Experiences with Jesus

In the past few weeks, I’ve briefly walked through some of the evidence supporting the existence of a God, that this God is the God of the Bible, that Jesus was a real man, that we can trust Jesus’s claim to be the Son of God, and the significance of this to us. All of these logical conclusions are good, but they fail to demonstrate the personal nature of Jesus and express the experiences I’ve had with Jesus. Here are a few of the experiences I’ve had with Jesus which make him the most important person in my life.

He Loves Me

As I shared last week, I was born as a slave to the devil, meaning that my natural will is to do his desires.[1] This slavery wasn’t something I stumbled into because I was sold into slavery, but rather, it was something I was born into. I have always been a sinner. Jesus is under no obligation whatsoever to set me free. After all, it was humanity which first turned its back on God, not the other way around.

Yet, Jesus, for his own pleasure and glory (and having nothing to do with my own actions), decided to love me so much that he did whatever was necessary to set me free and forgive my sins. But this was not simply a decision he made and then snapped his fingers to make it happen. As a sinner, my reward was eternal death where I would have endured the pouring out of the cup of God’s wrath forever.[2] The only way to change my situation was for someone who was not a sinner to trade me places. This is exactly what Jesus did. He became a human being, was tempted in every way I am, yet did not sin,[3] had the cup of God’s wrath poured out on him,[4] and was killed by God.[5]

Why would someone willingly trade places with me? I could understand the trade from his perspective if I was supposed to get eternal life and he was supposed to get eternal punishment. But that’s not the way the trade went. I was the one who was supposed to get eternal punishment and he was the one who was supposed to get eternal life. I was worth nothing and he was worth everything. Nonetheless, he decided to make the trade. That is true love!

I Can Trust Him Completely

When I was younger, I approached relationships by trusting everyone until they proved untrustworthy. But when they proved untrustworthy in even just one small thing, I became skeptical of them in every way. It was very black and white to me. I thought I could either trust someone completely or not trust him or her at all. Now that I am older, I have concluded that no human being can be trusted completely and no human being is completely untrustworthy. Everyone falls somewhere in the middle. However, my desire to have a relationship with someone who I can completely trust in has not gone away. I still desperately desire to find such a person.

I ended up finding this type of relationship with Jesus. When someone truly loves someone else, it will lead that person to will what is in the best interest of the person he or she loves. Jesus not only willed, but demonstrated his love for me when he traded places with me and he continues to demonstrate his love for me daily by leading me and transforming my heart to be like him.[6]

Although Jesus does everything he does first and foremost for his own glory, his pursuit of his own glory is an act of love towards me and benefits me in every way.[7] If he tells me to do something, I can trust that he has his and my best interest at heart. And since he created the universe and everything in it, I trust that he knows what’s best for me better than I know what’s best for me.

He Leads Me

Have you ever noticed that seemingly everyone you meet has a plan for your life? They may not come out and directly say, “I have a plan for your life,” but by the way people talk, most of them seem to think they know what’s best for you. They say things like, “You need to max out your 401k,” “You need to adopt these seven habits,” “You need to become more decisive,” or “You need to eat healthier, exercise more, and sleep longer.” As long as none of their advice conflicts, then you can follow the plans everyone else has for you. But what happens when they conflict? You’ve got one person chirping in your ear that you need to completely cut out the carbs while you’ve got someone else chirping in your other ear that you need to eat a certain number of carbs. If you’re like me, you’re hearing so much conflicting advice from all the people around you who have a plan for your life that you don’t even know what target you’re supposed to be hitting; you end up just trying your best to plant an arrow or two in every target, hoping one of them is the right one.

Because I trust Jesus, I also trust the target at which he tells me to aim: his glory.[8] That’s it. He doesn’t have ten targets that are all in conflict with one another; he has one target and it’s his glory. Everything he calls me to do is directly tied back to hitting the target of his glory. As I pursue hitting this target in everything I do, I’ve realized that I’ve been putting all my eggs in one basket. There’s no diversification in my portfolio. If I’m wrong, then I’ll lose everything. But if I’m right, then I’ll gain everything. I’m willing to take the risk of putting all my eggs in the basket of following Jesus. That’s how much I trust him based on my experiences with him. He hasn’t failed me before and I trust him not to fail me going forward.

He Transforms Me

When I was in second grade, my teacher gave me (and my classmates) a sheet of paper which asked a bunch of questions like my favorite color, my favorite movie, and my favorite food. I was enjoying answering these easy questions. But then I got to a question that wasn’t so easy to answer, “Who is your role model?” What made this question so difficult was that I didn’t have a role model. I didn’t really want to be like Michael Jordan, Ken Griffey, Jr., or Wayne Gretzky, so I was still searching for my role model. Certainly there are good characteristics about these three guys, but they also have their flaws, and I didn’t want those flaws in my life.

Today, without even the slightest hesitation, I can answer that question by saying, “Jesus.” He’s my role model. I want to be like him. But the frustrating part of Jesus being my role model is that no matter what I do, I can’t make myself like him. I can outwardly behave like him, but I can’t change my heart to love the way he loves, to have empathy the way he has empathy, and to have compassion the way he has compassion. Instead, Jesus has to transform my heart and mind to make them like his.[9] The great part, however, is that because Jesus loves me, he is continually working on transforming my heart and mind to make me more like him because he knows that’s what’s best for me. I am more like him today than I was yesterday and I will be more like him tomorrow than I am today. I’m excited to see his work (not mine) on display in the years ahead!

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I’d love to hear about your experiences with Jesus. How do you see him working in your life? Feel free to write a comment, message, or drop me an email with something he has done in your life.

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[1] Refer to John 8:44, 2 Timothy 2:25-26.

[2] Refer to Genesis 2:17, Romans 6:23, Jeremiah 25:15, Matthew 26:36-46, and Revelation 16.

[3] Refer to Hebrews 4:15.

[4] Refer to Matthew 26:36-46.

[5] Refer to John 19:30 and Isaiah 53:10.

[6] Refer to Romans 5:6-9.

[7] For further reading on this point, see chapter 1 of John Piper, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist, rev. ed. (Colorado Springs: Multnomah, 2011).

[8] Refer to 1 Corinthians 10:31 and Isaiah 43:7.

[9] Refer to 2 Corinthians 3:18, Romans 8:29 and 12:2, Philippians 3:21, and Deuteronomy 30:6.