In order to form a personal relationship with God, you must
know three things:
1) Who we are:
God’s creation. God created us and built us for a relationship
with him. We belong to him, and we owe him gratitude for every
breath, every moment, everything. Because humans were built
to live for him (to worship), we will always try to worship
something – if not God, we will choose some other object of
ultimate devotion to give our lives meaning.
2) Sinners. We have all chosen (and re-affirm daily) to reject God
and to make our own joy and happiness our highest priority. We
do not want to worship God and surrender ourself as master,
yet we are built to worship, so we cling to idols, centering our
lives on things that promise to give us meaning: success,
relationships, influence, love, comfort, and so on.
In spiritual bondage. To live for anything else but God leads to
breakdown and decay. When a fish leaves the water, which he
was built for, he is not free, but dead. Worshiping other things
besides God leads to a loss of meaning. If we achieve these
things, they cannot deliver satisfaction, because they were
never meant to be “gods.” They were never meant to replace
God. Worshiping other things besides God also leads to self-
image problems. We end up defining ourselves in terms of our
achievement in these things. We must have them or all is lost;
so they drive us to work too hard, or they fill us with terror if
they are jeopardized.
3) Who God is:
Love and justice. His active concern is for our joy and well-
being. Most people love those who love them, yet God loves
and seeks the good even of people who are his enemies. But
because God is good and loving, he cannot tolerate evil. The
opposite of love is not anger, but indifference. “The more you
love your son, the more you hate in him the liar, the drunkard,
the traitor,” (E. Gifford). To imagine God’s situation, imagine a
judge who also is a father, who sits at the trial of his guilty son.
A judge knows he cannot let his son go, for without justice no
society can survive. How much less can a loving God merely
ignore or suspend justice for us—who are loved, yet guilty of
rebellion against his loving authority?
Jesus Christ. Jesus is God himself come to Earth. He first lived
a perfect life, loving God with all his heart, soul, and mind,
fulfilling all human obligation to God. He lived the life you
owed—a perfect record. Then, instead of receiving his
deserved reward (eternal life), Jesus gave his life as a sacrifice
for our sins, taking the punishment and death each of us owed.
When we believe in him: 1) our sins are paid for by his death,
and 2) his perfect life record is transferred to our account. So
God accepts and regards us as if we have done all Christ has
done.
3) What you must do:
Repent. There first must be an admission that you have been
living as your own master, worshipping the wrong things,
violating God’s loving laws. “Repentance” means you ask for
forgiveness and turn from that stance with a willingness to live
for and center on him.
Believe. Faith is transferring your trust from your own efforts to
the efforts of Christ. You were relying on other things to make
you acceptable, but now you consciously begin relying on what
Jesus did for your acceptance with God. All you need is
nothing. If you think, “God owes me something for all my
efforts,” you are still on the outside.
Pray after this fashion: “I see I am more flawed and sinful than I
ever dared believe, but that I am even more loved and
accepted than I ever dared hope. I turn from my old life of living
for myself. I have nothing in my record to merit your approval,
but I now rest in what Jesus did and ask to be accepted into
God’s family for his sake.” When you make this transaction, two
things happen at once: 1) your accounts are cleared, your sins
are wiped out permanently, you are adopted legally into God’s
family and 2)the Holy Spirit enters your heart and begins to
change you into the character of Jesus.
Follow through. Tell a Christian friend about your commitment.
Get yourself training in the basic Christian disciplines of prayer,
worship, Bible study, and fellowship with other Christians.
Why should I seek God?
On one hand, you may feel that you “need” him. Even though you
may recognize that you have needs only God can meet, you must not
try to use him to achieve your own ends. It is not possible to bargain
with God. (I’ll do this if you will do that.”) That is not Christianity at all,
but a form of magic or paganism in which you “appease” the cranky
deity in exchange for a favor. Are you getting into Christianity to serve
God, or to get God to serve you? Those are two opposite motives
and they result in two different religions. You must come to God
because 1) you owe it to him to give him your life (because he is your
creator) and 2) you are deeply grateful to him for sacrificing his son
(because he is your redeemer.)
On the other hand, you may feel no need or interest to know God at
all. This does not mean you should stay uncommitted. If you were
created by God, then you owe him your life, whether you feel like it or
not. You are obligated to seek him and ask him to soften your heart,
open your eyes, and enlighten you. If you say, “I have no faith,” that is
no excuse either. You need only doubt your doubts. No one can
doubt everything at once — you must believe in something to doubt
something else. For example, do you believe you are competent to
run your own life? Where is the evidence of that? Why doubt
everything but your doubts about God and your faith in yourself? Is
that fair? You owe it to God to seek him. Do so.
What if I’m not ready to proceed?
Make a list of the issues that you perceive to be barriers to your
crossing the line into faith. Here is a possible set of headings:
Content issues. Do you understand the basics of the Christian
message—sin, Jesus as God, sacrifice, faith?
Coherence issues. Are there intellectual problems you have with
Christianity? Are there objections to the Christian faith that you
cannot resolve in your own mind?
Cost issues. Do you perceive that a move into full Christian faith will
cost you dearly? What fears do you have about commitment?
Now talk to a Christian friend until these issues are resolved.
Consider reading: Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis (MacMillan)
and Basic Christianity, by John Stott (IVP)
© 1991, Timothy Keller
