What's Jesus all about? - part 1

First post for 2010...I better make it a good one! With the topic I have chosen, I can see this being a very long post unless I break it up...

I wanted to start off with a post that talks about one of the fundamental topics, but im going to break it up over a few post starting with What's Jesus all about? This is more focused towards people who dont have a strong understanding of Christ and would benefit from some more foundation knowledge, especially in relation to Jesus Christ.

For those who have little to know knowledge of who Jesus is, the huge amount of interest around someone who lived over 2000 years ago may seem confusing. The fact that I talk so passionately about Him in my other posts may serve to further this confusion.

But if we  break it down even more...what is Christianity all about? To put it simply...its about relationships. Christianity isnt about rules and restrictions, its about the most important relationship we will ever have...our relationship with our Mighty God. This is stated by Jesus in Matt 22:37-39

Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

But why do we need Him? Well its because we were created to live in close relationship with God. This is a crucial part for a lot of non-believers...until we find this relationship, we will always feel that something is missing in our lives. This is exactly how I felt prior to giving my life to Christ. I felt their was a hole inside me, I felt I was missing something. No matter what I did to try and correct this feeling, it always remained. That was until I came to know God. This is highlighed by Jesus in John 6:35 -

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty

This is exactly the point, when we run to Christ to be filled, we will never be without anything again. Jesus is the only one who can satisfy our deep hunger because He is the one who came to restore our relationship with God.

So we now see one of the important facts and that is Jesus comes to satisfy our hunger for the meaning of life, the purpose for why we are here. Until we come into an intimate relationship with God, we are unable to fully understand our purpose and we cannot come into intimate relationship except through Jesus Christ, just as it says in John 14:6 -

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE!! I dont think there is anything more important to grasp than that.

Jesus also satisfies our hunger for life after death. In the past I was quite fearful of death and avoided the topic. But after coming into a relationship with God, I came to understand that our life on Earth is tiny in comparison to eternity. Death is just the beginning of eternity, an eternity we get to spend with God if we accept Jesus as our saviour. Only in Jesus Christ do we find eternal life.

Finally Jesus satisfies our hunger for forgiveness. How many of us have done something to another person and we feel so regretful and long for forgiveness. We all make mistakes and we all need forgiveness. Our greatest need is forgiveness, we have all sinned against God and fallen short of His grace. But through Jesus we are forgiven. Through His death on the cross, Jesus made it possible for us to come back into relationship with God. No one is perfect, we have all sinned against God, but that sin must be accounted for. God is just and righteous and each and every one of us must be accountable for our actions. Therefore in order for us to enter heaven, we must be accountable for sin. But Jesus came and took our sin, he made us right before God, by dying on the cross. Even before you or I were born Jesus died for our sins! Thinking about now, even after many years of being a Christian still makes me stop and just praise Jesus Christ. Many of us would do something for a righteous man, but how many of us would help someone who has hurt us? Well thats exactly what Jesus did!

To wrap up the first part, I just want to highlight the fact that until we come in to relationship with Christ Jesus, we are always going to have a longing deep inside us, a hole that is impossible to fill with things of this world. But once we come before Jesus and repent of our sinful nature and give our life to Christ...then we will see the purpose of our lives.

As I have already mentioned, this is just the first part of a series of posts that discusses some fundamentals regarding Jesus