Answer
There are countless reasons to believe in Jesus. Many of us start on our journey of faith because we need something that Jesus can give us. We need help, hope, healing, or joy. Our lives are falling apart, and we want answers, solutions. But there’s one critical reason to believe in Jesus that underlies all others, and that is to bring us into right relationship with God. Reconciliation with God is the remedy for all that’s wrong with us and the resolution for everything we need.
Why did Jesus come to earth? Why did He die on the cross? He came and did all that He did to bring us into a relationship with God the Father: “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19, NLT).
Mending our broken relationship with God is the primary point of Christian salvation. The Bible says that all of us have a problem—it’s called sin (Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8). Because we are born into this world as sinners (Psalm 51:5), we are separated from God and on a path that leads to eternal destruction.
But God loves us and wants to be in relationship with us. He wants to save us from destruction and give us everlasting life: “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him” ( 1 John 4:9, NLT).
Jesus’ death on the cross paid the full price for our sin: “He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world” (1 John 2:2). Jesus satisfied the debt we owed and took the punishment we deserved (Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter 1:18–19; 1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; Romans 6:23). When Christ rose from the dead, He conquered death for us (Revelation 1:18; Hebrews 2:14; John 3:16). We don’t have to die, because Christ died for us.
The only way to be forgiven of sin and restored to God is to repent and believe in Jesus (Acts 2:38; 17:30; Mark 1:4; Luke 13:3). Jesus is the only way to the Father (1 Timothy 2:5). In John 14:6–7, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.”
God longs to connect with us in an intimate friendship. When we believe in Jesus, we become children of God: “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12, ESV). When we believe in Jesus, we receive access to God’s holy presence to comfort, protect, lead, and guide us (Ephesians 2:13, 18; 3:11–12; Hebrews 4:16). He teaches us and speaks to us through His Word (Psalm 119:105) and enables us to live for Him by the power of His Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 2:10–13; John 14:26).
When we believe in Jesus, we receive the greatest gift of all—the salvation of our soul (1 Peter 1:8–9). And this gift is free. We can’t do anything to earn it. We don’t deserve it, but He gives it to us anyway: “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it” (Ephesians 2:8–9, NLT).
Believing in Jesus opens up our hearts to experience a love like no other—the kind of love that is willing to sacrifice and die for us (John 10:11; Romans 5:8). God’s love is the strongest and most profound love ever known, and nothing will ever separate us from it (Romans 8:35–39).
Believing in Jesus and having a relationship with God sets us free from our old life of guilt, shame, and sin (John 8:36; Romans 8:2). Only through Christ can we experience the satisfaction our souls long for: “For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things” (Psalm 107:9, ESV).
When we enter into a right relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, we learn who we were created to be and discover the true purpose of our lives: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10, ESV; see also Philippians 3:8–10).
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