On Sunday at St Paul’s we finished a 5 week series of talks on big questions that Christianity must answer:
1. Does God exist?
2. Is the Bible reliable?
3. Is Jesus really alive?
4. Is Jesus the only way?
5. Is Jesus really worth it?
Is was priviliged enough to speak on 3,4, and 5. The talks are on the St Pauls website now.
In my answer to question 5, I looked at whether the benefits of entrusting your life to Jesus outweigh the costs. Someone asked me if I would post the list of 10 benefits that I mentioned. I said, ‘Sure!’
I will post them in a series of 5, 2 each time. Here are the first 2.
Benefit #1: Life
Before attaching our lives to Jesus, we are dead in God’s eyes. Whether we know it, or feel it, it is true. We are spiritually dead in God’s eyes without Jesus, and at high risk of staying that way for eternity.
But in Jesus, we are raised up from that death, to everlasting spiritual life. Ephesians 2:4-5:
But because of his great love for us, , God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.
Benefit #2: Cleansing
Not only do we have a change in our unseen status before God; we also have a tangible break with our past. All the words we have fired off that have hurt; the things we have done that we regret; the things that have been done or said to us – we carry these around with us like filthy stained undergarments. No matter what sort of suit we put oer the top, we carry the stain close to us as a heavey burden.
But Jesus offers us cleansing; Revelation 7:9-14:
After this I looked and there before me was the great multitude that noone could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.
Then one of the elders asked me, ‘These in white robes – who are they, and where di they come from?’
I answered, ‘Sir, you know.’
And he said, ‘These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’ (that is, Jesus).
In Anticipation 