Are You Sure?

This week at FpStudents, we are starting our "Godfidence" series.  This series is meant to help students clearly define what they believe and help them express those things to their friends.  Many times we are afraid to engage in conversation about the Lord with nonbelievers because we don't know why we believe what we believe, and we fear they will trip us up.  As 1 Peter 3:15 states, we need to "always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have," not neglecting the mandate for gentleness and respect.  So let's look at some big questions.

Was Jesus God?

Yes!  God is one being with three parts- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  

• God the Father created us and desires a relationship with us.  He cares about us, has a plan for us, and is actively involved in our daily life.  
• God the Son is Jesus.  He came to earth as a human and lived a perfect life.  He died on a cross in our place so that we could spend eternity with God in heaven.  
• God the Holy Spirit was sent by Jesus when we went back to heaven after rising from the dead.  We hear the Holy Spirit as a voice inside of us that guides and directs our lives.

John, one of Jesus' disciples who spent the most time with him while he was here on earth writes about Jesus being one with God in John 1: 1-5 and 14.  He describes Jesus as the Word and says "The Word was God" (John 1:1) and "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (John 1:14).  In other words, God became a person and lived with us here on earth.

Is believing in God and having a relationship with Jesus the same thing?

No.  Lots of people believe that there is a God that created the universe.  Fewer believe that He is actively involved in our daily lives.  And even less have a relationship with Jesus.  But Jesus is the only way to spend eternity with Jesus.  When we are talking to people about our faith, some will admit to being "atheist" or having no belief in God at all.  Others will claim to be "agnostic," claiming that there's no hard proof as to whether God exists or not.  But a majority of people that you talk to will say that they believe in God.  The problem is that just believing in God doesn't guarantee that someone is saved.  That's where we have to "speak the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15), which brings us to the next question...

Why do we need Jesus?

We are all sinners. That's hard to get a grip on and if you open with that line, the person you are talking to is probably going to shut down right there.  Don't start your conversation with, "Hey, guess what… You're a sinner and you're going to hell."  Instead, its really important that we point to the brokenness in the world (in a nonjudgemental way) and say… There's a lot that's messed up in the world… a lot of pain… a lot of things that seem confusing because they don't seem like things that a good God would let happen.  But all that is just evidence that our world is broken.  And that brokenness is because we are separated from God.  God is perfect… and he created us to be perfect.  But he loved us enough to let us make our own choices.  He allowed us to choose knowing that we would choose to turn the other way.  And because of that we were separated from God.  That state of separation is called sin.  We often confuse "sin" with making mistakes or bad behavior but what it really is is being separated from God because we've fallen short of his perfection (Romans 3:23).

The consequence of this sin is death-- permanent separation from God (Romans 6:23).  But God wanted to make a way for us to be with him.  So he sent Jesus to live a the perfect life that we couldn't live and then die on the cross in our place (Romans 5:8.)  When he died, he took on the consequence of sin for all of us so that anyone accepts this gift can spend eternity with God (Romans 10:9.)

Why is my testimony important?
"The Bible says":
Have you ever tried to use the old "the Bible says" line on a nonbeliever?  How'd that work out for you?  When we were little kids if you told someone "the Bible says," they are all "yeah… I believe Jonah got swallowed by a big fish" or whatever but with teenagers and adults they usually don't have such childlike faith.  If they don't believe in Jesus yet, they probably don't accept the Bible as credible or valid.

"You just have to believe":
Furthermore, those people generally don't want to listen to you if you say, "I just believe it… you have to have faith."  That's true.  There are things about God that we just can't explain and we have to accept as beyond our understanding (Isaiah 55:9.)  But that's generally not a starting point for faith.  A nonbeliever, especially one who has really thought through reasons for their unbelief, they need to see real word evidence… and that's where our testimony comes in.

"Because listen to what Jesus did in my life":

Sharing your testimony basically means telling the story of how Jesus changed your life.  As the verse above tells, it is essential that we have practice telling the story of what life was like before Jesus, how He got your attention, and how life has changed since then.  Sometimes this means talking about when God saved you for eternity and other times it means talking about how He brought you through a really hard time.  Either way, your story is a concrete example of how God loves us, has a plan for us, and is still alive and active in our world.

Why does the verse above say "hope" instead of "beliefs"?

Because HOPE is what people really need in this broken world.  Almost everyone has some situation in their life that seems hopeless (apart from God.)  When we are witnessing to people, we shouldn't be listing a bunch of rules to follow or even truths to believe.  We should be introducing them to our source of hope-- Jesus.  We should be showing them a relationship with someone who's grace is irresistible.  They aren't going to fall in love with "beliefs;" they're going to fall in love with a Savior who gives hope.

How can I lay the groundwork for this type of conversation?
Be a friend.  Build trust.  Love them the way Jesus loved us-- sacrificially and selflessly.  Tell them your testimony casually in conversation.  Let Jesus be a part of your daily vocabulary.  You don't have to be pushy… just be authentic.  As you are seeking the Lord more in your daily life, His truths will come out more in your conversation.

Then, pray like crazy.  For all the effort we might put in to sharing Christ with a friend, only the Holy Spirit can move hearts.  So we have to be obedient in playing our part is sharing Christ, but we have to ask the Lord to make the difference in that person.  And when we are all prayed up and "prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have," then you share the greatest love story ever-- the story of Jesus love for us and explain to them how they can spend eternity in the presence of that kind of love.