I was talking to a young man of my acquaintance last week, and we were discussing a friend of his who was dealing with lots of problems, mostly of her own making. I said something like, “Well, you know that ultimately she needs Jesus.” I knew that this young man says he believes in a Creator God, and he prays sometimes. However, he says he’s just not convinced that he has any need for or any faith in “all that Christian stuff.”
And, sure enough, he asked me: “Why Jesus?” Why can’t we just get by with a belief in a Higher Power or God or whatever you want to call Him without having to believe everything that the Bible says about Him? Why do we need to bring Jesus and all the Christian baggage into the equation?
Now I have answers to that question, and I gave the young man a brief response, which was all he wanted or was ready to hear. However, I’ve been thinking about his query, and I thought I’d ask some people I trust or admire to answer in their own words. It’s not a bad question to contemplate as we approach Resurrection Sunday and the celebration of the culmination of Jesus’ ministry and work here on earth.
I asked: If someone asked you, why Jesus? Why isn’t it enough to just believe in God? Why are Christianity and Jesus necessary? How would you answer?
Jared Wilson, pastor and author: God reveals himself to us in Christ (John 14). So to reject Christ is to reject God. God is triune; any denial is acceptance of not-God.
Mitali Perkins, author: A loving God doesn’t make sense in a suffering world without the cross.
Martin Luther: “Either sin is with you, lying on your shoulders, or it is lying on Christ, the Lamb of God. Now if it is lying on your back, you are lost; but if it is resting on Christ, you are free, and you will be saved.”
R.C. Sproul, pastor and teacher: “There is a God who is altogether holy, who is perfectly just, and who declares that he is going to judge the world and hold every human being accountable for their life. As a perfectly holy and just God, he requires from each one of us a life of perfect obedience and of perfect justness. If there is such a God and if you have lived a life of perfect justness and obedience—that is, if you’re perfect — then you certainly don’t need Jesus. You don’t need a Savior because only unjust people have a problem.”
I would add: Apart from Christ, how do you know what God you are praying to or acknowledging? Who is your God? A remote implacable Muslim God? Or a capricious and fallible Zeus? An impersonal “watchmaker” god? The unknown God (Acts 17:23)? Jesus is God’s final and highest revelation of Himself to a fallen, but beloved world. For God, the true one God revealed in Christ, so loved the world, you and me, that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, that whosoever believes, trusts, has faith in, Him shall not die but have everlasting, forever, abundant, quality life.
Today and every day as we live toward the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection and eventually toward His second coming to judge the world, I wish you Jesus.
If you have answers or questions to add to this discussion, please feel free to comment.
I think God is too big a concept for humans to understand. If we tried to wrap our minds around such a power/entity/however you want to describe it, out human minds just can’t comprehend. I always liken it to dimension in math and other exact sciences. As soon as we’re talking more than 3 dimensions (the 3D world we live in) we cease to truly comprehend it — we simply cannot imagine it. Jesus is therefore the ‘ intermediate step’, not completely human as the son of God, but human enough for us to relate to. And through him, we can relate to God.
But that’s just my answer.
My first thought was the John 14 passage you mentioned, especially verses 6-11.
Secondly came to mind the passages where God the Father says that Jesus is His beloved Son in whom He is well-pleased (Jesus’ baptism, transfiguration, and Matthew 12).
Then also I thought of a passage I read in Nancy Guthrie’s Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter in a chapter titled “The Most Important Word in the Universe†by Raymond Ortlund: “In human religions, it’s the worshipper who placates the offended deity with rituals and sacrifices and bribes. But in the gospel, it is God Himself who provides the offering…The God you have offended doesn’t demand your blood; he gives his own in Jesus Christ.” Christianity is the only religion that makes that kind of permanent provision for forgiveness of sin.
This question is quite thought-provoking!
This is a wonderful question, Sherry! “Why Jesus” is something I’ve been thinking about lately. I love Samantha’s answer as well as Barbara’s, both are thought provoking.
For me, Jesus is the God my youngest self believed in and to dispense with Him would feel like I’m leaving behind my most innocent self. In part, then, I simply want to maintain my spiritual history as well as my earliest vision of divine faith. And then I just really like Him as a character in a familiar story — He is a beautiful and remarkable soul, a divine and human person I want to emulate.