Finding True Peace

This is a challenging question to confront because it requires us to come face to face with a difficult Truth. The Bible tells us that every created person who has ever lived has 2 things in common.

1. We are all created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). This means we all have intrinsic value and worth. But it also means that God has placed within each of us a soul. This soul has the capacity to live forever—even after our body dies.

2. We are all born with sin in our lives (Romans 3:23). We all are born wanting to be our own gods, which means even from birth we have rejected the holy, perfect God, who created us. Sin makes relationship with God impossible and condemns our soul to live forever away from God.

However, God had a plan in place from eternity to redeem and restore. That is who He is—He “devises ways so that a banished person does not remain banished from him” (2 Samuel 14:14). Because God’s love is infinite, He could not leave us banished; He longs to have a relationship with each of us. So God ransomed us—He paid the eternal penalty of our sin—through the person and work of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh.

Jesus lived a perfectly godly life and then, though sinless, took the just punishment for all our sin—in our place.

There’s a longing in our hearts that only God can fulfill. We sense it when we’ve tasted of the temporary pleasures of success, wealth, entertainment, relationships—and still feel a sense of emptiness. Why do these things only offer momentary satisfaction?

The Bible says that God has “set eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11) and that He has created us “for [His] glory” (Isaiah 43:7). This means that only by seeking after God and knowing Him intimately will we ever truly be satisfied. The Bible summarizes it well: “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).

Selfish, worldly pursuits will never satisfy. But Jesus promised us that “whoever loses their life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). As you give your life to worship and honor God, you will find that your heart is filled with a sense of lasting joy and fulfillment—no matter your job status, income level, relationship status, or any other external circumstance. It’s this kind of life—a life spent in relationship with God through prayer, time in His Word, fellowship with other believers, and daily surrender to His will—that He intended for us to live. In fact, this rich, abundant life continues forever for all who believe in Christ, even after death—for in heaven, all who believe in Him will worship Him for all eternity. How satisfying it will be to behold the beauty of the Lord together and revel in His glory forever!

Does God exist? While our current cultural climate would lead you to believe that the only reasonable answer to this question is no, in actuality, the more reasonable answer is yes.

When someone concludes that God exists, we normally say that this is an exercise of faith, but the opposite is also true. If someone concludes that God does NOT exist, this is likewise an exercise of faith. For, to truthfully claim that God does NOT exist, you must first begin by looking everywhere for Him. The problem here is that the known universe is just too large for us to search in its entirety. So the statement “God does NOT exist” is too exclusive to be claimed with absolute confidence. Such a statement requires faith that it is true.

However, the Bible claims that God does exist and that He loves us so much that He came looking for us—even when we were not looking for Him (John 3:16)! There are many reasons to conclude that the Bible is trustworthy, among them the hundreds of incredible Biblical prophecies fulfilled in detail, historical accounts and artifacts that affirm Biblical events, the consistency of its message, and more.

We can confidently believe that God does exist—He has shown Himself to us again and again, that we might know Him and have a relationship with Him. And the ultimate revelation of God to us was in His Son, Jesus Christ, through whom we can come to know God.

Many religions say we have to do something, give something, say something, or generally be good people to connect with God. But the Truth is that we are not the initiators of a relationship with God. He has already provided everything you need to come to Him—to have peace and a relationship with Him. He did this 2,000 years ago when He chose to leave the comfort of heaven and come down to earth. When He came, we didn’t even recognize Him because he showed up as a baby, born into a poor family! His parents named Him Jesus, and He was from a family who lived in a town called Nazareth.

The account of Jesus’ life is primarily found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the New Testament. They record that Jesus—God with us—came to earth to atone for our sins as our substitute so that we might have eternal life by receiving His free gift.

There’s no amount of good works we could perform to overcome the chasm that sin creates between us and God. But because of Jesus, who bridged that chasm at the cross, we can receive God’s gift of salvation from sin and connect with Him—the very God of the universe—any time!

The Bible tells us the story of God’s plan to redeem the world from sin. It centers around the historical figure Jesus of Nazareth and claims that He was not only 100% man but also 100% God. Here are some of the features of Jesus’ life that demonstrate that He is the Savior of the world promised since the beginning:

Jesus was born of a virgin. Jesus' miraculous conception and subsequent birth meant that Jesus was not born with sin—He did not inherit the sinful nature of Adam but was a new and better type of Adam.  Because Jesus was sinless at birth and throughout His life, He was able to pay the price of our sin—all our offenses against God—with His own blood.

Jesus was crucified. Jesus’ death on the cross marked the moment when He willingly placed Himself in the line of fire, receiving all of the righteous wrath of Almighty God toward all mankind’s sin. Jesus’ death was the only death that could eternally and completely satisfy God’s wrath, and though He deserved nothing but eternal love from God the Father, He died in our place, letting us, the real offenders, go free.

Jesus was bodily raised from the dead. Jesus’ crucifixion was not the end of His life. As promised, on the third day, He rose from the dead. And in the days following His resurrection, He appeared to thousands of eyewitnesses, who could corroborate the evidence of His bodily resurrection.

Salvation comes by faith alone in Jesus Christ—through His grace alone. Genuine conversion rests completely in what Christ did, not in what we do (or fail to do). But our salvation will also be evidenced in our lives.

First, if we believe that Jesus died for our sins and rose again from the dead and confess Him as Lord, we can be sure of our salvation (Romans 10:9-11). We can take God at His Word—His Word does not fail. He has said that Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient to wash you white as snow (Hebrews 10:19-25). If you believe this, you are saved.

Second, the Bible promises that the Holy Spirit gives us confirmation that we are children of God (Romans 8:16). Similarly, in Galatians 5, Paul describes what is commonly known as the Fruit of the Spirit—characteristics that the Holy Spirit fosters in our hearts when we receive Christ and determine to walk in His ways. These attributes are supernatural in that they run in contradiction to human nature, so these fruit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control—are evidence of a true believer.