What does it mean to have a personal relationship with Jesus? The fact that you’re here on this page to try and get an answer to that question means you are curious and you are seeking answers … we’re glad you’re here.

The good news is that this God you seek to know personally has given us a book (the Bible) to help us understand who He is, His incredible love for you, why He created you, how our intimate (personal) relationship with God was broken, and then how He made a way to restore that intimate (personal) relationship with Him. In fact, a noted author was once asked how he would summarize the entire story of the Bible in five words or less, and after thinking about it a moment he responded, “God gets His family back.”

 

What you are about to read is not a quick, easy step-by-step guide to establishing a relationship with God. There is a clear path to this intimate relationship with God, but like any relationship it’s more than just simply following a check list. More on that as you continue to read. But the fact that you are here reading this is proof that God is already at work in your life. So, let’s jump in!

Since much of what you are about to read is based on the Bible, you may first wonder why we can trust the Bible. If that is where you would like to begin, click here for an article that helps explain why the bible is trustworthy as God’s authoritative word.

 

God’s story, and your place in His story, must begin with the fact that God didn’t need us. He wasn’t lacking anything. When God created all that is in the world – including humans like you and me – He created us for the simple purpose of sharing His goodness and joy with us. Not only that, the Bible says he created us “in His image.” (Genesis 1:27). That means that we have within us many of the attributes of God, even though we are not God. As an example, we were created with the capacity to love, but we cannot love to the same depth that God loves us. From the very beginning (Genesis 1:1) God’s desire has been to have a relationship with us. And after he created all that we see, he declared that it was good.

Since we are created beings, it would be natural to look upon the One who created us with awe, and wonder, and worship – that IS the natural response. But God also created us with something called “free will.” That means we can choose whether or not we want to worship Him, and we can choose whether or not we want a relationship with Him. If God didn’t give us freedom to choose or reject Him, then He would simply be a manipulative and insecure deity forcing His creation to submit. Who would want to genuinely worship or trust a God like that, let alone enjoy a God like that?! But true love cannot be coerced. If we do not have the ability to reject God, then neither would we have the ability to truly love and worship Him. Genuine love and genuine good can only exist in a world where there is an opportunity for genuine rejection and genuine evil.

So, in the beginning there was nothing that separated God from His creation. There was fellowship and joy. But then we, through Adam and Eve, made a decision to disobey God (Genesis 3). Their disobedience has had a ripple effect throughout every generation since.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23

“For the wages of sin is death …” Romans 6:23

Our disobedience to God created a separation from God, and since then people have tried many ways to bridge this gap between themselves and God.

“There is a way that seems right to man, but its end is the way of death.” Proverbs 14:12

“It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.” Isaiah 59:2

In Old Testament times, God spelled out what it would take to bridge the gap, which many times would mean offering sacrifices of animals. These sacrifices, literally the blood of animals, were meant to symbolize repentance of a person’s heart because they represented a person’s willingness to sacrifice something of value. It was meant to be a type of surrender and a commitment to change one’s ways. Hebrews 9:22 summarizes this old system by saying this:

“Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

 

This is important as we begin to look at the role Jesus plays in eliminating the gap between you and God.

But these animal sacrifices soon became hollow and meaningless as they became a ritual and seen as a way to earn God’s forgiveness without changing one’s heart. People started going through the motions of sacrifice and repentance, but in reality their hearts were far from God.

Since God is holy – meaning set apart and pure – the only sacrifice worthy of reconnecting us to God has to be equally holy. As humans, we will never be able to achieve this ... we simply aren’t, and will never be, good enough. The only way to offer a sacrifice worthy of God, is for God to do it himself – to, literally, sacrifice himself. And he did, by sending his son Jesus – fully God and fully human – to be an acceptable sacrifice and die in or place. Jesus, unilaterally, took on our sin. It’s this truth that the Apostle Paul wrote about in Ephesians 2:8-9:

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

The entire crux of the Christian faith hinges upon who you believe Jesus is and what you believe he did when he died on the cross and was then resurrected from the dead.
To address any doubts about Jesus and his divinity, here are just a few resources: