For God … gave His one and only Son. John 3:16a
In response to the question, “According to your understanding, who is Jesus Christ,” two‑thirds of some 10,000 college students interviewed said they believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. Yet when these same students were asked how to become a Christian, 90% said they didn’t know. What those students expressed is quite true of all. It is not a question of facts; it is a matter of acting on those facts. What counts is not knowledge, but action!
A certain amount of knowledge, though, is a prerequisite to action. It’s one thing to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, entirely another thing to act on that belief in such a manner that one follows Jesus himself. A few facts, though, are absolutely necessary. Who is this One called Jesus? What is the relationship of His life and teaching to us today?
The biblical and secular records tell us that Jesus was born in the little town of Bethlehem, a few miles from Jerusalem. The physician, Luke, wrote that Jesus was born of a virgin without a human father. Should Christ have been an ordinary human, this fact would have been difficult to accept. The virgin birth of Christ was no afterthought in an attempt to glorify His life. For centuries, the prophets had been foretelling such a birth.
Seven hundred years before Christ was born, the prophet Isaiah stated this fact, (Isaiah 7:14). In 1947, a copy of the book of Isaiah was found near the Dead Sea. Carbon dating placed this scroll at several hundred years B.C. Placed in the cave about 70 A.D., the manuscript foretold Christ’s coming.
At the age of thirty, Jesus began His ministry. From the beginning, it was obvious that He was different. He spoke with authority and not as the rest of the teachers of His day. His viewpoint was different, too. He spoke as one who commanded the course of the universe. They brought the sick and diseased to Him—He healed them without exception. He never paused to consider if it could be done. He simply spoke the word and it happened. He made no clinical analysis. In short, He claimed to be God. Actually, it was for this that He was eventually crucified, but even in death, He was different.
When He died, Pilate gave the order to make the tomb as secure as possible. The Roman army put soldiers there to guard it; the religious leaders of His day made it as secure as possible. Unbelief has tried to seal it for 2,000 years, yet the tomb has remained empty. Jesus Christ rose from the grave after three days. He told His disciples ahead of time that He would. (Matthew 12:38‑40).
You too may believe in Jesus Christ, but perhaps you’re not clear on how that relates to become a Christian. Christ, Himself, made it clear what a person must do to become a follower of Jesus. He said, “ … whoever hears my words and believes on him who sent me has everlasting life and will not be condemned; he has crossed from death to life” (John 5:24).
To become a Christian, you must believe that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, died in your place. It is not a matter of joining a church. It is accepting the reality that Christ took your sins in His body and paid the price, that you might have everlasting life. And that, friend, is what it takes to know Jesus Christ personally.
Resource reading: John 3:1-21
