The Way to Eternity
What Must I Know?
2. The Answer
To find or return to God we need a mediator, someone who will bring about a reconciliation between us and God. The one great mediator is Jesus of Nazareth, who is called the Son of God. We can find out about him in the New Testament Scriptures, but the one who can bring us the true understanding of who Jesus is and what he has done is God's Holy Spirit. So it is that God can bring us back to himself, but not against our will. We have to
have the desire, the willingness and then be open to the Holy Spirit. He will guide us and bring us to an understanding of the truth. We have to be open to that inner prompting and allow ourselves to be led into a knowledge of the Scriptures, and particularly of the redeeming love of Jesus.
On our journey of faith we have to begin by believing that God is good, and that in his love for us he wants to build a lasting relationship with us. If our desire is for that goodness, then the Holy Spirit will reveal to us the character and purpose of Jesus, who is essential for the building of that relationship. Our journey to God and to his kingdom is a step by step progression. Each stage of that journey brings a revelation of an essential truth which opens up the next step of the journey. Eventually we come to find God, not just as a possibility, but as a reality.
The Holy Spirit leads us to Jesus, and specifically to the death of Jesus. Jesus was crucified. He was nailed to a cross, and there with terrible suffering he bled and died. The significant fact about Jesus in this context is that his life was without any sin. Innocent of any wrongdoing, he did nothing to defend himself and went willingly to his death. This was a truly sacrificial death, made potentially on behalf of all mankind, and specifically for those who believe in him, and confess and repent of their wrong-doing. Then, seeking his forgiveness, they must be willing to forgive those who have wronged them. Wrong-doing must be punished. God's perfect justice demands it. Jesus on the Cross was taking that punishment for all of us. He was our substitute, bearing instead of us the consequences of our sins. Our forgiveness had to be paid for, and Jesus was the only one able (because he was sinless) and willing to pay the price. We need to be willing to acknowledge our guilt, and be grateful for his act of redeeming love.
The death of Jesus has another aspect. As well as dealing with our guilt for all the sins which we confess, Jesus on the Cross also dealt with the on-going power of sin in our lives. The two things need to be distinguished. Forgiveness of sins does not deal with the underlying cause of sin, and this has to be dealt with too. We sin because we have a sinful nature, that is a continuing propensity to think, speak and behave badly. This sinful nature is in all of us and is a consequence of several factors. We have an innate propensity to wrong-doing, which is there because of our natural inheritance or genetic make-up coming from our parents and ancestors. It also results from the influence of the world around us. We learn from what people value and what they do, and we follow their example. What the world values, wealth, possessions, power, popularity and lustful pleasures become the things we prize but do not necessarily bring lasting satisfaction. There is a constant temptation to these things, which comes to us through the personified power of evil which we call Satan. All these influences enslave us to a lifestyle of wrong-doing, and their power within us has to be destroyed. Not only do we have to confess our sins, we have to renounce our sinful nature. This issue is also dealt with on the Cross, but the imagery is different. To ensure our forgiveness Jesus identifies with us, taking our sins upon himself. To break the power of sin we have to identify with Jesus. Identifying with Jesus on the Cross means that we can have this wayward nature of ours nailed to the Cross, put to death and rooted out from our lives.
Our identification with Jesus should be based on our recognition of his perfect goodness. His actions, teachings, lifestyle and relationships all mirrored that goodness. Our desire to be like Jesus in word and deed is because we want to know, experience and live in that goodness. We cannot do this on our own, no matter how hard we try. It is accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit, not just by coming alongside us to reveal the truth, but by working within us and living in our lives. We have to want it and put up no barriers against it. If so, the actual task of transforming our lives into the image of Jesus becomes an on-going process undertaken by the Holy Spirit as we allow him to work within us day by day.
This transformation has two aspects. There has to be a taking out of all that is evil, and there has to be the putting in of all that is good. We have seen how our sinful nature is dealt with as we identify with Jesus on the Cross and have it put to death. Now this identification must be continued in a positive vein. This means bringing into our lives the goodness of Jesus. We have to be born to a newness of life in which can develop all those things which are of Christ such as goodness, love, kindness, truth, beauty, justice and faithfulness. When we become born of the Spirit, this is the work that he starts within us, and it is a gradual and life-long experience.
Our new birth and consequent transformation into the likeness of Jesus begin now as we acknowledge and affirm our relationship with Jesus. This affirmation needs to be of what Jesus has done for us, on the Cross and in the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is also an affirmation of who Jesus is. A man, yes, but because of his sinless nature he also shares the divine nature and is called the Son of God. When we call him Lord we are acknowledging that he is of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is indeed our Lord and so merits our submission to him. Our desire should be to be worthy servants, learning our obedience from him, and bending our wills to his. We have to be aware of his call upon our lives, do his bidding, be his messengers and do the tasks he requires. Serving him is not burdensome but real joy, because the empowering of it all comes from God.