It would take a whole book to give you the reasons why I believe in Jesus Christ and follow him as my Savior and Lord. Those reasons have been accumulating over a lifetime. Some of them have been discarded or changed as I have grown older. Others are newer as I have experienced more of life. But if I were to distill the reasons I believe in Jesus Christ into this short chapter I would want to include the following.

THE EXISTENCE OF LIFE

The first reason is the existence of life itself. As I observe and participate in life I am aware of its incredible variety and complexity. The size of the universe, and the minute calibrations that are essential to sustain life, convince me of the reality of God who has created life for a purpose. Life does not make sense to me without the initiation and sustaining power of the Creator. As St. Paul put it, “he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else…. For in him we live and move and have our being.”[i] Through the miracle of creation God provides the genesis and environment that makes life possible. “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever.”[ii] The origin of life, the sustainer of life, and the end or goal of life is God. Which God? “For us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.”[iii]

THE PROBLEM OF SECULARISM       

An atheistic view of origins does not make sense to me. To view the universe as nothing more than a gigantic organism, or a complex mathematical formula, or a biological computer, flies in the face of the reality of human identity and relationship. A purely secular, merely scientific view results in reducing life to naturalistic phenomena. It is an inadequate interpretation of human behavior that does not account for meaning, purpose, significance and value. Love cannot be defined in purely secular terms. Community cannot be sustained from solely secular psycho-sociological, political and economic perspectives.

Life that has purpose and hope to it necessitates a Creator who is personally involved and lovingly concerned for his offspring. That is why God continually communicated with his people through prophets, and why he came himself to intervene on our behalf. The Creator revealed his purpose through his spoken Word, and also through his Living Word, Jesus Christ. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men…. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”[iv]

THE LIFE OF JESUS         

I believe that Jesus Christ is the human face of the Creator. Why do I believe that? Because his life perfectly reveals God to me. He acts as the Creator by exercising his power over nature: stilling the storm, multiplying the loves and fishes, raising the dead, healing the sick, and defeating death. He acts as God by exercising the power to forgive sins, to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of heaven, and to pass divine judgment. He shows us the significance of human life, and its eternal value, through his life, death and resurrection,

ETERNAL LIFE

Without a belief in eternal life, human life would be, as Thomas Hobbes put it, “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Life, with all its meaning and significance, makes no sense to me without life beyond the grave. When my grandmother died I was 12 years of age. I simply could not believe that a life that was so valuable could suddenly cease to matter. Ecclesiastes in the Bible states the obvious: “God has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”[v] Jesus came to reveal the nature of eternal life, to assure us of it as a gift, through union with himself. As we live with him we enjoy the reality of eternal life. He is “the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.”[vi] I believe that this is true, because I believe that he is the origin and source of life, and that he has defeated human mortality through his own death and resurrection on our behalf.

THE REALITY OF EVIL

The second reason I believe in Jesus Christ is because of sin and evil. I grew up in the aftermath of World War II and learned from survivors of the horrors of Japanese prisoner of war camps and German concentration camps. A book that made a great impression on me as a youth, which was in our bookcase at home, was White Coolies by Betty Jeffrey. Published in 1954 it told the story of a group of 65 Australian Nurses who were evacuated from Singapore just before it surrendered in 1942. Two days later, their ship, the Vyner Brooke, was bombed and sunk by the Japanese. Twenty-two of the survivors were cold-bloodedly murdered and the remainder taken prisoner. In spite of the constant danger of discovery and consequent brutal punishment, Sister Jeffrey kept this diary as a record of three and a half years’ spirited resistance in the face of infamous maltreatment. A few year’s ago it was made into a movie, called Paradise Road, starring Glenn Close.

Later I became aware of the brutality of communist rule. The evils of totalitarianism were enough evidence for me to see the failure of atheistic ideology, and the necessity of being accountable to a God of justice and love. My own life, and that of the world, witnessed to the need of a Savior. The words of St. Paul accurately described the human condition: “so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”[vii]

GUILT, FAILURE, ANXIETY AND DESPAIR

The evils in the world, man’s inhumanity to man: corruption, crime, terrorism, exploitation, the way mentally sick people transfer their pain onto their spouses and their children, anger, greed, selfishness, the need to be in control, and so the list could go on, cries out for justice, and redemption. I am convicted of my own sinfulness. My conscience is held captive to the Word of God. I have to deal with my own guilt and failure, my anxiety and despair. The words of St. Paul ring true of my self-awareness: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do… I know that nothing good lives in me, that is in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing.”[viii]

HUMAN REDEMPTION 

I believe in Jesus Christ because he came to set me free from the compulsion to sin, and the condemnation for sin. By his atoning sacrifice on the Cross he broke the power of sin over me. In exchange for my sinful guilt he gave me his pure righteousness, so granting me forgiveness and acceptance before God. In addition he gave me the gift of his Spirit to enable me to choose freely for good. The personal intervention of God in Christ on behalf of the human race includes the infilling presence of the power of his Spirit to accomplish his purposes in us and through us. I believe in Jesus Christ because he made possible the redemption of the worst of people, and the transformation of their character. He came to heal the sin-sick soul, to make whole the conflicted personality, to set free the obsessive-compulsive and to reconcile those who are alienated. Because God in Christ is love, he can help me to love others, something I could not do in my own strength. Instead of expecting me to measure up to his high standards he came down to my level and offered to live in and through me. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any one hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me.”[ix]

THE ACT OF FAITH        

In St. Paul’s Cathedral in London there hangs a large painting by Holman Hunt called The Light of the World. It portrays Christ holding a lamp in dark garden and knocking at a door that appears not to have been opened in a long time for it is covered with weeds. It has no handle on the outside for him to open it. The door stands for the human heart. Christ, the light of the world, seeks admittance into our lives, so that he might banish the darkness of sin, and death. Only we can open that door by faith. He will not force his way in. He offers his grace – his unmerited, unearned gift of salvation. He asks for us to respond in faith, by receiving what he freely offers.

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD    

It is this transforming power of Christ and his Gospel that makes him the hope of the world. Political programs and parties come and go, but the Gospel of the kingdom of heaven is eternal. It is that Gospel which has motivated people to improve the living conditions of people, and care for them in their poverty, and sickness. It is Christ who lives in the needy of the world and who motivates his followers to do something about their condition. “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”[x]

PEACE AND HEALING   

I believe in Jesus Christ because he speaks to my needs and the needs of a divided and hostile world. It is only in him that there can be peace. “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.”[xi] He is the peacemaker and he calls me to follow in his steps and be a peacemaker also. He offers to produce the fruit of His Spirit in my relationships with others: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These virtues I cannot practice without abiding in him, living with him, following him, on a daily basis.

THE PRESENCE AND POWER OF CHRIST  

Lastly, I believe in Jesus Christ because, as God is spirit, he is always present. He promised that he would be with us always.[xii]  That means that God is with me as I trust in him and follow where he leads me. It means I can do everything through him who gives me strength.[xiii]  This does not mean that life is always sunshine, and the way is always smooth. To walk with Jesus means walking the way of the Cross, as well as the way of the resurrection. It means sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death before attaining to the resurrection from the dead.[xiv] It may mean being rejected and misunderstood as he was. It certainly means being a servant to others, humbling oneself, as he did. Heaven may be our goal and our prize, but there is much to do and to accomplish in this life. We are to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us by fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”[xv]

THE TRUTH OF EXPERIENCE

Why do I believe in Jesus Christ? Because he is my companion and guide, my brother and friend, my master and mentor, my Lord and my God. He soothes my sorrows and heals my wounds. I come to him, when I am weary and heavy-laden and find rest. I take his yoke upon me, and learn from him, for he is gentle and humble in heart and I find rest for my soul.[xvi] He opens my blind eyes, and loves me, and calls me to serve him. He never lets me down. He has blessed me beyond measure. He is the treasure that is worth finding.

[i] Acts 17:25,28

[ii] Romans 11:36

[iii] 1 Corinthians 8:6

[iv] John 1:1-4,14

[v] Ecclesiastes 3:11

[vi] John 11:25

[vii] Romans 3:19,23

[viii] Romans 7:15-19

[ix] Revelation 3:20

[x] Matthew 25:35,36

[xi] Ephesians 2:14

[xii] Matthew 28:20

[xiii] Philippians 4:13

[xiv] Philippians 3:10,11

[xv] Hebrews 12:2

[xvi] Matthew 11:29