THE Question

Everything has a starting point, including faith.  For most of us, our faith journey started somewhere in childhood and included things like, “God is good”.  Along the way you heard that God punishes evil and rewards good, so you’d better be a good little boy or girl because God rewards good people, and He doesn’t really reward the bad people.  And someone told you that God answers prayer.  But for many people, as they grew older, their childhood faith didn’t do so well under the rigors of adult life.

Yeah, God is good but there’s a lot of bad things in the world.  And there seem to be a lot of good things that go unrewarded and bad things that get rewarded.  And God answers prayer, but He didn’t answer your prayer - at least not the way you wanted Him to.  Sometimes our childhood faith and what started off so fresh and so real and so passionate as kids just doesn’t seem relevant in the world in which you live. 

Part of the problem with Christianity is that when we grew up we were taught the Bible.  That, in and of itself, isn’t a problem, but in some ways the way we were taught the Bible is a problem.  As a child, we were taught that it was the Word of God, it was inspired and infallible.  So we went off to college and we were told that, even though it was sacred, it wasn’t scientific and it wasn’t factual.  And even though there were stories in here that were inspirational, they weren’t necessarily true.  The thing is, “The Bible Says” is not an adequate starting point or returning point for many adults.  But here’s the good news:  “The Bible says” was never intended to be the starting point for the Christian faith.  

“The Bible says”, wasn’t the starting point when Christianity started.  the New Testament wasn’t put together for about 350 years after the events of Jesus’ life.  The phrase, “New Testament” doesn’t even show up until about 250 AD.  So for the first 250 to 350 years of Christianity, countless people became Jesus followers, but not because, “The Bible says”. 

These people trusted in Christ and found a relationship with God.  But the fact remains, the starting point for the Christian faith is not, “The Bible says”.  The starting point for the Christian faith is not, “just believe”.  The starting point for the Christian faith, whether they told you this as a child or not, is a question.  And the question isn’t, “Were Adam and Eve really naked?”  The starting point isn’t, “Did they really put all those animals in the ark?  Was there really an ark, anyway?  Was there really enough water in the atmosphere to flood the whole earth?  Was creation 7 real days or were they longer days?”  The question, the foundation, the thing you have to wrestle with if you’re looking for a starting point or looking at re-starting your faith, is this:  

Who is Jesus?  

Not, “Is the Bible true?”  Not the other 20 things we could debate because they’re fun to debate.  The question is, “Who is Jesus”? “Who is Jesus” is the question that will always be THE question.  Because, once you answer that question, you will discover that many of those other questions begin to answer themselves.  

Jesus said this, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is through me.”  (John 14:6, NCV)  

Let me invite you to wrestle with what Jesus said in light of the question, “Who is Jesus?”.  And if you have more questions, I, and my colleagues in churches across the community, would be glad to help you find the answers.