It’s an important question. Many assume since I grew up in the church, I’ve never really struggled with belief. But that’s false.
They’ve also assumed that I never had an option in believing. That too is false.
If I’m brutally honest there are times in my life when I really didn’t want to believe anymore. Times when Jesus seemed more like a myth than a savior, when God seemed far away.
Doubt and faith are not exclusive in this way, though. In fact, doubt in many ways is included in faith. If you have faith but have never doubted, do you really have faith? Or just blind optimism?
Doubt is a part of faith and it does not negate the existence of faith.
I’ve doubted, but in my doubt I still believe in Jesus Christ. I still am a Christian.
The only reason, the one thing that has kept me a Christian through the seasons of my life—from childhood, to my teen years, up until now—is simply Jesus Christ. I am a Christian for the sake of Jesus.
If what I know to be true about Jesus tomorrow could be proven false, I would give it all up. Because without Jesus, God is nothing special to me.
The God postulated in society today is not a God I’d like to know. Even in many Christian churches today, God is not a God I have any interest in. Such a God of abstract, distant, and emotionless characteristics is a God that I have no interest in giving my life to. But Jesus!
Jesus astonishes me.
Jesus came and suffered with us. He is our brother, one of us. He loved deeply, showed grace to many, and fought against injustice passionately. He was tender, furious, wild, free, and filled with joy. And He died. He wept. He was affected by our human condition.
And if this is what God is like, then sign me up! Because a God like Jesus is a God worth having.
So if you’d ask me why I’m a Christian, this is the answer I’ll give you. I am a Christian because of Jesus Christ, because if that is what God is like, then that is the sort of God I’ll gladly give my entire life to.
Sadly, many have failed to see God in Christ. We have postulated a God more like Zeus than Jesus. I believe if the church can just get back to Jesus, to the God revealed in Christ, then we’d recapture the passion that turned the world upside-down. God is like this! and that’s news worth spreading.
Why am I a Christian? Simply for Jesus’ sake.