Who Is Jesus? If you do an internet search of the name “Jesus,” you’ll have to admit he’s a popular person. One search engine produced over 150,000,000 pages devoted to Jesus. That’s not surprising, as Jesus is arguable the most significant character in human history.
A few years ago, a group of over 100 consultants released a report containing over 100 words, names, symbols, and phrases that they believed every educated person should know something about. Over half of these phrases were connected to the life of Jesus. These include the following:
Apostle
Ask and it shall be given
Baptism
Beatitudes
Calvary
Christ
Consider the lilies of the field
Crown of Thorns
The crucifixion
Disciple
The Golden Rule
The Good Samaritan
Gospel
The Last Super
The Lord’s Prayer
Parables
Pearl of Great Price
Salt of the earth
Casting pearls before swine
Turn the Other Cheek
This is just a small sample, but you get the point. Jesus has obviously had a tremendous impact on human society. Yet for many, Jesus’ impact is much greater than a few words and phrases in a vocabulary. That is why we have built this page. We hope to tell you what we have discovered about Jesus.
As we share, we want you to know that we are not here to preach at you. Nor are we here to say that we are better than you are. We simply want to share with you what we have come to experience about life because of Jesus. It’s been so special that it would be a crime for us not to take a few moments and share our experience with you.
You Have A Special Purpose
Everyone was born with a purpose. God had something special in mind when each of us were born. You are not an accident. At the root of it all was the simple desire of God that each of us be in relationship (or friendship) with Him. We were created to enjoy a special place of intimacy in God’s company forever.
That said, you know that forced intimacy is not really intimacy. That is why God created us with the ability to choose. We have free will – the ability to either choose or reject God’s friendship.
In the Bible, there is a story about Adam and Eve, the first couple, the founders of the human race (read the first two chapters of Genesis). Their story illustrates our story. In the beginning, they walked and talked with God daily, enjoying the intimate friendship God intended for them in creation.
We Are All Victims Of Sin
With freedom, however, comes the risk of making bad choices. That is what happened with Adam and Eve. They made some bad choices. Bottom line, they made the choice to live independent of God. That is called sin.
Now here is something we all instinctively know: We are all in the same boat as Adam and Eve. To quote the Bible, “All have sinned…” (Romans 3:23) As descendant of this first couple, we have all inherited the propensity to make bad choices by trying to live independently from God.
Oh, sure, we may not be “that bad” when compared to others – murderers, terrorists, rapists, and the like. Still, when held in the balance against the goodness of God, we are all in the same boat. We are ALL broken. The Bible calls this brokenness sin. It also says that if this sin problem is not addressed, it will produce eternally unpleasant results. That is what the Bible means when it says “the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23a). In other words, sin builds a wall that can separate us eternally from the life God intends for us to enjoy.
God’s Love Pursues You
This is where Jesus enters the picture! He is the one who destroys that barrier that divides us from God. He is the means through which God’s love continues to pursue us.
Each year at Christmas, Christian churches celebrate something called the incarnation. That fancy word means that God came and joined us in human form – in the form of a baby named Jesus.
For just about 33 years, Jesus preached about God’s ultimate intentions for the human race. He confronted injustice. He challenged bigotry and arrogance. He was especially tough on the religious crowds who thought that “going to church” made them better than everyone else (it did not then and does not now). He spoke of God’s love, of mercy, forgiveness, and grace.
Along the way, Jesus lived a perfect, sin-free life. Because of that, Jesus could take upon himself the burden for every sin you and I ever have or will commit. That’s exactly what Jesus did because of God love for each of us.
Jesus Is Our Way Back To God
Thanks to Jesus, every person ever born has the opportunity to once again choose life and relationship with God. How does this happen? Good question!
The Bible talks about two words that encompass beginning a new life of intimacy with God.
The first word is repent. The word simply means to turn around or change one’s mind. In this context, it means that we choose to reject our independent streak and declare our intentions to live in relationship with God. It’s more than simply feeling sorry about the bad things we have done. It is more like making a U-turn away from a life of independence from God toward dependence on and relationship with God.
How do we live our live out that relationship with God. The Bible talks about about another concept called faith (which is that second important word). By faith, we trust that Jesus dealt with our old life of sin when he was crucified those many years ago. By faith, we also trust Jesus to share the resources of his life with us so we can live daily in connect with and obedience to God. To put it another way, when we repent and express faith, something in us dies and something new is born.
The thing that dies is that part of us that separates us from God.
The thing that is born within us is the life of Jesus – making a connection to God a reality. Because of that connection, we can now live out of the resources of God’s love and grace. That’s an incredible way to live – positive, energetic, life-enhancing, world-changing.
The Bible states it like this, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live – yet not I, but Christ lives in me – and the life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God who gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
Expressing repentance and faith is not complicated. In fact, you can do it right now through a simple prayer. Understand that there is nothing supernatural or mystical about these words. What matters most is that you believe or trust in Jesus.
God Invites You To Pray
You can pray something like this:
“Jesus, I know that I am a sinner. I have many bad choices and decisions that have left God out of the picture of my life. I am grateful for your love. I am grateful that you came to earth to save me from the eternal consequences of my sin. I now receive your gift of forgiveness and place myself in your the care of your grace. Thank you. Amen.”
If you pray this prayer, we would love to celebrate this decision with you. Drop our pastor an email at pastor@pattersonavenuebaptist.com
Better yet, give us a call, stop by our office, or come and worship with us this Sunday. We gather for worship at 11:00AM To learn more about our faith community, visit http://pattersonavenuebaptist.com
You have a reason to celebrate. You have a brand new life. You may not see flashes of light or hear an angelic choir, but that is OK. Faith and feelings do not always agree. Trust God and choose to believe that this is the first day of your new life.