Tell Me More About Knowing Christ

Longings & Faith: Who Am I?

If only there were evil people somewhere, insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary
only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil
cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Everyone gets their identity, their sense of being distinct and valuable, from somewhere or something. Thus sin is not merely doing bad things but making good things into ultimate things.

People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic…But even as believers should learn to look for reasons behind their faith, skeptics must learn to look for faith hidden within their reasoning.

Religion operates on the principle “I obey—therefore I am accepted by God.” But the operating principle of the gospel is “I am accepted by God through what Christ has done—therefore I obey.” His grace both humbles me more deeply than religion can (since I am too flawed to ever save myself through my own effort), yet it also affirms me more powerfully than religion can (since I can be absolutely certain of God’s unconditional acceptance).

-  Tim Keller, Reasons for God

Our “inconsolable secret” is that we are full of yearnings, sometimes shy and sometimes passionate,
that point us beyond the things of earth to the ultimate reality of God.”

- C.S. Lewis, Weight of Glory

A Question from Jesus: Who Do You Say That I Am?

One day as Jesus was journeying through the hills of northern Galilee, he turned to the handful of men and women
who had been following him for the past two years and asked them a crucial question: “Who do people say that I am?” [Mark 8:27]

Surely Jesus must have had been aware what others thought of him and his public ministry.   So if Jesus did not ask the question for his own knowledge, what was his intent in questioning his followers?  A few verses later in Mark 8:29 we see his reason for asking the question: But who do you say that I am? Clearly, this question mattered to Jesus Christ.  It still matters today to him.

Who do people say that Jesus is today?  He was a great teacher; a religious founder; a Jewish rabbi whose followers were the religiously oppressed; a miracle worker; a peace-maker; a peaceful revolutionist and liberator; an enlightened spiritual master; a myth, an historical figure who became a legend. To this list could be added many other opinions but little has changed since the first answer to this question some 2000 years ago.

When Jesus asked, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ – Peter replied: “You are the Christ, [i.e. the Messiah --the One coming to fulfill all the promises of salvation] the Son of the living God” [Matthew 16:16].

Conversion: What Happens When I Believe?

For the sinful self is not my real self, it is not the self You have wanted for me,
only the self that I have wanted for myself.  And I no longer want this false self.
But now, Father, I come to You in your own Son’s self . . . and it is He Who presents me to You.”

- Thomas Merton

For He made Him who knew no sin [Jesus Christ] to be sin,
that we might become the righteousness of God.
(2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV)

When we believe that we are helpless, damned sinners who can only be saved by looking to the obedience and sacrifice of Christ, not any contribution from ourselves:

• • God exchanges our sin for Christ’s righteousness.
  • God permanently embraces us with the same delight as His own Son.
  • God sends His Spirit to live in us giving us understanding as we read the Bible, sustaining us by joining us to Christ’s church, and empowering us with purpose by sending us on mission to represent Christ in word and deed to a needy world.

We never lose our need to be exposed to the gospel. We need a Savior and King more now than we first met him. Our hearts are more sinful than we thought but grace is more powerful than we could imagine.  We are being weaned from self-determined law-keeping to the obedience of faith—faith in Christ’s obedience not mine.