Jesus Christ

The reason I have decided to follow Jesus Christ

The Last Supper of Jesus Christ

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Every believer in Jesus Christ, has a story to tell about how he or she came in contact with Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul had his experience (then Saul), while on his way to Damascus to persecute the Church.

“And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus; and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do (Acts 9:3-6).

Many of us grew up in Christian homes, where the gospel was taught very early in our lives. Still, some of us grew up in homes where the gospel was never mentioned at all.

I grew up in what I would call; a semi-Christian home–Mom was a praying woman and Dad was a dreamer. I never saw my dad in church, but that did not stop Mom from indoctrinating me and my brother with the gospel of Jesus Christ. She made sure we knew all the popular church songs and Bible stories. Each week she would drilled the Sunday School Golden Text into our heads, and when called upon, the Golden text was to be recited without error.

Mom was truly fired up for Jesus, but she never allowed her children to know Jesus Christ for themselves. She completely ignored the simple fact about Christianity: To be a follower of Christ, everyone has to have an awakening and a personal contact with Christ. Each of us must have our own Damascus road experience. Without that experience, you are doomed to fail because the moment you decided to follow Christ your enemies increased a 100 fold.

I never had a personal contact with Jesus as a young child. I was merely following Mom’s orders. It was not until I was stricken with a very dangerous autoimmune disease called Guillain Barre Syndrome. I thought I was going to die. The enemy had me cornered and the doctors who were attending to me had never treated anyone for this disease before. I had no place to turn to, so I called upon the Church and Jesus Christ–Jehovah Rapha.

The church came and prayed, and prayed, and prayed, and prayed for my deliverance. Today I am rejoicing in the Lord, completely healed and delivered from Guillain Barre Syndrome: 

I can truthfully confess that prayer works. My God is ever faithful. Whatever he says, he will do.”Oh Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me” (“Psalms 30:2 ). I am now a new person and a true follower of Jesus Christ.

Born Again–the Salvation Experience

The Tree of Knowledge, painting by Lucas Crana...

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Salvation begins with an experience of new birth apart from natural birth into the world. According to the Bible, all humanity has descended from Adam and Eve who were created sinless and perfect by God from the dust of the earth (Genesis 1 :26, 27 ; 2:7). Though brought into existence for fellowship with God, they were given the agency of free will to make personal choices in the newly created world.

At some point this faculty was tested by Satan in a temptation to eat fruit from the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil–a temptation that was failed and which changed the nature of humanity forever (Genesis 3:1-20). Because of this failure, the nature of sin was inbred to the offspring of the first family throughout the succeeding generations. This resulted in an innate tendency to rebel against the will of God (Romans 5:12).

In his first letter to the Corinthian Church, the Apostle Paul mentions that the solution to this sin problem, and its penalty is through the remedy of Christ’s sin offering at Calvary and His subsequent resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:21, 22). It is through the death ,burial and resurrection of Christ that fallen humanity rediscovers and experiences the life lost by disobedience of our ancestors in the garden of Eden–a spiritual rebirth.

This born again experience cannot be achieved through an intellectual process, as was clearly explained by Jesus to Nicodemus (John 3:1-18), but through another kind based upon belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and faith in His crucifixion and resurrection as being enough for redemption and confession of personal sin. This Salvation of the soul begins with a decided repentance from sin but is consummated by works of the spirit in the life of the individual–justification and regeneration. being born again depends not only upon faith of the person seeking salvation, but also upon the works of grace in the heart by the Holy Ghost.