The Benefits of Christian Faith

Why someone would want to be saved

Why should anyone want to become a Christian? Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, the answer you’ll hear right away will be something about eternal life and avoiding hell. While that is a good answer (it also has the most significance) there are several reasons for becoming a Christian that will impact your life right here on earth. Here are a few of them.

1. Your life will have meaning.

If you now think that you are just another late product of evolution whose existence is meaningless and has no other end than death, becoming a Christian will enable you to realize that you are actually a spiritual as well as a physical being, whose life does possess meaning, an infinitely powerful meaning. In fact, you were created in the image of God himself, sharing some of his characteristics (creativity, love of beauty, desire for fellowship).

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

—Genesis 1:27

2. You will understand the value of your life.

As a being created in the image of God and given existence by his grace, you are a supremely valuable part of the created world. God values you and loves you in a way far beyond the way he values and loves the plants and animals he has also made. In fact, he loves you more than he loves the angels. You will understand this and feel your value when you learn that God gave his only son to die to pay for your sins.

For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.

—1 Timothy 2:5-6

3. Your life will have purpose.

Think that your existence is pointless and purposeless? By trusting in God, you will gain confidence in your life as something greater and more important than your mere existence on earth. Whether young or old, sick or well, rich or poor, and whatever color or nationality you are, you’ll realize that your life has a higher purpose than just to consume resources and try to avoid pain. God has a plan for you that extends well beyond your few years on earth.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

—Jeremiah 29:11-13 (ESV)

4. You will be comforted in suffering.

When you suffer or face tribulation, even if you are alone physically, you will receive the comfort and feel the love of your creator. Christianity doesn’t promise an easy, successful, healthy life. Christians face at least as many illnesses, accidents, and setbacks as anyone else. But the knowledge that they have a compassionate, loving God gives suffering Christians strength to persevere and be optimistic in the face of their trials.

These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.

—John 16:33

Suffering alone can be deeply miserable. But God is always there for those who seek him, love him, and serve him.

5. You will have the joy of the Lord.

You will feel not just comfort in your sorrow or grief, but joy in the face of every sorrow, misfortune, or tragedy, as the Lord walks along with you. You’ll understand how a Christian can be very unhappy, even downcast, but never feel alone or despairing. That joy comes both from knowing God and from knowing that this life is only a temporary existence that will give way to eternal happiness in heaven.

And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

—Revelation 21:4

In our weakness, you give us strength,

In our suffering, you give us hope,

In our sorrow, you bring us joy,

And in our struggles, you bring us peace.

6. You’ll enjoy an objective moral code.

You won’t have to wonder, doubt, decide, and second guess each time you’re faced with the question with moral implications. If you’re faced with a decision about doing wrong; you’ll already know the answer or you can ask a simple question that invokes your Christian moral code:

1. Would doing this honor God?

2. Which choice will please God the most?

3. Would doing or choosing this disappoint God?

4. Does God prohibit this?

5. Does God permit this?

6. What does the Bible say about this?

7. Will any of these actions be unvirtuous?

Relativism and situation ethics can become very complicated, with lots of manipulation, rationalization, self-serving, and second guessing. Moreover, lacking a fixed set of values forces you to go through what often will be a tedious, hasty, poorly structured decision-making process, hunting around for pro and con reasons, evidence, data, previous examples and facts relevant to the situation.

It’s All Relative

That day, the professor had been lecturing to his ethics class on morality and property.

“There is no objective basis for the belief that theft is wrong,” he said. “That’s just an opinion—or rather a dogma—perpetuated by the wealthy capitalist exploiters to exploit the workers, whose labor creates the property that the capitalists hoard.”

“So a thief is just taking his own due property?” asked a student rapidly scribbling in his notebook.

“Yes,” replied the professor. “A property reassignment operator is thinking, ‘Give me my property that you happen to have.’”

“Yes!” said the student.

“That you happen to have illegitimately,” concluded the professor, emphatically.

“That’s so interesting,” said the student. I wish I could take notes faster.”

“No problem,” replied the professor. “You can purchase all of my lectures in the bookstore. I record them all on this voice recorder. You can—.” Just then, the professor noticed that his voice recorder was not on the lectern. “Where is my recorder?” he asked loudly to the class. There was no response. “Who has my voice recorder?” he yelled, fishing around violently in his briefcase. “Has someone taken it? I want it back right now.”

Not hearing any replies, the professor immediately called Security and demanded that several officers come to his classroom, seal the exits and search every student until his recorder was found. “That is my personal possession and I’ll see to it that whoever stole it is expelled from this university and forever banned from attending any other university in the world.”

Biblical principles are solid and resistant to abuse (and hypocrisy). Living a principled life also allows you to make friends and be trusted by everyone more easily, since it is soon clear that you have fixed moral rules. Therefore, others can predict how you will act or respond in given situations. People who “make it up as they go along” are unpredictable morally and must be viewed with caution in nearly every circumstance.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.

—Psalm 1:2

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

—Matthew 11:28-30

7. You’ll finally know the truth.

It is quite astonishing how much falsehood, disinformation, misinformation, propaganda, and plain lying exists in our information world. Once you are saved, you will learn the truth, with the help of the Holy Spirit. You’ll learn about yourself, others, your life longings, and be able to expose and reject the lies that so many people use to manipulate you with. You’ll discover that there are permanent, objective truths and that those who smirk when you mention truth are at sea without an anchor.

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

—John 14:16-17

8. You will become emotionally healthier.

What is the cause of an enormous amount of emotional pain and suffering among people today? Resentment, bitterness, grudges, rancor, ill will—in a word, unforgiveness. When you come to Christ, you will recognize that you are in need of forgiveness yourself and that perhaps unrecognized guilt has been disrupting your peace of mind. Bearing the burden of guilt over sins you committed in the past can eat you up and paralyze your emotional life. When you experience God’s forgiveness for your sins and you no longer carry the baggage of sin, you will feel a healing of your heart.

Similarly, bearing an unforgiving grudge against someone who has wronged you can poison your entire personality as you constantly remind yourself each day that there is someone you hate or have not forgiven. Such bitterness and resentment punishes you and prevents you from emotional growth and wholeness. And it taints your whole experience of life—and the relationships you have with everyone.

Finally, once you begin to let go and receive forgiveness and forgive those who have wronged you, you can begin to forgive yourself. We are a self-blaming people. Whenever something goes wrong, not only do we too quickly learn to hate the wrongdoer, but we also hear a whisper inside our own minds that says, “This is at least partly my own fault.” And we hear that voice over and over, possibly for years. When you can complete the forgiveness circle by forgiving yourself, life will suddenly seem to be fresh and new.

And forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

—Matthew 6:12 (NLT)

9. You will become a child of the Light.

You will no longer live in the darkness of mind, heart, and soul.

Trust Me

Wilma had been very successful in her career, but not so much in her relationships. Then one evening she met a quite handsome man who, as she told all her friends at the office, was just the best conversationalist. He praised her looks, her intelligence, her skills. He told her she was the most special woman he had ever met.

The fast friends quickly moved to talk of marriage. Wilma’s only qualm was that they always met in very dark restaurants and her boyfriend—I mean, fiancé—always wore sunglasses.

Nevertheless, Wilma was eager to land such a supportive, good looking, complimentary companion—who never asked for help paying the check—so the wedding soon took place.

The next morning, Wilma’s new husband had already left for work. He did leave a note asking her to meet him for lunch at a restaurant some miles away. Naturally, she got ready and headed out.

When she got to the restaurant, her husband was not there. But he had called and left a message telling her he would be late because he had lost his cell phone. He said she should wait for him.

Wilma waited until early evening, but her husband did not appear, nor did he call. Facing a long drive, the woman, tired from stress, decided to stay overnight at the hotel attached to the restaurant.

The next day, Wilma arrived home after the long drive, only to discover that all her furniture was gone. She soon also learned that all her bank accounts had been emptied, her investments liquidated, her house re-mortgaged and the equity taken out.

She did find a note on the door from her husband of a day that said, “Thanks for being so gullible and willing to be a fool.”

Yes, Wilma had been conned.

Indeed, Satan is a con artist. His confidence scheme is to keep people from accepting God’s offer of salvation. And he does this by promising us whatever we hunger for, whatever is our weakness. And he offers it to us at an incredible price, a price that turns out to be—incredible.

“You want X? Sure, sigh—I mean sign—here. All it costs is a brief eternity apart from God. And who wants to live in heaven with God when you can have X now and me forever?”

This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.

—John 3:19

Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."

—John 8:12

This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in Him at all.

—1 John 1:5

10. You will be given eternal life.

Asking Jesus into your life to forgive you and to lead you in the Christian walk from then on restores you to fellowship with God, and gives you a place in the kingdom of heaven. Did I mention that it’s an eternal home where you will live forever?

I tell you the truth, those who listen to My message and believe in God who sent Me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.

—John 5:24

Concluding Anecdote

An old acquaintance once said to me, “I don’t see a shred of evidence for the existence of God.” I knew then that argument was useless. I was tempted to say, “Open your eyes,” and then point to all the beauty and design in the creation: flowers, trees, crystals, clouds, sunsets. But that would get me only a scoff or a sneer. The real problem was that the eyes of his soul were closed, and that prevented him from seeing God’s fingerprints in the physical world. You can’t see what you do not want to see.

Questions for Thought and Discussion

For Non-Christians

1. In light of what you read about why you might want to enter the faith, have you changed your mind? Why or why not?

For Christians

1. In your experience with personal evangelism, which, if any, of the reasons presented here have you found to be effective?

2. Think of two more benefits to salvation in addition to those discussed in this chapter.

For both Christians and Non-Christians

1. Of the reasons for wanting to become a Christian, which two do you find personally most appealing or most persuasive? Why?

2. Of the reasons for wanting to become a Christian, which two do you find personally least appealing or least persuasive? Why?

Activities

1. Create a poster titled, “10 Reasons to Meet Jesus” or “Ten Reasons to be Saved,” and list the ten reasons from this chapter. Next, create a handout with a discussion of each reason (feel free to use any of the material from this chapter, but be sure to include a citation).

Finally, go public with this. Sit at a table at a mall or somewhere lots of pedestrian traffic goes by. See how many people stop to read, how many continue on to discuss, and so forth. Write a report of your day’s activity. What did you learn? Was the poster session effective? Did some people get angry?

Be sure to read the companion article, "Drawbacks to the Christian Faith."

The Virtual Salt

Friday, March 15, 2019