You to fix it and trust You to be true to your word.

Please, be my Lord and my God. Come and dwell in my heart – I ask You to make my heart an altar to You. Teach me to be true to my created purpose of glorifying you and praising You.

Lord, I thank You for gifting to me eternal life.

I praise You. Amen.