Yesterday I wrote about the craving we all have, a yearning for more, for a happy ending, for a life that matters. We have this craving because God created us to worship Him, but because of sin we chose to worship idols of our own making instead.
We need Jesus. He is Who we crave, because He is the one Who will fix the brokenness in our lives. What then must happen?
We believe. We trust Jesus to do what He said He would do and to be what He said He would be.
Believe. Last night I watched a young lady named Rachel believe. She stopped trusting in her own ability to fix herself. She trusted Christ.
Look at how the Bible describes this. After noting how all of us are spiritually dead because of sin and in need of a resurrection (note: Jesus did not die on the cross to make bad people become good; He died to make spiritually dead people become alive), we read these words:
“By grace (God giving us what we do not deserve) we are saved through faith; it is the gift of God, not of works, so no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9.
It is a gift. The reason this is so hard for so many Americans I meet is because we think we have to earn everything. And, in most cases we do. But we could never earn the favor of a perfect God. That is why grace is so amazing. In spite of us, God loves us.
Here is another: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord (i.e. “master” or totally in control) and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9. And just after that in verse 13 it says, “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
A long time ago I realized I craved more. I realized things were not right inside me. I realized I wanted my life to matter. I began to see God change young men and women. In particular I saw some hippie types changed (this was during a season called the Jesus Movement). And God changed me. I simply trusted Him, I surrendered my life totally. I did not want to spend my life chasing idols of money or fame, people or my own intellect. I needed Jesus, and He changed me.
I have never regretted the day I trusted Jesus Christ. I have sometimes wondered why God would love the likes of me, but I have never regretted Him changing me.
The Bible describes this change by faith in many ways:
-We had lost our way, heading for great danger, and Jesus saved us.
-We were slaves to sin, and Jesus redeemed us: He bought our freedom with His own blood on the cross.
-We were orphans from God, and He adopted us.
-We were legally guilty before a holy God, and Jesus justified us, declaring us “not guilty.”
-We owed a debt because of our sin we could never pay, but Jesus not only forgave the debt, He gave us a new and eternal inheritance called heaven.
-We were spiritually dead, and He gave us a new birth.
Now at 11 years of age I did not understand all this. The reason some hesitate to trust Jesus is because we want Him first to give us a Divine GPS, which shows us how this change will affect the rest of our lives. That too is idolatry, for we still cling to our own plans. We must trust that He has a better idea than we do about our lives, and like Abraham who simply went west when God called him (Genesis 12), we simply start walking by faith in His paths.
But we do not do it alone. That is why God gave us His church, other believers, a family to walk with us. I had a lot to figure out when I first trusted Jesus. I still do. And God has given me so many people to help me. But mostly He has given me Himself and His Word.
So many people are working very hard to write their own story, to craft a life of meaning with a happy ending. But the pencil lead keeps breaking as the story is being written, because of brokenness caused by sin. Faith in Jesus Christ means I am letting the One who wrote the Story from the beginning write the rest of my story, because He created me for that ending, not one of my own choosing. That is what it means to confess Him as Lord.
Here is the Story of the Journey in a nutshell:
God created a beautiful world that is in perfect harmony, and put us in the middle of it to worship Him.
Sin came and we fell from our intimate worship of God, and now everything, including our own souls, is broken.
Jesus, Who is God, came to become a man, to walk among us, to bear our sin by dying on a cross, substituting His life for ours. He rose from the dead to defeat our most deadly enemy, death itself.
When we trust Him, He rescues us and begins a new and marvelous work in our lives (more on that tomorrow).
One day He will restore this broken world totally with a new heaven and a new earth. In the meantime He is changing those of us who follow Him daily to be more like Him and to be His ambassadors in this life. (more on that the next day).
If you are reading this and have never begun a life of following Jesus by faith, today is the day. Email me here to let me know this or if you have questions. If you have trusted Christ, tell someone else, won’t you?
And here is the amazing part: when we trust Jesus, He forgives. He changes us. But that is only the start of a new and remarkable journey. I know. I have been on it for over 40 years now. But we will talk about that tomorrow.
