What do you want from God? From a god, any god?
I suspect it's the ability to be loved, held, soothed. Further, I suspect it's the notion that no matter what happens, we would not be alone.
God, Jehovah, Elohim.
Names for the Father.
Jesus, name above all names, King of Kings, Alpha and Omega, you name him. We are not alone.
Holy Spirit, mighty divine wind.
Three in one. God is one. The Lord is one.
Whew. Greatness pours forth like water from a pitcher. Glory shines like the sun in a clear morning sky.
The question was posed at a recent Bible study, "Why Jesus?" I suspect there is no greater question.
No other name is given by which we can be saved, the Bible says of Jesus. But why? Why all the hype -- and why always with him? Why, if he was only a man like everyone else (if not a great teacher at worst) do we give the memory of a dead man such credence? Why do so many swear to him when they are angry? Why all the commotion two thousand years after he died if he never existed? Why all the fuss, fight, filibustering if he isn't with us now? Why?
At the same time, why should anybody choose to be a Christian? Is Christianity just a choice one makes when choosing a religion, akin to choosing a car or a house? How can somebody just choose a religion?
There are many religions, why should anybody have to choose to become part of a religion? Why can’t somebody be just a good ethical person, doing good, but not having any religion? For example, somebody could believe based on science, God does not exist, can’t that person just be good, helping others, what’s wrong in not choosing a religion? Why does somebody need to put a label on him or herself saying Buddhist, Muslim, Mormon, Christian, etc?
Ultimately, the purpose of religion is an attempt to answer the questions of life. Who am I? Where did I come from? Is there something beyond this life? Does God exist? Who is God, if God exists? Where did matter come from? Who or what caused the universe? Am I required to do anything? Religion addresses these questions and more, instructing the follower what must and must not be done. The word religion comes from the word, religare, meaning to restrain, tie back. Religion is not alone in this quest for meaning and truth.
Science and religion both attempt to find answers to the same questions, with a different basis. Science explores the questions of life from a natural backdrop, religion from a super-natural basis. These questions, science and religion attempt to answer can be summed up as follows.
Who are we?
Where did we come from?
Where are we going?
To me, the answer to the question is simple: Jesus is the answer to the problems with the human condition. He answers the questions of does God exist and if so who he is. He answers the question of who I am because I understand from reading just who he is.
Why Jesus?
Why not other religions?
One reason and one reason only.
God the Father is different from every other deity because He chose to become human, experienced everything you and I experience, then died so that we might have eternal life with him.
I fail him daily. I mess things up. I choose wrongly. I sin. I wished it not so, but it is, I'm afraid. But through it all, the very air I breathe is because of him. I exist. I am born. I grow. Because of him.
Why Jesus? Because he died, I live. It gets no more clear than that.
Why Jesus? Because he died, I live. It gets no more clear than that.
He came to make all those errors, those mistakes, those willful sins, go away with but a mustard seed of faith on my part. He fills the hole in my being, which has shrunk demonstrably since I answer the question of why Jesus. He soothes me when I hurt.
I climb into his lap when I falter. He is my Father, and I am his child.
Why Jesus?
What else could I do? Where else could I go to find love? It is him I take refuge.
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