Always Be Ready

As believers in Jesus it's important to know what we believe and why we believe it in order to answer the questions that are doubtless, going to come our way. The Apostle Peter told us; "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;" (1st Peter 3:15)

I'd bet that when most people ask Jesus into their hearts and lives they don't realize much more than that they're sinners and that Jesus is their Savior. We have to know more than those two very truthful statements though, if we want to grow in our walk with Christ. There are some important doctrines that we believe as Christians. It's up to us to learn these truths if we want to grow.

The Bible tells us that we are created in the image of God. God created a perfect world for us to live in. In the Garden of Eden, from the dust of the earth God created Adam, the first man. From Adam's rib God created the first woman, Eve. As God's creation we are all descended from Adam and Eve. This is a truth, a doctrine if you will, of the Bible.

So what of the Bible itself? We as believers trust it to be the inerrant Word of God, which was given to us by His Holy inspiration. What this means is that even though the sixty-six books were written by men, beginning with Moses and ending with the Apostle John, their writing was inspired by God. I like the NIV rendering of 2nd Timothy 3:16,17: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." "God-breathed." God guided these men in what they wrote by the power of the Holy Spirit. The writing is very honest. The writers never shy from presenting their own blemishes in all their glory. The Bible is the Word of God that He wanted us to know, to know Him.

The Bible is about our God. There isn't a fast or large enough computer hard drive to contain all of the experiences and beliefs that we as Christians have with and about God. It will have to be sufficient to say for now that we believe in one God, who is three persons; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These three persons we refer to as the "Triune God," the "Trinity" or the "Godhead." While the word Trinity doesn't appear in the Bible, the reality of our Triune God is revealed throught he course of the Scriptures. The three persons of the Trinity seem to work separately from each other, but we have to remember that God is omnipresent, everywhere at once. When you know that, you can understand how He can be with us right now in the form of the Holy Spirit and as Jesus while He walked on the earth and also be in Heaven in the form of the Father. I would advise doing a detailed study of the persons of the Godhead, because it is one doctrinal belief that is questioned a lot. (See John 14:16,17 and 23)

We accept the name "Christian" when we become one. It comes with the territory because Jesus was the "Christ," meaning He was the anointed one of God. Jesus is God's Son and part of the Trinity. What that means to us is that God planned from the beginning and in fact did come to this earth in the form of a man and went willingly to die on a wooden cross and take the punishment we deserved. John the Baptist referred to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. That Jesus died and rose from the dead is central to our faith. If He had not done that work for us, we would be spiritually dead and we would have no hope of Heaven, lost in our sin. Oxford scholar and Christian writer C.S. Lewis said that people have three choices when it comes to Jesus. He was either a lunatic, a liar or He was the Lord. The choice must be made by the one asking us the questions, we just need to depend on the Holy Spirit for the answers.

The Holy Spirit is often referred to as the third person of the Trinity. He is fully God and it's He who comes to inhabit the believer from the moment we ask Jesus to be our Savior. The Holy Spirit indwells us to guide us into truth and to enable us to "run the race" and carry on the ministry of Jesus Christ as we sojourn through this life on earth before we go to our Heavenly home to live in worship of God. It's through the Holy Spirit's guidance that we are able to interpret Scripture and learn what God has for us in His Word. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would be given to believers. In Acts chapter 2, we see the Holy Spirit come upon the believers, a fulfillment of the promise Jesus made to His disciples in John 7:37-39. What a gift to sinners like us.

Yes, we are sinners. The Bible tells us in Romans 3:23 that, "...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." We as Christians believe that because of one man (Adam) sin entered the perfect world that God created and contaminated it, bringing death with it. We might not like the idea that we're sinners, but each generation after Adam, right up to the present one was born into sin. In other words, though the body has life, we are born dead spiritually. We believe that that is why Jesus had to come. No one else could take away our sin. Only He could bring us salvation.

Salvation is the issue when people are talking to us about why we believe what we do. We're supposed to share with others what has been given to us and if we have the love of Christ in our hearts we will want to share it. The Bible tells us that Jesus died once, for all, so that all may be saved. The Bible also tells us that salvation may be found in no other than the person of Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 2:8-10 it tells us we can't work our way to Heaven. We can't charm our way into salvation and we can't lie our way into it. What we have to do is submit to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith and believe in our hearts that Jesus died for us. We must confess our sins to Him and give ourselves to Him as living sacrifices, that we may be forgiven and enter into eternal fellowship with, and worship of Him. This is not only what we must do, it is what we are freely given to do.

So I encourage you to take this information, share it and freely give what we have been given, and walk, and learn and grow.

Peace in His name.