Who to believe in: a matter of life and death

Believing in yourself is something Jesus never said.  Looking inside yourself for the answers to the big questions of life (who am I, why am I here, where am I going, how does all this end) will be a fruitless search.  In the same way, looking inside yourself for answers to the guilt, shame and need of forgiveness for the things you have done wrong will always come up empty.  Instead you must look outside yourself, not to others who have the same search patterns and results as you, but to One who created, made you and who can actually forgive you.

In the first century at the time of Christ, the Jews believe and taught that following the given law of God could make you right with God.  Unfortunately, the law of God had been added to by religious leaders with the intention of helping the people keep both their additions to the law as well as God’s law.  Yet the reality is that neither grouping of the law, man’s or God’s could make you right with God.  It could only show your flawed nature and your desperate need of a Savior, someone to come for you and to redeem you.  

Whether it is believing in yourself, trusting in keeping a set of laws, or simply trying to be good to people, we always fall short.  Paul says in Galatians 2:19-20 “For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.  I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now life in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

I have stood at the bedside with the family as their loved one is taking their last breaths.  And the question I am almost always asked is, “Pastor, tell us where there is hope right now.”  If I said believe in yourself, whether to the one exiting life or the family left in grief, their look would be confusion and disbelief.  Because in that moment, believing in yourself makes no sense.

So what do I say when they ask that question?  The only hope I know on any given day — but especially standing at that bedside — is the power of the resurrection of Jesus, for He promises that if our life, our belief/trust is in Him alone, then He will raise us up from the grave to live with Him forever.  We all know that this life will end.  It has for every person before us.  And the answer in those moments isn’t believe in yourself, it is believing in the saving, redeeming love, and resurrection of Jesus.  Who are you believing in right now?  It matters for all of life, and in death.  

Pressing on…

Ron Tipton, Senior Pastor