Interactive Gospel
- The Best Decision You Can Make -
by Paul Hazelden
1. Summary
We believe that committing yourself to
follow Jesus is the best decision anyone can
make.
1a. Commitment
The key here is 'committing yourself'. Following
Jesus really does not work if you simply try it as an experiment,
or because you know other people who do it.
The Bible says that committing yourself to Jesus is like
getting married. It is still a good
picture. Marriage is more than
friendship. It is more than simply living
together. But you will only discover this for
yourself by taking the risk and committing yourself to someone
who is prepared to work at making the marriage work for the two
of you.
1b. To Jesus
But Who is Jesus? He is the head of all
creation. He is the chief, the boss, the
lord. At present, large parts of creation are
rebelling against their God, and Jesus is leading the fight to
restore all things to their rightful head.
We are in the middle of a civil war, and there is no chance of
sitting on the side-lines. We are either fighting
for the rule of God, or we are fighting against Him.
So committing yorself to Jesus means far more than simply
committing yourself to a person. It means committing
yourself to fighting on His side, under His
leadership. It means giving Him His rightful place
in all things, as absolute Lord of the universe.
Whatever the difficulties of following Jesus here and now, one
day His victory will be complete, and on that day it will become
totally clear that committing yourself to fight on His side was
the best decision anyone can ever make.
- I'll go along with that
- Please explain further
- I object to what you've said
- What are the alternatives?
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2. Further Details
Of course, comitting yourself is one thing; following through
on that commitment is another.
The analogy of marriage is a good one. When you get married,
you commit yourself to be faithful to that one person for life.
But this does not mean that you will never be tempted, or that
you will never let each other down.
You may fail to live to to that commitment in many ways, both
large and small. But these failures do not invalidate the
commitment you made; they do not cancel the contract. Failure can
be used as an excuse to give up, but it can also be a spur to
re-commit and to try again.
On the one hand, nobody (really) expects a follower of Jesus to
be perfect. On the other hand, we should be
striving for perfection, even if we never expect to achieve it.
And we believe that the Holy Spirit lives within His followers,
to guide and empower them, so that they become capable of more
than they can do on their own.
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3. Objections
The main objection I hear is: with so many people leaving the
church, how can you possibly claim that following Jesus is a
good decision these days?
Firstly, I would like to comment on the number of people
leaving the church.
It is true that surveys of church attendance in the UK show a significant
fall over the last century, which speeded up in the last few
decades. But these overall figures hide a number of very
important details.
- A hundred years ago, going to church on a Sunday was the
socially correct thing to do. It was expected of all respectable
people. A fall in attendance arising from the fact that people
who have no interest in or desire to follow Jesus are no longer
attending services is arguably a good thing.
- Attendance at church services is only one possible way in
which people express their Christian commitment. The Bible
never says that Christians must attend a church service every
Sunday: it says that Christians should meet together on a
regular basis. Christians are meeting together in homegroups and
in social action projects - to give but two examples - and
these may well express a much more dynamic and relevant faith
than sitting in a cold building and singing hymns.
- Some churches and denominations are losing members, but
others are growing significantly. Some churches continue to
present a version of Christianity which is boring and irrelevant
- I see no reason why those churches should survive. But many
others are going from strength to strength, and there is no
reason why this growth should stop any time soon.
- It is the church in the UK which is losing members - or,
which has been. Recent reports suggest the losses have come
to an end. But in many parts of the world, the Church is
growing at phenominal rate. Worldwide, the Church is growing,
possibly faster than at any time in history. This is an
exciting time to be a Christian.
Secondly, please note the objection: it is the church that
has been losing attendees. People rarely reject Jesus, once they
have encountered Him. A large part of the Church in the UK needs
a massive amount of work done. This is not the place to outline
the scope and the scale of this work. But while the church may
alienate and bore people, Jesus continues to fascinate and
attract them. The good news is that there are an increasing
number of churches where this Jesus can be encountered.
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4. Alternatives
Followers of other religions will obviously suggest that
following their path is a better alternative, but they have never
actually presented me with any reasons why it is better.
The best an atheist can come up with, so far, is that their
belief is not better than following Jesus, but at least it is
true. I submit that following Jesus is not only better (in terms
of a lifestyle here and now, and in building a better life for the
future) but it is also a commitment to the truth and to
discovering more of the truth wherever it may be found. Atheism is
not only not better - it is also not true.
As always, if anyone wishes to submit any alternatives for me
to respond to here, I would be very happy to receive them.
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