Romans 10:17 - So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
How does someone come to believe in Jesus? What is necessary for that belief in him to take root? In order to believe in anything, you have to know that it exists. You have to be exposed to it in some way. You can’t believe in anything that you have never seen, heard of, or have any awareness of. For intents and purposes, if you have no exposure to something, it might as well not exist to you.
So with that in mind, the only way to come to believe in Jesus is to see him, hear him, or become aware of him in some way. Since we cannot see Jesus today, or hear his voice with our own ears, we have to look for evidence of him outside of that lack of personal experience. In other words, we cannot interact with Jesus right now in his physical form, so we have to gain awareness of him in other ways.
Thankfully, we have eyewitness accounts of what Jesus said that were written down and passed down from generation to generation. People who walked with Jesus, talked with him and learned from him, wrote much of it down so that others who had not seen him might still hear his voice through their writing and come to believe that Jesus is the son of God and the giver of eternal life.
If we had no awareness of Jesus, then we would find no reason to put our faith in anything that he said or did, especially what he did on the cross and in his resurrection. Now, we know from what Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans that God has revealed himself to the world, even making his invisible attributes known so that humanity is without excuse. No one can claim that they never saw evidence of God, because all creation speaks of who he is.
However, instead of acknowledging the true God, men and women throughout history have made their own gods or worshipped demons, calling them gods. We’ve exchanged the truth of God for lies. Because of this, spirituality has become a generic catch all for all kinds of systems of belief, all claiming to have some sort of connection with the divine. But the problem is that according to Jesus, there is no access to God except through him.
Therefore, if we hear Jesus’ words that he is the son of God who came into the world to save sinners and bring us home, then we have something of immense value to believe in. Without his precious words coming into our ears and changing our hearts, we would have no faith, and no hope. His words are absolutely necessary for us to know God and to have access to God. There is no other way to saving faith, no matter how flashy or trendy another way may be.
Today you will no doubt be bombarded with many different beliefs in the world, all claiming to have the answer. Hold up the words of Christ to these things, and you will find that only his words can stand the test of time, the test of scrutiny, and only his words can change lives in the way that is truly needed. What a hope we have in Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.
