Why jesus

He is also fully human like us in every way, except for sin which would make him less than human. He taught that he came to bring "life and life to the full" John 10,10 to anyone who accepts him. On the cross he makes up for the selfishness of others with his selfless sacrifice of obedient love and he also apologizes to his Father for the infinite offence which sin gives to Divine Goodness. When he rose from the dead he began a whole new life for human beings in God's grace.

Those who belong to him in the Church through baptism are redeemed from original sin and born again as true children of God. Ultimately it is through Jesus that those who love him will see God as he really is and become utterly like him, so we can live the life of heaven together with Jesus in the indescribable joy of the Holy Spirit, which is what God the Father wants for us.

Science doesn't disprove God, in fact it points to God as the Mind behind the cosmos. Science shows that the human mind can investigate and interpret the material world according to patterns There is something about human beings that is above and beyond the animal instincts that program them to live in their environment.

Having spiritual souls means that we have free will. We are not bound to do what is good for us by instinct. This also means that we can refuse to do what is good.

When I was a young Christian in the early 70s sporting regulation Jesus-person bib overalls and hair down to my shoulders, I wore a hip necklace identifying me as a Christian. The pendant consisted of two intersecting arcs with lines on one side extending past the junction point as tails, forming the simple silhouette of a fish. You can still see it on bumper stickers or in ads for businesses run by Christians.

The adornment was de rigueur— the current fashion—for hippies who got religion during the Jesus Movement. It was also a convenient novelty piece, sparking conversations with inquisitive strangers. The acrostic also serves as a handy summary of the basic theology essential to the Christian understanding of Jesus of Nazareth.

He was no mere mortal, though. The second is a theological title—and sounds that way. Instead, I want them to begin their thinking about Jesus the way His original audience first encountered Him—as a man, a genuine human being.

This is an obvious point, of course, but one that is often missed. But that must not eclipse something else equally important: He is one of us.

As I have written elsewhere:. Though conceived by a miracle, Jesus still entered the world through labor and blood and pain, like all children. He grew as we all do—through joy and sadness, compassion and anger, rest and weariness, delight and suffering, friendship and betrayal. All that is true of our essential humanity, and all that we experience—all that we desire, all that we dream; all that discourages us, all that delights us, all that disappoints us; all our hungers and hopes and distresses—all are true of Jesus.

He is like us. The true, complete, authentic humanity of Jesus was not a mere creative flourish by God, though. It could be no other way. For one, to die for us, Jesus needed to be alive like us. He needed to be like us to save us. Since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

Second, in our own misery we are naturally drawn to others who have shared in misery. They understand. They know. Better, they might be able to help, given the struggle they share in common with us. Jesus faced the same trials, the same temptations, the same testings we all do, yet never was defeated. He is a strong friend, a bigger brother, a capable champion always there by our side. The humanity of Jesus is not merely a stray point of religious doctrine.

If those founders are fictions, the teachings remain with full force. Not so with Jesus. Take Jesus out of Christianity and Christianity disappears. Some suggest that nothing meaningful is surrendered if Jesus never existed since the marvelous story is still intact. The Apostle Paul disagreed. Everything essential to your convictions about Christ relies on Jesus being a genuine man of history. It is not surprising, then, that so much ink has been spilt to deny it.

It is a fact of history that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and buried and that on the third day his tomb was found empty. Skeptics have tried to explain the empty tomb ever since. The earliest explanation was that while the soldiers guarding his tomb slept, the disciples stole the body of Jesus Matthew But how would sleeping guards know the identity of the thieves?

How could the disciples convince five hundred people that the corpse they stole was alive? And why would these disciples then die for what they knew to be a lie? But how would they overpower the guards? How would they make a corpse look alive? Why would they suffer and die for such a fabrication? A third explanation is that the authorities stole the body. Then, when the misguided disciples found an empty tomb, they announced a risen Lord.

But why would the authorities steal the body they had stationed guards to watch? A fourth approach is the wrong tomb theory—the grief-stricken women and apostles went to the wrong tomb, found it empty, and began announcing that Jesus had risen from the grave.

But the women saw where he was buried Matthew ; Joseph of Arimathea would have corrected the error Matthew ; and the authorities would have gone to the correct tomb and produced the corpse.

According to this view, Jesus did not actually die on the cross. He or his followers bribed the medical examiner to pronounce him dead, then he revived in the tomb and appeared to be resurrected.

But how did he survive burial clothes which would have suffocated him? How did he shove aside the stone and overpower the guards? How did he appear through walls John , 26 and ascend to heaven Acts ? There is only one reasonable explanation for the empty tomb, the changed lives of the disciples, and the overnight explosion of the Christian movement upon the world stage: Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

The resurrection shows us that Jesus is God and Lord. But nearly all religions possess books that make such claims. Is there objective evidence that the Bible is really true? The original manuscripts do not exist for any book written before the fourth century of the Christian era. We do not have the original writings of Plato, Aristotle, Tacitus, or any other ancient writer.

Books in their era were written on materials that did not survive the passage of time. But we have copies, some in fragments and others in complete book form.

Those who work on the texts of the Old and New Testaments believe that the Bible we possess today is virtually identical to the original manuscripts. The only questions that remain affect matters of spelling, punctuation, and isolated verses. None relates to faith practices or essential doctrines.

The Old Testament contains more than fifty promises regarding the Messiah to come. Jesus fulfilled every one of them. The Bible clearly keeps its promises. Objective evidence says that you can trust the Bible. But the best way to know if it is true is to test its claims personally. You know a car repair manual can be trusted if it works in repairing your car. A cookbook is proven by the meals it produces. When you meet Jesus personally, you will discover that he is who the Bible says he is.

We can believe that Jesus existed, that he is divine, and that the Bible is trustworthy. But what makes Jesus the only way to God, as he claimed John ?

We believe that the Holocaust and were objectively wrong. Objective truth is an intellectual and practical necessity in life. If any one of these religions is right, the others must be wrong.

None believes that other religions are equally correct or divinely inspired. The holy writings that the various world religions trust do not describe different paths up the same mountain but very different mountains. No other faith rests on historical evidence as compelling as that which exists for Christianity.

No other religious leader was raised from the dead; no other ancient religious book possesses the kind of manuscript, archaeological, and prophetic evidence which the Bible can claim. If Jesus is alive, then he is Lord and God. And we can trust him to be our Lord and our God. My sins must be punished, my debt paid.

This is why Jesus came: to die in our place, taking our punishment on himself see Isaiah , No one else in all of human history has done this or could do it. Every other person has sinned so that they owed their own debt to God.

Only Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life Hebrews so he had no debt to pay. He could die for us, taking our place and purchasing our salvation. He then rose from the dead to prove his divinity and to show us that we would live after death with him in paradise John You need Jesus in your life so that your sins can be forgiven and you can spend eternity in heaven.

He is the only one who can give you this gift. If you believe that Jesus is the risen Lord and his word is true, you are ready to meet him personally. You can now open the gift of salvation he died to give you. These are the biblical facts that make it possible for you to have a personal relationship with God:.

He created you and wants to have a personal relationship with you now on earth and eternally in heaven John ; Ephesians We have each made this mistake Romans Our sins have now separated us from our holy God, and he cannot allow us into his perfect heaven.

Instead, we are each destined for an eternity separated from God in hell Revelation But the Bible teaches that the only payment for sin is death Romans ; Ezekiel Someone must die for the sins we have committed. Since Jesus was sinless and owed no debt to God, his death could pay for our sins.

He took our place on the cross and suffered the penalty we deserved. His death now makes it possible for a righteous God to forgive our sins and offer us salvation Romans ; 2 Corinthians ; 1 Peter Now you must choose to trust in what Jesus has done for you rather than trusting in your own efforts to restore your relationship with God. In faith, rely completely on Jesus to make you right with God.

Confess your sins and mistakes to God and choose to live by his word and will. Decide that you will make Jesus the Lord and Master of your life. There is no single prayer you must pray to become a Christian—no magic formula—but the following words are one way to trust Christ as Lord.