About Jesus    Steve Sweetman

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Why Should Jesus Christ Mean Anything To You Or Me

The question can easily be asked, "How is Jesus Christ relevant to me, a person living in today's world"? This is a good question. If I did not know the answer I would certainly ask the question myself. I believe I do know the answer and therefore want to relate it to you.

I am assuming you acknowledge the existence of God, even though you may call Him by another name. The vast majority of people in this world believe in God’s existence. There are very few atheists, and many who hold to this thinking have not thought it through sufficiently enough to reach a logical "no God" conclusion.

So if you believe that God is out there someplace, you have arrived at the first step in answering this question.

Believing that there is a God is an understandable concept to the human thinking process, but believing that Jesus Christ is more than a great man is harder for us to comprehend. Finding out who Jesus is will bring meaning and fulfillment to your life.

So this is the question we need to ask ourselves. Who did Jesus claim to be, and what did He teach?

Who did Jesus claim to be? He claimed to be God in a human body. This is why He was called the Son of God.

What did he teach? He taught many things, one being that he could reunite us with God and cause us to live a meaningful life here on earth and then beyond into all of eternity.

 The next logical question to ask is, where do we find these claims that Jesus made, and how do we know we can trust the reliability of the source?

There have been countless books written about Jesus over the centuries, but only the Bible stands out alone. It is the Bible that tells us who Jesus is and what He said. This book was written by various authors over many centuries and has withstood the test of time since the last author wrote his part around the turn of the first century. Historians have many ways to test the authenticity of old manuscripts and ancient writings. The Bible ranks on top in the authenticity scores. This is a simple historical fact.

So who is Jesus? In simple words, He is God in a human body. You could say that Jesus and God are one and the same person. Jesus Himself said this in the Bible (John 10:30).

 Jesus being God is quite a claim to make. No legitimate world figure has ever claimed such status. Therefore His claim to being God is something to which we need to give serious consideration to. If He is not who He claims to be then it is all a major lie, wasting the lives of millions over the centuries. But if Jesus is God, we need to respond to Him and what He says. What other choice is there?

What did He tell us? First. He told us who He is, that is God in a human body. Second, He told us that we are separated from God, like children without parents. This separation is due to what is called "original sin". This means that we were born separated from God due to the first human’s decision to leave God and go their own way. Our separation is hereditary.

Jesus tells us that He has made a way for us to be reunited with God. He took the punishment for our sin. Sin is simply our rebellion, our disobeying God. You may not think you rebel against God. That is understandable since you are separated from Him and therefore know little about Him. Yet the fact remains, God is just. This means that He is always right and never wrong.

As a result, He must punish those who sin. You could say that sin is a crime against God. We have all committed such crimes, even if they are small. This is the basis for our legal system today. God said that the punishment for our sin would be eternal death. He did not want us to experience this death so He decided to put Jesus to death instead of us. Simply put, God’s justice was satisfied. Punishment was handed out for our sin.

Picture this. You were caught stealing. A judge found you guilty and sent you to jail for three months. Then someone stepped up to the judge and said that he would go to jail for you. How thankful you’d be. This is what Jesus did for you. He received the punishment for us and God was satisfied with this.

Jesus did not stop at simply receiving our punishment. The Bible claims that He rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven to be with God once again. He now offers to come by His Spirit and live within us. This can happen if we accept the fact that we are separated from God, believe that Jesus was punished in our place, turn from our own way of living, and give our lives to Jesus.  At this point we will be reunited with God forever.  We will be as adopted children to God. We will be part of His eternal kingdom. He will be our King and we will live the way He wants us to live.

Personally, I am not a Christian because of all the benefits Jesus offers me. I am a follower of Jesus because I have come to know that He is the central truth of the universe. I have therefore no other logical choice but to follow Jesus.

The claims that the Bible makes concerning who Jesus is and what He said are great. It is either the truth or one tremendous lie. Therefore you should seriously consider these issues and what they mean to you.

I leave you with one question. What will you do with Jesus and His claims?