I suppose it’s a classic teenage response: “So what?” But actually we all do it sometimes. Someone tells us something, but we can’t see what we’re supposed to do about it.
In church we were recently thinking about a four point summary of the message of Jesus – the good news or gospel. This summary is found in a booklet called Knowing God Personally and we’re having a little series of posts to think a bit further about each of the four points. At this point in the series, you might be thinking: “So what?”
We’ve seen that God created us to know him, but our sin not only spoiled his world, but also broke that relationship with him and left us facing his judgement and hell. But God sent his Son, Jesus, to save us, i.e. to die on the cross in our place taking the punishment for our sin, so that we could be forgiven.
A Choice to Believe
And the answer to the question – so what? – is that we must all respond to that offer of salvation and relationship with God. Perhaps the most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16 NIV)
It explains what God has done for us in Jesus, but notice that we have to respond. The good news is only good news for “whoever believes in him.” To believe or trust in Jesus is to accept that we are sinners who need to turn from that sin towards our Saviour – Jesus. It is to trust that if we rely on Jesus death for our sin then that (and only that) means God will completely forgive us and our relationship with him will be restored. And it is to accept that Jesus is now the Lord or King of our lives. If we don’t believe in Jesus, then we implicitly think we are in charge of our lives, but when we trust in Jesus, then we accept that he should be in charge not us.
A Prayer to Pray
The important thing to see here is that this is a choice we have to make. Either we will believe or we won’t. If we want to choose to follow Jesus we can express that by praying a simple prayer (prayer is speaking with God and doesn’t need to be in fancy words or even said out loud). You can use your own words, or you can see an example in the booklet Knowing God Personally. You will want to ask to know God, say sorry for your sin, thank God for sending Jesus to die for you and ask God to help you make Jesus your Lord and Saviour.
A Promise of Relationship
If you do that, then Jesus promises that God will come into your life – which is a pretty amazing promise!
Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” (John 14:23 NIV)
And when you’re believing in Jesus, you can know you’re a Christian. If you’ve made that step, we’d love to hear from you, so we can encourage you in your new faith and if you’re local we’d love to meet you and encourage you to come along Rochdale Evangelical Church.