Believing in Jesus

In John 3: 16 The Lord God instructs us to believe in Jesus Christ his only begotten Son. He makes it clear that whosoever will do so will have eternal life. All of us want to live forever under God, so it is only befitting that if we want everlasting life we should listen to the word of the Lord. It is not a mammoth task, it is should be our way of life.

Christ is a person and He is also a way, the truth and the light (He who wants to go to my Father will do so through me), while on the other hand Christianity is a way of life, not necessarily a religion. Christ is a life giving soul, an undying spirit.

Belief is defined as a principle or an idea that is considered to be true. Belief is about faith. Believe is defined as accepting as true. If you believe you are convinced of what you believe in it as true, and you give your faith to it. In this instance, you entrust yourself to Christ, you commit yourself to Him, not to a principle or an idea.

God send His Son to redeem the world which Satan chaotically ruined. It was Satan who went on to tempt people away from God and so God sent His Son to reconcile, restore and redeem the world and its people. Jesus Christ is an intervention. The Israelites disobeyed God and did not listen to His instruction to spread His word across the world. Instead, they chose to obey their personal gods, they also persolised God. The Israelites where singled out and prepared by God to follow His instructions.

God is love. This love is not ordinary, it is different. It is an unconditional love that refers to a motive, to give an unending love to His children, to all humanity. God has no other choice. He also created the world. When Lucifer ruined the world, God restored it to its perfect, complete glory. When there was no order in the world he flooded it to bring in a new nation and a new order.

The Lord God does not want us to die. In the beginning, He instructed Adam not to eat the tree of knowledge. If this was adhered to, there would not have a death punishment. Adam was a living soul, a life giving spirit. But Adam chose to listen to his wife who was deceived by the serpent. It is this sin that led to Adam being banished, death introduced and eventually Christ brought to earth. Adam’s folly was not in eating the tree of life, but breaking an instruction. Adam sinned and so forfeited his kingdom, his sovereignty. Adam completed Satan’s wish by disobeying God.

If you believe in Christ, you will not perish. You will rule with Him (Rev 1: 5-6). The Holy Spirit does not condemn, but convicts. You are shown a problem, acknowledge it and repent (John 3: 18, John 10:10. If you repent and move on, (Matthew 3: 2 and 4: 17) then your life will be saved.

Christians should believe that Christ was crucified for them. They must believe that he rose on the third day and that he ascended to heaven (John 15: 26 and John 14: 26). Christ is the comforter; He is the spirit of truth.

Abide by Him forever (John 16: 7), because He is a good pastor.

Have conviction in Him and pray and live according to his teachings: The Lord’s prayer.

Imitate Him, have compassion, love God and love one another. Take care of the poor. (Whoever listens to my words will have rivers of living waters flowing in his bowels). Love makes right everything. Love is the key

Follow Him; He is God’s sacrifice, you do not need any more burned sacrifices, but follow the rules and regulations of the world, pay taxes.

He is your role model: the last supper-what I do to you go and do it. Go and wash your feet like I washed their feet. Be baptized.

Conquer, because He defeated Satan when the latter tempted Him in the beginning of His ministry.

The World of Jesus

The bible tells us that Jesus Christ is the good pastor. He is the way and the truth. That no one can get to the father without Him. He is the redeemer. He brought with Him a new way of doing things.

Yet there are certain churches that do not understand the new laws and still adhere to old laws which they confuse with worldly tribal practices. They do this to appease the Lord, they say. But they are in conflict with the new dispensation…

Let us look at the facts

Jesus Christ was brought down to the world to reconcile God and His people and to forge a new world order after Lucifer chaotically messed up God’s perfect, complete creation.  In His teachings Jesus emphasized that He was not doing away with certain commandments and practices, but He guided us into a new world order and also told us that He was the good pastor.  Yet there are denominations that still perform rituals and sacrifices in the name of the Lord even though Christ outlawed some of these practices. On the face of it these churches ignore the call and the authority of Christ.

So, an informed discussion is necessary: are these sacrifices and rituals still relevant in the new dispensation of Jesus? Churches need also to understand what following Christ means and why Satan should be ridiculed.

It is important for the world to understand why belief and faith in the doctrine of Jesus should be main driving force behind the redemption of mankind. We are going to look at all aspects that will lead us into a comprehensive understating of His role in the world and how we should complement this role so that it will be easy for us to recognize Him as our savior.

Jesus’s role in the world is made more important by the fact that God brought Him on earth as an example of His unwavering love for man and his salvation. This task, to salvage man from sin and from Satan, should be put into context so that man must appreciate God’s efforts to complete the initial objective for a complete and perfect creation. Secondly, man must appreciate God’s steadfast aim to thwart Satan’s grip on man and Satan’s endless desire to overthrow God’s kingdom and rule the world.

God loves His people and he is jealous of them. There are many examples in the bible where God shows mankind how much He loves the world but Satan has always tempted man away from God.  

To understand Jesus’s role in the world we need to go back to the very beginning when God’s created the world. Disregarding this episode of creation will be doing an injustice to the discussion.

Christ’s role in the creation of the world is significant.   Jesus was an integral part in the beginning. After God created the complete, perfect world, Lucifer, disgruntled that he was being overlooked to rule dominant over the plants and animals, caused chaos to derail God’s plans. And so the world descended into a formless, disorderly mess. 

So when Jesus was brought as a human to deal with this mess it was not His first encounter with the problems of man- He was always there from the beginning.  In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth Christ was there. In John 1:1 we are told that the word was God. This word, we all know was, Jesus. This is also amplified in Revelation, 1:8-11, 2:8, 19: 3 and 22:13-16, Micah 5:1-2. Although Jesus was physically born of the Virgin Marry in the New Testament, His preexistence is proven in some of the passages of the aforementioned books.

When creation is discussed there are two areas of consideration here: the first, complete and perfect creation (Gen 1:1) and, later (Gen 1:2) to bring form and semblance to creation.

After the first creation a great deal of time passed. God’s plan of a complete and a perfect creation was accomplished, Isaiah 45: 18. During this time Lucifer was a conductor of angels in heaven.  He was one of God’s trusted servants and served God well. Then, out of the blue, he developed an appetite to lord over the earth, 2 Peter 3: 5-8. And when his evil plans failed he caused chaos and God’s creation suffered. He was aware that God’s grand plan was to let man dominate the earth. But, according to Lucifer, there was an anomaly. Man was to be created from dust while Lucifer was created by fire. How could man, made of dust, be more important than him, molded out of a ball of fire?   This irked him. How could he be ignored of such a majestic role? In a defiant, rebellious and deceptive spree he proceeded to vandalise the perfect, complete creation. The rebellion created chaos with day and night unrecognisable and floods destroyed nature.  So the duel for man’s soul between God and Satan began.     

During this rebellious streak Christ was present.

Lucifer, it must be pointed out, was the key figure in God’s original creation plan. He was a member of the mount of congregation in heaven, which gathered regularly to worship God.  But his unrealistic ambitions and chaotic indulgence put paid to his dream to rule mankind.  Formerly, Lucifer was a popular figure in heaven and enjoyed a significant following among the angels Revelation 12:7-12, 20; 1-10, Isaiah: 24: 21-23 and 25: 7.

When his plans to rule the world were scuppered, he was discarded to hell, Psalm 82: 1.  Incredibly, he retained his power and his following even after he was disgraced.

Jesus was then brought onto the forefront to reconcile man with his creator, to resurrect mankind and to redeem the lost souls of God. He descended to earth to introduce a new world order. But, all along   He was part of the Holy Trinity all along; He was God’s voice in the beginning and throughout the Old Testament God used Him as His voice when He spoke to prophets. This Holy Trinity link is clearly shown to us during Christ’s baptism by John the Baptist.  The Holy Ghost descended on Christ and so He was anointed to play a significant role in the development and redemption of mankind, a role Lucifer spurned.

The rebellion by Lucifer was the beginning of the anti-Christ. He proceeded to tempt people into disobedience and to turn against the Lord. He even dared both God and Jesus in an attempt to prove that he could control man and that man was on his side. He caused mayhem on earth and sowed divisions between God and His people. He also tried to convince God that the world was not perfect.

So it is left to Jesus to restore life and order and the resurrection of God’s perfect plan for the heavens, earth and mankind. 

Yet there are still churches that do not recognize the significance of Jesus and the role He plays in our lives.  These churches burn sacrifices and perform rituals that they claim are inspired by the bible. Some of these rituals are even not biblical but cultural practices confused with the Old Testament of the bible. These churches purport to follow the Lord but they ignore His son’s teachings, His declarations and His promises, the new laws He has brought and the laws He has repealed.  An early conclusion might be that these churches are confused and lack belief in Jesus. So it is essential that we put matters into perspective.

In the next installment we talk about belief in Jesus.

Peace be with you!