This is the second half of the story of Peter walking on water (Found in Matthew 14:25-33). In my first post, I discussed Peter’s act of stepping out in faith to walk on water with Jesus. This act has made him an example of incredible faith, and he has been admired throughout the ages for this. But Peter was human just like you and I, and he struggled the same way we struggle in our daily walk of faith. He faced the same challenges we do, and they caused him to fail. Even with his incredible faith, he made the same critical mistake we often do. He looked at the waves.

Jesus called to Peter and he stepped out of the boat onto the waves. I often imagine what must have been going through his head at the time. When he began walking on the water I’m sure his spirit soared as he saw it his faith becoming reality. It must have been so thrilling to walk on water, and I’m sure the other disciples were cheering him on from the boat.

I have a feeling that at first he was probably holding onto the boat, knowing he could always jump back in if things went downhill. Then he started walking towards Jesus and away from the boat. I can picture him getting further away and suddenly doubt started coming into his mind. It was all good and well when he was next to the boat, but without any safety to go back to his life was really on the line. He looked around him and the wind was blowing, the waves were rising, and he realized he was in a very dangerous place.

His unwavering faith faded as his confidence was drowned out by the roaring ocean. His eyes left Jesus and moved to his surroundings. His mind lost its focus on where he was going and was caught up in the fray around him. What was originally an adventure turned into a life-threatening disaster. His faith faded, and he started to sink. He cried out for Jesus to save him, and a hand immediately grabbed him and pulled him up. Jesus turned to Peter and asked why he doubted.

As always, Jesus had a very good point. Peter was with Jesus, the son of God. He was with a man who had healed multitudes. He was with a man who could raise the dead. He knew who Jesus was and that no harm would befall him with his savior and friend nearby. His faith was strong enough to step out of the boat. He was walking on water for crying out loud. This is no small thing. All that he knew should have reminded him that he was safe.

Faith is not circumstantial. God does not change. He is the same God whether the waves are rough or calm. He has the same power whether the wind is howling or a gentle breeze.

Peter knew all this, but he looked at the waves and the wind. He let his focus shift onto the circumstances, and this let doubt come in. He was no less safe, but he FELT less secure. And this feeling was enough to make him sink. It’s not the wind or the waves that nearly made him drown. No amount of wind and waves could have pulled him under with Jesus by his side. It’s his own fear and doubt that could have drowned him. In effect, he was causing himself to drown.

It’s the same way when we step out in faith. When circumstances rise up against us and we feel the weight of the world pressing down on us, God is no less God. When things don’t go like we thought they would, God is no less good. God is the same, whether our lives work out perfectly, or it feels like our lives are crashing down around us. God is the same whether he does a miracle or chooses not to. God is the same even when we can’t see him. When we feel fear and doubt rising up all around us, we are no less secure. No matter what the storms of life throw our way, no matter how much we are tossed around in the waves, we can’t let it compromise our faith. There will always be struggles. There will always be uncertainties in our lives. We have to hold onto the one thing that is certain. We have to hold onto that faith and keep looking to God. We have to keep walking towards Jesus in spite of the raging waters. There will always be waves. The only thing we can control is how we deal with them. The only thing we can do is hold fast in our faith, or drown in our own doubts. This alone will determine if we walk on the water or drown in doubt.

This is in response to the comment on my last post by Brad. He brought up the issue of Jesus being the answer to our salvation, and the one way to a relationship with God. I hope this will shed some light on the issue. I’ll start with Jesus’ own words from John 14: 6-7:

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

To try to oversimplify it, the reason Jesus is the one true way to God goes back the the whole story of salvation. Man sinned. The sin separated us from God’s presence. Jesus came to earth and died in our place. He took on the punishment for our sins so we could be free of the guilt and separation from God if we accept that salvation. God now sees those of us who have accepted salvation as clean and worthy of a relationship with him.

The way I see it, we wouldn’t be allowed to appear before a King if we were covered in blood and manure. It would make the palace reek and probably stain the carpets. But if we were taken in and washed clean, with fine garments put on our shoulders and a spiffy new haircut, we would be fit to be in the presence of the King. Jesus’ sacrifice was the only thing that could remove our sins from us and therefore make us worthy of knowing God. His life and example showed us the path to reach God and bridged the gap that separated us from his presence.

In the temple of Jerusalem there was once a thick curtain separating the most holy place where God’s spirit was from the rest of the temple. Only the highest priests were allowed to sometimes enter this place. When Jesus died, that curtain was torn in two, allowing anyone to enter God’s presence. This was a physical manifestation, symbolic of what Jesus had done for us.

I hope this helps to understand the issue a bit better. Thanks for the comment, and feel free to post other questions in the future.

You are probably familiar with the story of Jesus and Peter walking on water. This is so much more than a simple story of yet another one of the miracles of Jesus. We see Peter responding to the call of Jesus and stepping out of the comfort and safety of the boat, onto the crashing waves of uncertainty. It is a lesson and a tangible example of someone going through the same process of faith that we go through in our lives today. This story is found in Matthew Chapter 14.

Matthew 14: 25-33 (NIV):

During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

When the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water towards them, they didn’t recognize him. He came to be with them but they weren’t expecting him or looking for him. When Jesus called out to them, Peter was quick to hear and respond. He listened for the voice of Jesus over the commotion and fear of his companions. When Jesus called him to walk on the water, Peter knew it was him. Now Peter had to make the decision as to whether he would follow.

This decision is probably the most crucial moment and the biggest dilemma we face in active faith. We have that moment when our faith is tested. We look at all the options, weigh what God is saying and discern that it really is his voice. This process takes so much prayer because we need to be sure it is really God’s voice and not our own thoughts. Once we know the word is from God, we have to decide if we will take that step and obey or stay right where we are. This place of wavering is probably the most agonizing part of the whole process.

In the boat he was safe and secure. He had friends around him and his feet were firmly planted. Everyone had faith in the stability of the boat, and that’s where they stayed. In the water he would die unless Jesus held him up, but he had the faith to trust Jesus with his life. So he stepped out on faith. He stepped out from his comfort zone and into the water where the only thing he had was his faith. It made no logical sense to do this. It was unknown what would happen. I’m sure it was scary, but he knew it was the right thing. That faith alone carried him over the edge and onto the waves.

Many times in our walk with God, he will ask us to step out in faith. He may ask us to do something that doesn’t make logical sense. He may ask us to do things that are hard and uncomfortable. He may ask you to leave a church, leave a job, move to a new place, or change your entire career. We are often called out of the place we feel at home and secure. God calls us out to do his work, and we can’t do that within our comfort zones. There is a big world out there that needs him, and we won’t do much good safely nestled within the walls of our churches and small circles of friends

Stepping out on faith may be the first and most important part of the process, but it’s not the end of it. We have to live out our faith and stand strong, even in the face of the wind and the waves. This is where the rest of the story comes in. I will go into this in the next half of this post.

Jonah was one of the greatest evangelists in the history of the world. He spoke to a Godless nation and brought the entire country to its knees. He changed the course of history and saved over 120,000 people from total annihilation. But most of us only know him as the guy who was swallowed by a whale. So what is it about this great man that caused him to be renowned not for his greatness, but for his shameful disobedience? His story is found in the book of Jonah.

Jonah was a prophet, and his job was to hear God and deliver his words to the people. God gave him profound words that would change people’s lives. He was sort of like the Dr. Phil or Oprah of his time. Things were going great for him until one day God told him he wanted Jonah to go preach to the people of Nineveh. Now these were not friendly people towards God, and in fact God was so fed up with them he was about ready to wipe their whole country off the face of the earth. But he offered them a chance to redeem themselves and ask for his forgiveness. And the person to pass on this critical message was Jonah. This was a scary thing for God to ask him to do. It would be like a Christian going into a huge mosque in the middle of Iraq and yelling, “Hey everyone, my God is going to destroy you all if you don’t repent and bow down and worship him…uhh.. Jesus loves you!” You can probably imagine how awkward that might be.

So Jonah had a tough choice to make. He could either trust God and put his life on the line, or disobey him. And he chose to do one of the dumbest things anyone in the Bible ever did. He decided to run from God. He hopped on a boat headed for Tarshish, which was about as far in the opposite direction from Nineveh as you could go. Why he thought he could actually run away from an all powerful, all knowing being who can be anywhere baffles me. Naturally he didn’t get very far.

God sent a huge violent storm to batter his ship and the crew was afraid it would be torn apart. They called Jonah to come pray for them. Instead of doing his prophetic duties of praying for the survival of himself and the crew, he was sleeping below deck. They basically rolled dice to figure out why this storm was happening (this was common practice at the time) and God used this to point out Jonah as the problem. So the crew pulled him out of bed and asked him who he was and what he had done to make God so angry with him. After explaining his story he did the first noble thing he had done in a while. He told them to throw him overboard so they wouldn’t be destroyed along with him. When they tossed him off the boat, the sea calmed down, and all the sailors believed in God.

But God didn’t let Jonah die that way. A huge fish came along and swallowed him whole. Many speculate as to what kind of sea creature this was, but due to the scientific advancements of its time, if it swam in the water and was big, it was a big fish. What really matters is there was enough room and air in it to carry him along for 3 days in a sort of disgusting underwater prison cell. And while he was in this cold, dark place, he had a lot of time to think. There in the depths of the ocean he changed his heart and turned back to God. He surrendered and decided to stop running from him and do what he asked. And after he had decided to go and do what God asked of him, the fish vomited him up onto dry land. And this time, he headed on his way to Nineveh… probably shortly after a much needed bath.

When he got to Nineveh, he started preaching the message God had given him. He boldly proclaimed in the streets that God would be destroying the city in forty days. To his surprise, the Ninevites believed him and repented. The king himself took off his royal robes and clothed himself in sackcloth and ashes. He declared a nationwide fast and asked everyone to pray for mercy from God. The whole nation fell on their knees and came to God, and God forgave them and spared them from destruction.

This was a happy ending, but Jonah wasn’t happy. In fact he was really angry because he wanted to see God completely wipe out Nineveh. He found a nice place where he could get a good view of the city and he sat down waiting for its destruction. And God had one more lesson to teach him. God caused a vine to grow up overnight to give him shade and make him more comfortable, and he was really happy about this. Then God sent a worm to kill the vine and a scorching wind to make him really uncomfortable. And Jonah was miserable and angry again. God asked him if he had any right to be so upset over a vine that grew up overnight, and Jonah said yes. God pointed out that if Jonah had a right to be so concerned with a little vine, God had a right to be concerned with a great city with hundreds of thousands of people in it. God showed him that it’s his choice to show mercy on whoever he wants to and forgive at his discretion.

Like most stories in the Bible, this one still applies to our lives today. While most of us will never be swallowed by a giant sea creature, many of us are a bit more like Jonah than we would like to admit. It makes a great story in itself, but what I found most important is the process Jonah went through before he could do amazing things for God. It’s a process most people go through before they do truly great things for God. Before God can really work through us, we have to get our own pride and stubbornness out of the way. This is a painful and difficult process for most of us to fully submit to God and trust him enough to do what he asks, even if it doesn’t make any sense in our own minds.

As always, God had a plan and a job for Jonah to do, but we all have free will. God won’t force our hand, but like any loving father, he will put us in time-out until we’re finished rebelling. Many of us go through the same struggle in our own lives. God calls us to do something, or even just to follow him, but we just aren’t on board with that. We’re too busy, too distracted, we have our own priorities that we put first, our own goals get in the way, or some of us just flat out refuse to obey. And we find ourselves in our own version of the belly of the whale. It’s cold, dark, lonely, hopeless, and everything feels like it’s completely unstable. But at least it doesn’t smell like rotting fish. And it’s in this place that we can change our hearts and change our very lives.

I personally believe that if Jonah had obeyed God in the first place, he could have avoided being whale bait altogether. If he had made the right choice and gone to Nineveh, he would be nowhere near the ocean or hungry whales. He could have been known as the man of amazing faith who stood up for God’s plan in spite of the danger. Instead, his faith is overshadowed by his example of how hard you can make your life if you don’t obey God. We have the same choice in our lives. Will we submit our will to God and do his will instead, or will we fight him on it? For many of us, this decision is the difference between doing things the easy way, or landing in our own personal prison until we get our priorities straight. Prison is not a fun place to be, but we often trap ourselves in our own prison by our own actions. If you are in a place in your life where nothing seems to go your way, where you feel trapped, forsaken, and you just don’t know where your life is going, you might already be there. Sometimes all we have to do to get out is to submit our hearts to God and let him work in us. When we lay down our pride, accept his help, and allow him to lead us in our lives, suddenly things start to change. When we surrender and stop fighting God, he can lead us out into the good things he has for us. We often find ourselves back on solid ground, stronger and wiser people. And only then are we ready to do the great things God has in store for us.

I plan to make this the first of a series of posts on the great heroes of the Bible. We grow up with their stories in Sunday School, and many people see them as almost fantastic fairytale figures. But the heroes in the Bible are very different than the heroes in most stories. They are surprisingly real and human. We get to see the good and the bad, the strengths and weaknesses. When we really look deeply into their lives and character, we can see just how normal and down to earth they really are. I plan to look at the good, the bad, and the pathetic sides of these men who were set out as examples of the faith.

The truth is, God doesn’t take heroes, he makes them. He doesn’t go to the biggest, strongest, most perfect and popular people. He takes the lowly, humble, and weak and raises them up to become the heroes we know and love. When Abraham found out his wife was barren, do you think he expected to be the father of a whole nation? When Joseph was sold as a slave to Egypt, he probably had no notion that he would one day be one of the most powerful men in the world. You can bet when Moses was born a little slave child, no one expected he would be raised as a prince of Egypt and eventually lead a whole nation. When David was a small shepherd boy out in the fields, I doubt he thought he would be single-handedly winning a war or becoming the king of the greatest nation of his time.

All the great heroes in the Bible had just one single thing in common. There was just one trait that made them all destined for greatness. One quality made these total losers able to become some of the greatest figures in history. They all had great faith. They earnestly sought God and knew him well. They were all willing to do whatever God wanted them to. That alone is the key to doing great things. That alone is the trait that separates the heroes from the losers. God can take anyone, from the least to the greatest, and change the world with them. All it takes is faith. The only limit to what God can do through you is how much you are willing to let him do.

Matthew 17:20: “… I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Someone once challenged me to show them ANY evidence that God exists. They were very confident I’d never find an answer to that one. I turned them to a mirror and said there’s your evidence. It’s as plain as the nose on your face. Actually it IS the nose on your face. It’s your hands, your feet, the world around you. You couldn’t be more wrong assuming there is no evidence of a God. You see, EVERYTHING is evidence that there must be a God.

I want to tell you a story. I was walking by a calculator factory when all of a sudden there was this huge explosion. In the midst of the blast, circuits and metals were fused together and formed a working cell phone. Sure it’s highly improbable, but it’s not impossible, right? While those of you who have seen my cell phone might actually believe this, the rest of you probably have some pretty serious doubts. And no, that’s not a true story. I actually just made all that up. You see, someone with a lot of knowledge and wisdom painstakingly designed and built this cell phone. It was created by an intelligent being with a purpose in mind: to drop all my calls and make strange noises.

You see, intelligent design implies an intelligent designer. If you were walking the beach and found a smiley face dug into the sand, your first inclination should be that someone drew it. If you even suggested that it just happened by wind, waves, or animals, people would say you were nuts. No matter how much you believed the theory that it happened by chance, it just wouldn’t hold up to logic. A scientist with the smiley face theory would quickly be the laughing stock of the scientific community. Such a theory must be completely thrown out and disregarded by the very rules of science. When you see something complex, like a cell phone, a computer, writing of any kind, or anything that logically couldn’t have been made by nature, you assume it must have been created by someone.

Strangely enough, much more illogical claims are the basis for scientific theories about where life and the world itself came from. Scientists teach that a single-celled organism slowly adapted through generations and gradually mutated into more and more complex organisms. Single cells do mutate and adapt, and MICRO Evolution is a real and true scientific phenomenon. Micro-Evolution is the adaptation of animals through natural selection to better fir their environment. You can see it in action when you look at how many different breeds of dogs there are. By selecting the right dogs to breed with others to bring out traits you like, you can eventually breed Chihuahuas until you have a Great Dane. But, you can’t breed rocks until you get a Chihuahua. That’s MACRO Evolution. Macro evolution states that a single cell came into being, mutated over billions of years to form more and more complex creatures, until it became human. But the theory of macro evolution breaks down before it even gets that far.

I don’t usually even bother to address evolution because quite frankly, it doesn’t matter one way or another. In order for a single cell to evolve, you need a single cell. In order for that cell to exist at all, live, and reproduce, you need a lot of components in play. Even the most simple of cells needs to have a way to eat, breathe, move, AND reproduce. Each function is done by different cellular systems, and each system is incredibly complex. Without ANY one of these systems, the cell would simply die. When you really learn your biology (as most scientists theoretically have), you learn just how complex a living cell is. The odds of even a single component of a cell to form on its own are practically nonexistent. When you put enough decimals behind a number such as 0.0000000000000 (on for about 20 pages) 00001, scientifically and mathematically, it is rounded down to zero. And even if in the billions of years it would take to chance upon a couple molecules coming together in the right order, they would be long gone by the time the next few billions of years came around to make more.

This all assumes that the essential elements of life are even present – and that there is a planet capable of sustaining life for them to be present on – and that there is a sun capable of holding such a planet in the delicate balance of its orbit to not burn up or freeze any life – and that there is any matter in the universe in the first place. So if you’re going to figure out how we exist without God, you’ve got some explaining to do.

I once had about a 5 hour long conversation with a hardcore Atheist who was sure science could explain away God. After I listened to theory after theory, and explained why each one didn’t hold up to logic, he finally gave up. So I asked him a very simple question. “If you grow up to be a great scientist and run test after test and to your dismay, all the scientific evidence tells you irrefutably that there must be a God, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what would you do?” He thought about it for a minute, and said, “Well, I would go on being an Atheist, cover up all the evidence, and make sure no one ever found out about it.” I replied, “Hmm, I wonder if anyone else has ever done that”. He didn’t say another word to me… ever.

Unfortunately that is the attitude behind the Atheist standpoint. When real science is used on the theories of creation without a creator, they just don’t hold any water. By the standards of science, the theory of evolution doesn’t hold up to its criteria for being accepted as fact. But, when you add a creator into the mix, it all suddenly and strangely makes sense. Of course a bunch of fried calculator circuitry couldn’t make a cell phone, but if you put a pile of materials in front of an electrician, he might be able to make something out of it. The phone would still be made from calculators, but the point is that it would be made.

Whether you choose to admit there is a God or not, whether you choose to follow him or ignore him, science itself points over and over again to the same conclusion. Everything you see around you is hard, solid evidence that there must be a God, beyond a shadow of a doubt. The only thing in question is what you will do with that knowledge.

I want to clear up a very common misconception that seems to cause the downfall of multitudes of Christians and non-Christians alike. God is NOT Santa Clause. While that sounds like a ridiculous claim in the first place, time and time again I learn that people have turned away from God for not living up to their fairy tale expectations.

A lot of people think that being a Christian is about being good. You dress your best, go to church, smile the whole time, stay awake through the service, be nice to everyone, and go home. You’ve done your good deed for the week and now you can rest assured that your week will go perfectly the way you want it. Then when you want something, you pray to God and he gives it to you because you want it and you’re on his good list. You keep this up your whole life and keep doing your good deeds, and you get on the eternal “nice list” which gets you into heaven. But that’s not how God works at all. That’s Santa Clause.

Have you ever seen those terribly formulaic Santa Clause movies that play over and over during Christmas time? There is always one character (often the bad guy) who hates Christmas, or just doesn’t believe in Santa Clause. It’s usually because one Christmas when he was a child, he was good with all his heart, but he didn’t get that toy that he wanted so badly. He was met with such horrible heartbreak to learn that Santa had betrayed him and denied him what he really wanted. His heart turned bitter and spiteful and he shut out his faith in Santa Clause. He took it even further and became a regular Scrooge, ruining Christmas for everyone. People do the same thing to God for the same reason, all the time.

I can’t tell you how many people I have met who fell away from their faith when something happened that they didn’t believe a good God would allow. I’ve met people who turned their disappointment into outright hatred towards God and his people. I’ve met hardcore Aetheists whose goal in life is to disprove the existence of a God who couldn’t possibly be real, because he didn’t give them what they wanted. I’ve talked to Satanists who dedicated their lives to warring against God because he let bad things happen to them.

You will find plenty of places in the Bible saying that if you follow God, he will take care of you, he will look out for your best interests, he will guide your steps, and will never leave you. NOWHERE in the Bible will it say that he will do exactly what YOU want. I heard a saying once that said God doesn’t give you what you want, he gives you what you would want if you knew what he knows.

When you pray to God, sometimes he doesn’t say yes. It’s not because he doesn’t love you. It’s not because he doesn’t want the best for you. It’s BECAUSE he loves you that he doesn’t give you what YOU want. He gives you what’s best for you. We as humans think we have it all together. We think we know what’s best for us, but our knowledge is so limited to what’s immediately around us. God sees the future and he sees what’s truly best for us in the bigger picture. Often the very thing we want the most will absolutely destroy us. Sometimes the painful and hard road is the only path that will take us where we need to go.

I have often been asked, if God is really just, how could he have ordered Christians to go wage war on innocent people during the Crusades? If God is really loving, how could he have had people tortured during the Spanish Inquisition? If Jesus is the only way to heaven, how could you buy your way out of Hell with indulgences in the early Catholic Church? If God is really one God, how could there be so many denominations with so many differing ideas on who God is?

The answer to all these questions is that this isn’t God you’re seeing. It’s people. God speaks through his people and works through them. He gives people words to say and leads them in actions that change the world for the better. But we all have free will, and there is always room for error in those who aren’t strongly rooted in God.

Somewhere along the way, people started realizing that huge numbers of people would follow God and do anything he says. Leaders in the Church were seen as God’s mouthpiece and the masses believed every word of theirs was directly from God. Some people started using this to mislead people and get them to do their will, not God’s will.

They sent armies who had the best intentions to do God’s will to invade other countries for their own financial gain. They tortured and killed people who opposed them, even true Christians who saw their evil intentions. They sold get out of Hell free cards to make some spending money. They came up with new ideas and formed new doctrines for the sake of their own pride, and argued them until it split the church because they couldn’t admit they were wrong.

Unfortunately, there are many churches even today where the human side is in control, and God takes a back seat role. Some churches have no room for God in the midst of all their religion. Religion is a human institution, not God’s commandment, not God’s heart. He desires us to be free to worship him, and he wants us to be flexible enough to let him work in our churches and in our lives. If we’re not willing to let him in, there’s no point of even having our churches. If we can’t meet God in church, we have no business meeting there at all. Some churches are really starting to catch on to this, but so many are still so lost and deluded. God is changing this and removing the human nature from its seat of power in the church. Only when this is complete will we really start to see churches walking in the power and grace God has for them.

I love the song, “Sea of Faces” by Kutless. It’s about how amazing it is that God would love each of us so much he would sacrifice his own beloved son for us. It still touches me to know that even though I’m just one in the multitudes of people of this world, he still cares individually enough for just me that he would die for me.

Kutless Sea of Faces

Sea of Faces:

I see the city lights all around me
Everyone’s obscure
Ten million people each with their problems
Why should anyone care

And in Your eyes I can see
I am not just a man, vastly lost in this world
Lost in a Sea of Faces
Your body’s the bread, Your blood is the wine
Because you traded Your life for mine

Sometimes my life it feels so trivial
Immersed in the greatness of space
Yet somehow you still find the time for me
It’s then You show me Your love

And In Your eyes I can see
And in Your arms I will be
I am not just a man, vastly lost in this world
Lost in a Sea of Faces
Your body’s the bread, Your blood is the wine
Because you traded Your life for mine

If only my one heart
Was all you’d gain from all it cost
Well I know you would have still been a man
With a reason
To willingly offer your life

I am not just a man, vastly lost in this world
Lost in a Sea of Faces
Your body’s the bread, Your blood is the wine
Because you traded Your life for mine

Just one in a million faces

Probably the most popular and well known verse in the Bible is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life.” This is really the cornerstone of the Christian faith, and the story of salvation summed up very concisely.

The story of salvation is basically: God created man to be in a relationship with him. Man sinned against God and was separated from him. Jesus came to earth and gave his life to die on a cross to take away our sins. By accepting his sacrifice to atone for our sins, we can be united with God in heaven.

The whole Bible outlines the story of salvation. In the beginning of the world, God created the first humans, Adam and Eve, and placed them in the Garden of Eden. In this lush paradise they walked with God on a personal basis and had a close relationship with him. He only gave them one command: don’t eat the fruit from a certain tree. They disobeyed God and ate from the tree, hoping to become like God. When this happened, sin entered the world and severed their relationship with God. As a result they couldn’t live in the garden with God anymore and were sent out into the world.

This spiritual separation from God was a natural consequence of sin. God abides by his own rules which require sacrifice in atonement for sins. One teacher of mine pointed out that when someone hurts another person, they will often do something to show they are sorry and want to repair that relationship. That’s the basic premise behind sacrifice in the Bible.

God still wanted a close relationship with people, and still loved them deeply. So much that he sent his son, Jesus, to take on human form and walk the earth with us. He allowed him to die on a cross (the most painful kind of death of its time) as a sacrifice to take the sins of all mankind away.

From that point on, anyone who accepts him as their savior and accepted his sacrifice as atonement for our sins could have a personal relationship with God. Those who have been saved by Jesus and know God are allowed to enter heaven for all eternity after they die.

This is the basis of salvation and the core of Christianity. There is much more to it than that, and much more to living a Christian life than simply accepting your salvation. Some people never go further than just accepting Christ as their savior, and make it to heaven without really doing anything of consequence on this earth. But God desires for us to be so much more than just another person in this world.