20 Things You Can Do Without Jesus

1. Have a long-lasting, happy marriage
2. Pray
3. Eat a specific diet
4. Be kind and care about others
5. Overcome alcoholism and drug addiction
6. Have strong, meaningful relationships
7. Have a successful career
8. Live by a code of morality
9. Raise successful, well-behaved, and moral children
10. Give to/serve the poor/needy
11. Be responsible with money
12. Be punctual, well-groomed, and organized
13. Work hard and persevere
14. Make good choices
15. Keep promises and commitments
16. Overcome hardship and struggle
17. Follow the laws of the land
18. Dress modestly and use clean language
19. Train our bodies physically
20. Attend/serve a church regularly

What You Cannot Do Without Jesus

Please God

We need to renew our minds in the West. Most of us have certain ideas ingrained in us through teaching and culture, but we’ve deceived ourselves if we believe that anything on the first list pleases the Lord (Gal 3, Isa 64, Phil 3, Rom 3,8). Scripture is clear that God is pleased by a broken and contrite heart (Ps 51). He’s pleased when we agree with Him about who we are and who He is. He’s pleased when we are surrendered and yielded to his authority (Luke 5, Acts 3, Romans 2,8). We need to stop peddling a gospel that says anything else.

We’ve created a dangerous situation where many people think that they know Christ simply because they behave a certain way, or at least seek after that behavior, but will one day hear “depart, I never knew you” (Matt 7). Still others don’t see the need for Christ at all since their lives appear just fine without Him.

We tell people their sins will go away and their problems will be solved if they would accept Christ, only for them to do so and discover there is still a fight with their flesh, heartbreak in a fallen world, and sacrifice in His service. Depressingly, we’ve allowed many who know Him to spend days and nights in tears and striving because they can’t seem to do what they think will keep them right with God, when in fact they already were (Galatians, Colossians).

Our checklist/American dream gospel breaks hearts and deceives. We dangle salvation by faith on a poisoned thread of sanctification by works. It hides the true freedom and grace offered to us by God in His love and takes away the full impact of what Christ has done. The power of God is His gospel—why are we not resting in it?

I tried to wait for advent to start, but I started listening to Christmas music on the way back from Thanksgiving. I love it. I don’t even remember what song I was listening to, but it really hit me that Christmas is a huge reminder of what sets our God apart from any other religion.

For one, His standard is higher. The God of the Bible demands a holiness and perfection that does not just include our outward actions, but cuts through to the depths of our hearts. He weighs our motives, examines our thoughts and evaluates their intentions, and watches all our ways. (1 Sam 16:7, 1 Chron 28:9, Isaiah 55:8-9, Psalm 9:8, Matt ch. 5-7, Matt 7:21-23, Heb 4:12, Eph 2:8-9) If you flesh that out it’s a little scary. It’s okay to let that scare you.

It’s okay because it allows us to see our need for a Savior.  It’s ok because He knows that standard is beyond what we’re capable of and He’s got it covered. He knows that our simple existence as humanity disqualifies us (Leviticus 12, Ro 3:11,23, Ro 9-10). God knew it when He created the earth, and even before it fell He knew what He was going to do about it. (Eph 1:4, 1 Peter 1:20, Rev 13:8).

Because, another thing that sets the God of the Bible apart from the god of every other religion is what He did about it. He didn’t just make a set of unyielding requirements and maybe, probably accept those who got the closest. He didn’t just resign us to a lifetime of striving in insecurity (although sometimes we act like He did…but that’s a different discussion altogether). God didn’t simply decide that we weren’t really worth it anyway.

He came and got us Himself.

He even sacrificed to do it. Through His Son, Jesus Christ, He defeated the sin and death that broke this world and keeps us from Him (Romans 8). Our God freed us from the futile task of pursuing a perfection we could never attain by bringing us to Himself through Christ’s perfection (Ro 4:3-6, Ro 5:17, 2 Cor 5:21).

I’m pretty excited about Christmas. I love the lights and the decorations. I love giving gifts, singing, and making crafts and cookies, and I’m enjoying the whole season. But I want to make sure that when I attempt that gingerbread manger scene (I have Pinterest hopes) I remember the significance of it.

The moment that Christ was born was the beginning of God’s cosmic mic drop. Even the angels and Satan himself probably had no idea what exactly was going to happen (Gal 3:9, 1 Peter 1:12). It was the beginning of God’s declaration that we were worth it to Him and nothing was going to separate us from Him. Christ’s presence on earth was the fulfillment of prophecy (Luke 24:25-27,32; pretty chart), and with it God makes the statement that He is The Almighty and He keeps His promises. Through Christ, God is able to demonstrate the inconceivable depth of His love and reveal His greatness to the entire world.

Christmas is a reminder of why the God of the Bible is worth it. This God came to us Himself and did whatever it took to be our God. This God—His way is perfect (Psalm 18:30).

I remember the exact moment when I realized I wasn’t saved.

That’s right…I said WASN’T saved.

Every time I’ve been encouraged to share my testimony, that’s the moment that always comes to mind. That moment when I was thirteen, at an overnight church event, and gave the wrong answer when asked what gets us in to heaven. I have no idea what I answered, but I know it was wrong because the leader asking (who I also do not remember) launched into a description of the gospel. I remember thinking, “Ugh, I said the wrong thing. I KNEW the answer, why didn’t I say it? This is SO embarrassing!” It occurred to me later, that I didn’t say the “right” answer because I didn’t believe the right answer.

That’s not the testimony anyone’s looking for though, is it? At least it feels that way. It feels as though we should all have this “once I was lost, now I am found” testimony. A story of how we came to Christ that fits the formula in the “how to witness” pamphlets: what was your life like before you were saved, how did you come to the Lord, what has your life been like since. I have, on more than one occasion, questioned my salvation because I couldn’t find a story in my life that fit in to the basic formula.

I did not find Christ in the midst of a raging drug addiction or violent life on the street. I found Him in my loving, middle-class, Christian home in the suburbs of D.C., but that doesn’t mean that I was any less lost when I came to Him. I wore smiles and roller blades and played the clarinet, but I was dead in my transgressions. Dead.

We all begin our lives without Him, whether our parents dragged us to Sunday School or not, and all of us who found our way to Christ were drawn to Him differently. He deals with each of us intimately and specifically (Psalm 139). All believers fit into the “once I was lost, now I am found” story, whether it looks like it on the outside or not.

I have found that I am not alone and many of us who grew up in the church had NO IDEA WE WERE LOST. I think it can be easy to ride the church wave and never really consider anything around you. The stories of the Bible are your bedtime stories. God is a matter of fact…just like gravity. Everyone around you does certain things (at least publicly) because that’s the way that Christians are supposed to do them. There is a definite “us” versus “them” vibe—churchy people vs. sinners—and it never occurs to you that you’re the “them.” It wasn’t as if my thirteen-year-old self disbelieved Christ as our savior. I didn’t actually BELIEVE anything. Everything was information gathered, stories I’d been told, traditions and patterns.

I did end up committing my life to Christ the following summer, but it took me realizing that I hadn’t in order for me to make that commitment. Although completely transformed from death in sin to life in Christ, you couldn’t tell it by looking at me. I committed my life to Christ, went home, and then woke up the next morning to do summer-y things with my friends…but I was different in my heart.

The first sign for me that I was different came when our church hired a youth minister and she showed me that we could study scripture for meaning and application in our lives. There was a thrill and excitement to that like I had not experienced before and I developed a hunger for the word of God. I knew that I was different because a lot of the kids around me still harbored their apathy, so I hid my excitement so I wouldn’t seem weird. God’s Spirit was inside of me and the Lord was sanctifying me and causing me to walk in His statutes, but I didn’t really understand that at that moment when I was fourteen. It has been a long and slow trip of development and maturity as I discover who I am in Christ and the depth of the implications of committing my life to follow Him. As I’ve studied, I’ve learned, and as I’ve learned, I’ve changed. And then it all got tested as I’ve been burned by the fires of life and trials laid before me. It will continue. I know that He who began a good work in me will complete it, but I also know that it will involve study, prayer, instruction, being mentored, and walking through a thousand different situations.

I once did not care about God other than trying to please the people who wanted me to learn about Him. I lived for what I believed was right and often just for myself, and I had no idea I was in need of any saving. I did not understand the world and was alone and hopeless within it as I tried to navigate it by my own devices. Through the example of my mother, the instruction of my father and the countless, meaningful discussions he and I had about life and the world, the Lord drew me to Himself  and I committed my life to follow Christ. Now the compass of my heart points to God. It doesn’t matter what I experience, what mistakes I’ve made, or what sadness is brought upon me—regardless of the pain and suffering I see throughout the earth—I know the sovereign God of the universe has got this. The scriptures are like air to me, but whether I choose to breathe it or not on any given day, Christ’s blood covers me with grace and love and I am being made complete. I can look back through the past twenty years and see the changes in my heart and I know however many years lie ahead the Spirit will not leave me where I am right now.

Once I was lost but now I am found. Once I was dead in my sins, but now I am alive in Christ. Once I was without hope in the world, but now I have been brought near to God and am learning to put my hope in Christ.

As a believer I have always found God’s word and His truth to be fascinating and awe-inspiring. The more I dig into it the stronger my faith becomes and the more I grow in knowledge and discernment. I also realized something else…Christians believe a lot of stuff and nonsense. There is a great deal of nonsense that Christians (in general) accept as truth that is not in the Bible or is a twisted version of what the Bible actually says. So many people want nothing to do with Christianity, and who can blame them when it seems so rigid or random? If being a Christian is about following a set of rules, than no thank you—I was disqualified from that game a long time ago. If it’s about believing what is most commonly accepted, then I’ll have to pass again, because what is commonly accepted changes based on the feelings or whims of imperfect people.  I will take Christ, however.

Scripture testifies Christ from the first page to the last and He emerges as the only thing worth staking your life on. He is what brings Hope. Most people claiming Christ as Christians (surprisingly, not all) believe He died for their sins, but many have no idea what else the Bible actually says about Him, or sin, or a million other things. There are a LOT of man’s ideas out there, but without knowing what the Bible says, it’s hard to tell the difference between man’s ideas and God’s truths. There are also many people who profess Christ and read the Bible, but don’t believe some or much of what it says. Often we wrestle with what we think and what we read in the Bible and how everything fit’s together, but what if we just took the Lord at His word? Why would the part of the Bible about Christ’s death and resurrection be true, but not the rest of it? God desires the entirety of our hearts. He desires for us to put our Hope in Christ alone. We can’t straddle the fence and still claim Him.

As my faith has matured, I’ve realized the implications of wholly accepting the teachings of Christ. It can bring difficulties or criticism, and that can be hard to face. It takes courage to put your faith in His word. Once you cut through the bilge invading our minds and hearts through traditions, culture, ideas, philosophies, and outright lies, you can see Christ for who He really is. He is worth serving. He is worth risking difficulty and criticism. He is worth everything. I am still growing and I constantly make mistakes, but I’ve given my heart to Christ and I am convinced that His word and His power are changing my life for His glory and my good. As I’ve matured I’ve come to the conclusion that it is important to take the God who saved me at His word, and to measure my life against it regularly. It is important for me to put my hope in Him and not in myself, people’s opinions and advice, or the things of this world.

I will choose hope that is real and defies the hopelessness of this world.

“Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

1 Peter 1:13