Why We Should Trust Jesus As Our Ultimate Guide

In a previous post, I discussed why Jesus is essential for optimal spiritual health, and thus, essential for optimal health in all areas of our lives. However, that conclusion is based on the principles that God is real and that Jesus is truly God in the form of man. So how can we trust that God is real, that, Jesus is His Son, and that everything He preached and performed were real?

There are so many ways to argue for and against the idea of God's existence and Jesus's credibility. At the end of the day, many people end up trusting in their own interpretation of truth, or rather, trust in their own perceptual abilities/experiences to properly interpret truth. So we have to be aware that our own perception of the world will always be vulnerable to subjectivity and biases, based on how we are wired and how our experiences have shaped us. And because other people are also vulnerable to being subjective and biased by their own perceptual, psychological wiring and experiences, it's never enough to rely on ourselves and other people to be truly objective with who we are and how things should be. Rather, we must trust in the One who designed our personalities and gave us the ability to perceive and experience the world. Whoever that Someone is, only He can help us be truly objective with how we are seeing ourselves, others, and the world He created for us.

So how can we trust that this Someone is out there, and how can we trust that the human minds He gave us are being objective and undeceived when interpreting who He is? It always takes a leap of faith. And that faith needs to be in Him first, not in our human minds. By placing our faith in Him, we can also have faith that He can guide us to use our minds properly to understand Him for who He really is. Here are some key points for why we should have this kind of faith:

1. The facts are there

• There are valid historical records that prove Jesus was a real person who walked the earth and performed miracles, demonstrating both the sovereign power of God and His will to bring us to our best

• The bible isn't just another mythical tale. Those who wrote it were true eyewitnesses, including those who walked with Jesus and experienced the transformative impact He had on their lives and those around them.

• There are real, unbiased testimonies of people who have encountered God as Jesus and had their lives transformed for the better. Some have even been miraculously healed by Him, spiritually, psychologically, and physically. Bill Johnson, a leading pastor at Bethel Church (see sources below), have discussed why these testimonies can be trusted. Go and search them out-- it's better to seek the sources for yourself rather than having me pick and choose what seem to be the "most convincing," because at the end of the day, your own mind will decide what's going to convince it.

2. The concepts hold true

• The statistical probability of the universe being as orderly as it is because of pure spontaneity/randomness is almost zero. Consider this analogy: a book doesn't form without an intentional creator (ie, printed letters can't just randomly come together on pages that just randomly formed; sentences and paragraphs can't just randomly come together to make a story). Therefore, the orderliness of the material structure of the entire universe and the laws of physics that form its basis (which are much more orderly than a book) is even less likely to have just formed from pure randomness. Given the orderliness in the world and its orderly "laws" that scientific research has discovered, there is a high statistical probability that all of it was created intentionally by a living Creator.

• There is a universal moral law that every human being, whether they know it or not (and whether they like it or not), feels called to uphold. Every human being has the capacity to assess right and wrong and make conclusions about how things "should be." Of course, each person can have their own definition of what's right and wrong, but nevertheless, there is a universal striving of humanity to live their lives according to what "should be." And furthermore, this human pursuit to live according to how we believe things "should be" often involve incorporating principles such as love, integrity, kindness, and altruism. These are principles that are all universally considered to be "good" and qualities that we all "should" strive. You'd be hard-pressed to find any culture or person who believes love and integrity are bad qualities we shouldn't have. Sure, there are "psychopathic" people that seem to not be wired to believe this way. However, there would still be a universal agreement that just because some people seem to be "wired" to disbelieve or lack awareness of the importance of love, that doesn't make the moral idea untrue. Yet, this moral awareness is NOT explained by evolution, because in some ways, it's evolutionary disadvantageous to gain things honestly or sacrifice yourself for someone weaker and less "useful to society" than yourself. Sure, there's also the idea that getting along together with these qualities is what creates a harmonious environment for society to thrive. But then why should we care about the good and harmony of society in the first place? Why not just isolate ourselves and only help others only when we see a way we can benefit from it? This universal human tendency to follow what we believe is good and upright behavior through love and integrity is just part of how God reveals Himself to us- The Reality of the Moral Law by C.S. Lewis Doodle (BBC Talk 2 / Mere Christianity Chapter 3) - YouTube

• God can transcend our reality, so we can't solely rely on our experiences in reality to verify His existence. A creator doesn't always live within his/her creation (eg, a builder of a house doesn't have to live in the house he built, and his absence in the house doesn't discount the fact that he was still its creator). So if God is the Creator of the entire universe, God can exist outside of space and time. After all, if God is sovereign and has power over the reality He's created for us, there's no doubt that He would be able to transcend that reality He created so that we have to use more than just our simplistic human senses to discover His presence. Sometimes that even means using other tools besides the scientific method to find Him, because God is more powerful than anything or any idea that could be discovered through that method. The scientific method is an excellent method to test what's real, but because God is more powerful than anything in this reality He Himself created, He may or may not always be willing to reveal Himself to us if we use the scientific method or any human tools to test His existence. He's more interested in revealing Himself to us after we've trusted in Him. And that's not the same as confirmation bias. Rather, it's more like seeing what's already there once you've put on the right glasses of faith to see it.

• God gave us free will to seek Him out, rather than forcing His presence on us to make things clear. This is because He loves us. Love must involve a choice. So if God truly loves us, He would give us the free will to love Him back. If He created us with minds and hearts that would automatically understand Him and value Him automatically, it would not be perfect love, but would be like creating your own slaves to serve you and worship you. But God isn't interested in creating slaves to worship Him. He doesn't need us or our worship to be content, because He is God and He can do whatever He wants for Himself. So His intention for creating us is not for His own sake, but because He loves us and wants to have fellowship with us. But true and genuine love for someone requires giving them a choice to love back, rather than force. This is why God gave us the free will to choose to seek Him and to choose to accept Him. Furthermore, this is also why He chooses not to reveal Himself to us so obviously. If it were easy to find Him, our love for Him wouldn't be as strong as it would be if we had put in the effort to He wants us to make our own choice to seek Him more and trust in Him, so that we too, can also develop a love for Him that is also genuine.

3. People who follow Him (and I mean those who genuinely and wholeheartedly follow Him) have their lives transformed so that they are on their way to their best potential

• People who fully submit their lives to Christ will learn to have the healthiest balance of personal control and freedom. This is because they surrender to His will and trust that His will is always good and for their best (which is true, because He created the universe and humanity out of love). So those who follow His guidance learn to have a healthy, liberating freedom when they let God have His way, and a healthy reign of control when they follow His guidance on how to properly use the control He has given them. Without Christ, we may think we can achieve a healthy balance our sense of control and freedom, but there will always be a hidden imbalance if we don't do so for Christ's sake (because we'll either prioritize our control over the control-freedom balance, or prioritize our freedom to maintain the control-freedom balance however we see fit)

• People who submit their lives to Christ and make Him a priority also learn how to love others and themselves in the healthiest ways possible. They learn to value what He values, and do what He would do. And because He has unconditional love for His people, they also learn to experience the value of unconditional love for others. Thus, they develop a love for others that prompts them to serve them without selfish motives and without depending on their validation. Because their identity is secured in Christ, they don't need to seek validation from others. But at the same time, that doesn't stop them from serving others, because an identity in Christ drives them to serve others just as He would. Without Christ, we may think we can achieve a healthy balance of serving others and ourselves, but actually, without Christ there will always be a hidden imbalance of prioritizing ourselves over others as we rely on our own reasons/values to maintain balance between serving ourselves and others, or a hidden imbalance of prioritizing others over ourselves as we rely on other people's reasons/values to maintain balance.

• People who follow Him may not always be at their best (many really aren't), but they will be on the only journey that can bring anyone to their best if they keep their faith in Him rather than their own shortcomings. Of course, there will always be people who love Him but yet wreak havoc to those around them, cause unnecessary discord, play the hypocrite and judge others, or display any negative characteristic. In those cases, God is not being represented properly, so it's important not to rely solely on Christians' behaviors when making conclusions about who God is. Rather, it's important to keep in mind the objective truth that God is good, sovereign, and is the ultimate foundation for love, and we are imperfect and prone to making mistakes when we try to do the right thing. The important part is that we remember that God is the only one who can bring us to our best and that He is forgiving of our shortcomings and always willing to help us improve, no matter how many times we may mess up. We are thus called to always follow Him and be merciful toward others just as He shows mercy toward us.

4. If you follow Him, you would also experience a real and genuine transformation in your character so that you, too, can have a real, unbiased experience with the joy and security of having a relationship with a loving God who can guide you to your best potential

• Similar to the above points, if you submit your life to Christ, you too will experience your own personal growth toward having a healthy balance of both control and freedom, and a healthy relationship with others and yourself. The balances you achieve will truly be free from any underlying imbalances and blindspots, so that you can truly be on your way to your best.

• Encountering His presence is one of the most important experiences. You can be exposed to all sorts of logical arguments for God's existence and Jesus's credibility, and still be unconvinced that He is real or worth being a priority. That's because only God is powerful enough to work with our bias-prone minds and hearts so that we are fully convinced that He is real. As mentioned before, our faith needs to be in Him, rather than in the human tools/minds we use to understand Him, because He's the one who made our minds the way they are in the first place, and only He understands how to make them be truly objective. So no human logic or earthly tool is going to be powerful enough to transform our minds to understand God nor transform our hearts to value Him enough. Only when God reveals His Spirit to you can your mind and heart be transformed to see the truth of His presence and love and value it wholeheartedly. Of course, that's not to say that God rewires us to automatically believe Him once His presence is revealed to us. If that were the case, everyone would believe in God, because He is omnipotent, and His presence is everywhere. However, the degree to which one can experience His presence will vary, based on how much they personally choose to open their hearts and minds to notice His presence and allow Him to reveal more of His Spirit to them so that they can make their own personal choice to submit to Him or not. Now what does it mean to encounter His presence? Does this mean we need to have some extraordinary supernatural encounter? Well, sometimes God does reveal Himself to others through genuinely real, supernatural visions or miracles. Other times (and seemingly most of the time), He chooses to reveal Himself to us when we put on the glasses of faith and accept the truth that He is already there. God's Spirit offers love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, self-control, patience, and gentleness (9 fruits of the Spirit). And since He is omnipotent, we have the opportunity to feel all these 9 qualities of His Spirit if we open our minds and hearts to believe that He is there in the first place. Even in the darkest moments, these 9 qualities of His Spirit are there, always providing a way of hope and truth to fight any darkness, because He is more powerful than any darkness or power. Once you encounter His presence like that, you will experience it more strongly when you accept Him for the loving Father that He is and place your faith in His Son Jesus as your Savior.

• There is always an opportunity to experience God's presence by opening your heart and mind to Him so that you can experience His love for you and consequently make the choice to respond to His calling to believe in His Son as your Savior. Once you believe in Christ (and I mean genuinely, without doubt, believe in Him as your Savior who alone is the way to the truth and eternal life), then you will truly experience the genuine peace, joy, love, and 9 fruits of His Spirit that abound when you're embracing His presence. And that experience of His presence is NOT subjective. If you commit your life to Him and feel the peace, joy, and love that drives you to praise Him for His immeasurable love for you, surrender to His good will, and serve others with unconditional love and joy, then God has already started a great work in you that reflects His presence, His loving nature, and the truth of His good will for humanity and all of creation. Of course, there will always be more to uncover about who God is, but surrendering to His will and serving others for the sake of glorifying Him can reveal bountiful results that reflect His nature as a loving Creator who wants to lead us to reach our best potential.

Recommended sources for more info:

Mere Christianity by CS Lewis (also check out the youtube, CSLewisDoodle)

The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis Collins

Making Sense of God by Timothy Keller

The Reason for God by Timothy Keller

Faith Unscripted - Jubilee Church sermon

True Love Has No Script - Jubilee Church sermon

Gotta Practice Your Bible Scales - Jubilee Church sermon

The Faithfulness of God - Jubilee Church sermon

My Favorite Miracle - Bill Johnson

The Pursuit of Self-Realization | Pastor Tony Chung | Jubilee Seoul - YouTube - Jubilee Church sermon

The Pursuit Of Health | Sam Lopez | Hillsong California - YouTube - Hillsong Church Sermon

Final Points:

Jesus vs Other Religions

Unfortunately, the belief systems that take Jesus out of the picture fail to fully connect the human spirit with God. Why? Jesus plays an essential role in getting people to connect with the Holy Spirit, since He the Son who is part of the Trinity that is basically God (and the Trinity includes Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). Sure, people who truly have a heart to seek the truth are better off than people who don't care or adopt silly beliefs because it makes them feel good. Hence, why some religions/beliefs can get close to connecting our spirits with God. But getting close is never the same as actually getting there. If you don't connect to God, then you don't connect. You're either with Him or you're not.

And so here's why belief systems that dismiss Jesus as Messiah fall short of connecting our spirits with God: God-- being the ultimate source behind all things, behind all things that are good-- He Himself is purely good. Humans are not. Even the nicest people who do good things-- anything good about them is thanks to God's presence. Nothing good can manifest without God. Unfortunately, there is evil in the world that every human falls prey to in some form or another. Hence, even the nicest people will have something bad about them that they've had to overcome (or are struggling to overcome). Thus, everyone has been tainted by evil in some way or another and thus, everyone is unworthy to connect with God, who is too pure beyond all measure. Anyone is tainted with any amount of evil is meant to die. But thankfully, God loves us so much that He chose to become human like us-- He sent His Son, Jesus, to die instead of us. Jesus died in our place, so that we wouldn't have to die for the evil we've inherited. This is like presenting your moral resume to God: every human has sins on their resume that makes them unworthy to connect with Him; even committing the tiniest sin would make one unworthy of a connection with the Holiest and purest Spirit. But when Jesus died for us, He basically chose to replace our resume with His-- a resume free of all sin, because Jesus was the only human who lived His whole life without ever committing sin.

So God Himself basically gave us a free invitation to connect with Him so that you can dwell with Him in Heaven: place your faith in His Son as your Savior, and He will forgive you for all the sinful things you've done, your spirit will be cleansed from all that is evil and will inherit eternal life with Him. And He will continue to keep forgiving you-- He knows that our flawed nature makes it so that we are still capable of sinning, even after surrendering our lives to Christ. But once you've surrendered to Him, no evil can hold you back from having a connection with Him-- God will keep forgiving you and washing you clean from any sin you have ever committed, and from any sin you might commit in the future

Of course, that's not to say believing in Jesus gives one a license to sin-- absolutely not. It's not "believe in Jesus and you can sin all you want because He'll forgive you anyway." That kind of mindset can imply that one hasn't truly surrendered to Jesus. When you truly accept Him as your Savior, your spirit is washed clean so that it can connect with God, and thus, from that point on, you will keep being cleansed each time you sin. But once you connect with God, your spirit will be strongly influenced by His Spirit. It will become your nature to NOT want to sin. Any sin you commit from that point on is more accidental, like you lose your temper/willpower and just gave in. But there is huge remorse from that, you can't help but repent, so that you can truly accept the full weight of Christ's forgiveness again.

So it's not that you do good things to connect with God and go to Heaven, but the other way around: you connect with God, and then your spirit will be prompted to do good things as an expression of how much you love God and are excited to be doing things that you will do in Heaven with Him. Doing good becomes more about glorifying Him and honoring Him because you love Him, NOT because you are trying to earn your place in His kingdom of Heaven (since He's already decided to have you there once you surrender to Jesus and connect with Him).

Another reason why taking Jesus out of the picture makes any belief system fall short of truly leading you to God: all other belief systems only rely on your own understanding and your own strength to get to God. Other religions will teach you to "be good, be moral, do XYZ, and then you will have eternal peace when you die." But this is NOT true-- heaven is a gift from God, not a place we have to "earn". Why? Because again, we CAN'T earn it. No human can ever measure up to the level of goodness and purity that God has, so it's impossible to ever earn our place with Him. Plus, the idea that you are responsible for earning your place with God-- that idea is flawed because then you make yourself the center of your life. “I must do XYZ in order to be good and get eternal paradise”—> this is a self centered mindset that makes life about you. And as mentioned before, you cannot reach your best if you make yourself the center of your life. Our spirits were created to be in connection with God; we were created to worship Him. So when we make ourselves the center of our lives, we deviate from what we were created to be and fall short of being at our best--- even when we are trying to be "good" people. Again, being good/morally upright and doing the "right" thing should NOT be done because you think it's how you must inherit eternal life from God-- rather, being good should be done because you are passionately and authentically honoring God for what HE has done to give you the gift of having eternal life thru Jesus. To think that we can ever earn our place with Him is missing the point about what it means to connect with God. Because again, since no human can ever measure up to the level of goodness and purity that God has, it's impossible to earn our place with Him on our own. And God knows that. That's why God sent Jesus to wash us from all unrighteousness so that we can have a place with Him. Accepting Jesus as your personal Savior will ensure that you can connect to God, regardless of your human limits and any evil in the world. And once you are connected to God, then and only then can you begin the transformation to be the best and purest version of yourself that God created you to be. So there is only one true answer about Who that Ultimate Prime Source is and how to connect with Him: by having true faith in His Son as your Savior. But there are different ways people can discover that truth, and it will be an individual journey that will be unique to everyone. Because God speaks to each person individually and wants to cultivate a unique, intimate relationship with each person. God has the same answer to everyone about how to connect with Him— believe in His Son that He sent to die in your place so that you may live with Him. But He will have a unique way of catching each person’s attention and a unique way of drawing each person closer to Him, so each person can be prepared to make a decision about accepting His Son as their Savior. And when people do accept His Son as their Savior.....from that point on, He will lead them on the unique path that He has planned for each person-- a unique path for how each person is to reach their best in Him. The path will be surprising (in a really good way), enlightening, and very rewarding.

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Why Jesus...and how to grow closer to Him

Since God is the one who made reality and also gave us the ability to perceive reality, He is the one who knows how to help us use our perception properly so that we see reality for how He truly made it and handle it the way He knows is best for us. Relying on our own human minds to navigate reality will only take us so far before we realize how limited our human brains are. But when we surrender our minds and hearts to Him who gave us the ability to perceive reality, He will lead us in ways that will ultimately help us learn what we need to learn.

So how can we surrender our hearts and minds to Him so that we aren’t biased by our own perception of reality when it comes to seeking Him in the first place? Surrendering to Him involves truly embracing His presence. Because His presence brings the fruits of His Spirit— love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law (Galatians 5:22-23). That means there is never a time we should not be experiencing any of these fruits— why? Because God is omnipotent, His presence overpowers anything. So these fruits of His Spirit will always overpower anything— when we surrender to Him, we will experience these fruits so that we can be transformed to not only see reality better as He sees it, but also handle it the way He handles it—by bringing more of His goodness to overcome any darkness that is against it.

Thus, the more we embrace His presence, the more we partake of His fruits so that we can experience them for ourselves and our own walks in reality, and the more we can spread them to others, helping others in their walks in reality. This ultimately brings Him the glory for being the foundation of all these good fruits.

So how can we embrace His presence more? It all starts from simply spending personal time with Him, just like we would with anyone we want to get to know. And it’s good to note that a relationship with God doesn’t grow if you’re only focused on logic and trying to figure Him out. Think of how you get to know people in your life: a relationship doesn’t grow if all you are doing is trying to “figure them out” without spending any personal time communicating with them, getting to know them on a personal level. So the same goes for a relationship with God— we need to spend personal time with Him, engaging with His Spirit and communicating personally with Him, just like we would do for a friend or loved one (except…times infinity because He is God and a relationship with Him is more important than any relationship we could ever have).

Reading the Bible is a great way to connect with Him, but it depends on how you read the Bible. The most important part is that you are in touch with HIS Spirit when you read it— that way, you avoid getting confused/misled by your own limited mind or the limited minds of other people. For example, it is easy to read certain parts of His Word and feel like He is angry at us for not being good enough-- which is not how He wants us to feel at all, since He is a God of peace, who never wants us to feel fear or confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33, 1 John 4:18). Yes, He warns us about His wrath and the destruction He will bring against any evil, but He wants to save us from that. He loves us so much that He wants to ensure that we don't partake in any evil, hence why He sent His Son to die for our sins so that we don't have to experience the punishment and death. Therefore, connecting with Him involves experiencing His sovereign unconditional love for us. So if you read His Word and you don’t feel His peace, His joy, His goodness…or any of the other nine fruits that characterize His Spirit, then that means you haven’t fully surrendered your spirit to His. His presence and guidance is lifegiving in every way, because He brings forth His sovereign love that conquers all and saves us from any destruction that evil brings. Thus, reading His Word or spending any time with Him should always bring us to experience His love, peace, and all the fruits of His Spirit.

So He never wants us to feel any fear when we are with Him-- He is rich in mercy and grace, always ready to forgive us and bring us the gift of His Spirit. He never uses fear to turn out hearts to Him. If we follow God simply because we want to avoid punishment rather than because we truly love God for who He is, that would not be a loving relationship at all (it would just mean we are in it for ourselves-- acting out of fear to avoid punishment rather than because we truly are drawn to God). But because God's love is perfect, He wants us to have freedom to love Him back. He wants our love for Him to be authentic just as His love for us is authentic, so that we are genuinely in love with Him, genuinely in love with how glorious and wonderful He is.

So when reading His Word, it's important to make sure we are truly in touch with His peace-giving and unconditionally loving Spirit so that we can actually follow what His Spirit is telling each of us about His Word (after all, what better way to understand someone’s book than to have its author read and explain it to you?)

This is why it’s important to develop your own connection with God before seeking out other people’s interpretations of His Word. We cannot control where other people are in their walks with Christ, nor can we truly know or control how in touch they are with His Spirit when they read His Word— we can only speak for our own connections with Him and what we hear Him say to us personally. Therefore, group Bible studies are NOT meant to be outlets where we can get answers— God is the only outlet for that. But Bible studies are, instead, meant to provide an outlet where you can share what you hear from God to spread His love to others the way He calls you to, and if you find you are in agreement with someone, great. If not, no stress— God ultimately knows who’s right and who’s not and it’s just a matter of time before He reveals to each one PERSONALLY what needs to be adhered to and what needs changing. He wants us to take the truth seriously, but more importantly— He wants us to take the truthgiver (aka, Himself) even more seriously.

So it's more about deepening a personal relationship with God, first and foremost: deepen a relationship with God by getting to know Him personally, so that we can truly experience His love, peace, wisdom, and consequently be better equipped to spread the love and serve others. Strengthening your relationship with Him will help you improve your relationships with others, rather than the other way around, as God wants us to help each other, but not become dependent on each other-- He doesn't want us to become dependent on anyone except Him, since only He can fill our voids and help us reach our best, better than anyone or anything ever can.

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