Follow Jesus

Who is Jesus and What did He do?

Jesus is the creator God who has come to be one of us, to be with us, and to be for us.

The same God who created this good and beautiful world and created us human beings to reflect him and his glory. He has seen how we’ve treated his creation. He knows the destruction of our sin and selfishness. But he is so committed to his creatures that rather than just enacting revenge or distancing himself from us, he actually came to dwell among us in the person of Jesus; to be with us, but also to become one of us; to be the human being we are all called to be yet fail to be.

Then in a powerful act of love, Jesus gave himself over to death on a cross. He personally took into himself the ruin, the evil, the sin, and the death that we have contributed to the world. But he didn’t stop there. He then rose from the dead! In his resurrection from the dead he offers us his life. He offers us forgiveness and freedom.

Through our surrender and commitment to this resurrected king who conquered sin and death, we are transferred out of the domain of darkness and into his kingdom; Into the kingdom of the beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

What does it mean to be a Christian?

What it means to be a Christ-ian is to have faith in Christ - it’s right there in the name. There are three components of faith:

1.) Belief - aligning your thoughts about the world, yourself, and God with Jesus’ own thoughts. Believe that sin is a bigger deal than you ever thought, because you’ve sinned against God himself. But also believe that Jesus’ death on the cross was sufficient to pay for it. Believe that he rose from the dead!

Belief starts by saying, “what if Jesus is right about who God is, and who I am, and the right way to live as a human being, and I am the one with the distorted ways of thinking and living that contribute to the brokenness of the world?” And as you get to know him better, that “what if he’s right?” gradually turns to a confident “he is right.”

2.) Trust - this is a bit more intimate. Trust requires a personal relationship. You trust people you know; those who have earned it. Jesus calls you to such a personal relationship. Step out in faith one day at a time, trusting in this one who has such great love for us. Trust Jesus to do what is best for you, and to never lead you astray. Trust him with your life. Trust him with your sin. Trust him when he says “I will give you my life and righteousness, you don’t earn it, I earned it for you.” Trust him and receive his gift of salvation.

3.) Allegiance - like when we say be faithful (faith-full). We mean be full of faith in the sense of being loyal and committed. Faith in Jesus means we give him our ultimate allegiance, we give him our life and follow him in what he is doing and calls us to do. This necessarily means we have to give up and turn away from many other paths - what the Bible calls repentance. We commit our lives to him above any other commitment. We don’t consider ourselves as primarily belonging to a political party or a career or a family or even ourselves! We are first and foremost his.

Why faith?

We should rejoice that salvation in only through faith! Faith is the only human disposition that can be paired with grace, because faith is depending on God to be for us and do for us what we cannot be and do ourselves. Every other religion or philosophy claims to show you the way. Jesus says I am the way - trust in me. Every other religion says clean up your act and then come. Jesus says come through faith and I’ll clean you up as we go!

What next?

If you want to be united to Jesus by his love you simply place your faith in him. If you want to do that, tell him right now! And then tell other Christians. We believe (because Jesus told us so) that if you place your faith in him you should be baptized and become a part of his church. So if you want to talk to someone about next steps please reach out to us through our contact page.

If you are reading this page, God is already working in your heart. He wants you to step out in faith, fully believing in him, trusting him, committing to him, because as you do he gives you eternal life. There is a man that Jesus blessed who said to him, “I believe Lord, help my unbelief.” You can pray a similar prayer today. If you want to talk with someone about placing your faith in Jesus we would love to talk with you more.