Over the last several year polls have shown a trend down in the belief of God. In 2018 pew research center demonstrated that those 18-29 were the smallest population affirming a belief in God. Many reasons could account for this continued trend toward unbelief. Maybe it’s an increase in families stopping church attendance due to clubs, sports, or other extracurricular activities. Maybe it is because kids are growing up in a split home where a Mom is a different faith than the Father this would cause confusion and an idea that “no one really knows what they believe”. Other reasons could be a disbelief in God due to reading Genesis too literally or through the idea of how God committed mass genocide against the Egyptians and Philistines. But I would think this all has one underlying thought. That is there is no reason to believe in God.

In general, this assumption comes from the idea that we need God to help us be good. I mean think about it. People may talk about sin and underline it that sin is evil. While faith in Jesus is good. We have been told that the world knows what we are against while at same time providing statements of what being a good person looks like. Even when someone stops in a local church to hear a sermon it’ll be laced with sin being bad so don’t do those things. The reasons why can vary from so you’ll be a good person to so you’ll be acceptable to God. But the problem is people see through this. Someone who doesn’t believe that Jesus is God or there is no God is capable of being just as good as those who do. There are times the most ardent atheist shows more love and compassion than those who go to church weekly. The ability to do good things is not contingent on being a religious person.

I feel a lot of those in society miss this too. When someone says something like “homosexuality is a sin” they assume what actually is being said is because you are homosexual you are not a good person. This is not true at all! I have friends and family who are gay and they are incredibly loving and kind people. The point of this is exactly what Ravi Zacharias says “Christ didn’t come to make bad people good but dead people live”.

We hate death. I’ve never been to a funeral or a celebration of life service where everyone was in a festive mood. Each one was full of sadness and a very somber atmosphere. No matter how old the person who died was a common phrase is “I can’t believe they’re gone”. Even when we are surrounded by the reality of their passing there still seems this quiet protest like I refuse to believe their gone. The denial part of the grieving process hits everyone and it just serves to confirm our hatred for death.

There are several reasons why Christ came and died. One from his own mouth is “A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance” (John 10:10). To keep this comparison going the thief is looking to steal life away from us. He is looking to destroy us. Yet Christ is the ONLY one who can stop this theft. Jesus’ death on the cross broke the curse of sin which is death.

Colossians 2:13-15  When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

In Romans chapter 5 we see how every person who has ever lived is under the curse of sin. Because of this, we are also under the judgment and wrath of a Holy God. With God being the giver of all life; separation from Him means death. Sin is what causes that separation and demands a just response from God alone. Sin is not just the bad things we do or think sin is the active defiance against a God whose fame will not compete with ours. We stand back declaring “we don’t need God, we have no use for you”. We do not understand that by doing this we are refusing life. Our hearts have become so depraved that we cherish darkness and death over light and life. By rejecting the one who is life we accept and welcome death.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

vs 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

Here is the thing we cry and mourn at funerals. I have worked in many Emergency Rooms as a nurse and every single time someone dies family and friends will ALWAYS say “I would give up everything to have this person back”.  Let me ask you this WOULD YOU?! Seriously right now would you seriously be willing to give up everything to see your loved one again? The house you are living in right now, the TV shows you enjoy, every last piece of money in your stocks, accounts, and bank, what about your own health and well being? How far would you be willing to go to have that person, whom you just lost, be brought back to life? If the statement is true that we would give up so much, why is it that giving our lives to the one who promised this very thing is so hard? Jesus is the giver, perfecter, and promisor of life, the only way for our pleas of life to be answered in ONLY through Him.

Do not let this go in your mind fight the urge to forget about this: there will come a day when you will lose the person you love the most. Is that a mother, father, sister, brother, friend, colleague, spouse…? Picture that day in your head. You are standing over their casket one last time tears streaming down your face begging for one more hour with them. To talk with them to feel their embrace again maybe even one last kiss on the cheek. You want to hear about their day or anything really just to hear their voice or hear some sound advice you want from them. On that day as you are crying out for one last moment remember Jesus Christ is the one who will be able to not only provide that one moment again but an infinite amount of moments. You would give ANYTHING for that to happen? Then why continue to deny the ONLY one who can give what your heart so desperately longs for?

Dear Christian, why is it so hard for you to go to church one hour a week? Why is it so hard to tell others about this good news you know in your heart is true? Why brush off what Christ has clearly commanded of you? We say I’d give ANYTHING to guarantee life, to never have to say goodbye. Yet we say no to spending even 1 hour a week with the one who promises what we long for? How does this make sense? That’s not even including how much time we spend on our own. “I’ll give anything to see my loved one again”. Does this not include spending time with the very source of life? Like I said earlier we accept and even welcome death. How do I know this? By how much we refuse to spend any time with the life giver. Oh, we talk like we want life but our lives do not show it. We plead for one more moment but only welcome destruction because of who we reject.

For anyone who has put their faith in Christ their victory is secured over death. There is nothing the father of lies can do to you that is worse than what Christ has defeated on the cross.

John 6:35 Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

John 4:13 “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Life here on earth will never always be easy. We will have hardship but those who have placed their faith in Jesus will always know contentment. They are also promised the continuation of life long after death.