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The Way to Peace with God (2025)

Q.1. WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT CHRISTIANITY COMPARED WITH OTHER FAITHS?

While there are thousands of different religions in the world, the five oldest religions are generally accepted as the main world religions. These religions are Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. All the religions of the world are working on the same problem of addressing our human failings and shortcomings. For that reason, practices like meditation, rituals, sacred writings, fasting, prayers, sacrifices, and pilgrimages exist. The question you may have is: “Why have religions developed down through history and spread throughout the world?”

King Solomon lived three thousand years ago and is considered to be the wisest man who ever lived. He observed that – God has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Religions have developed for people to fill this ‘God shaped vacuum’. Of all creatures, this void is unique to humanity.

Many religious claims of heaven and reincarnation are dangerous and unprovable. They are dangerous because, if they are wrong, there will be eternal consequences that cannot be changed. The idea that sinful people can enter a perfect heaven does not stand up to logic because the entrance of unchanged people would make heaven as imperfect as this planet.

Christianity differs in that God provided His own perfect Son as humanity’s sin-bearer and substitute, to make atonement for sinful people. He opened up a way into Heaven by raising His Son, Jesus to life after He died. In this way, He opened a way for believers to also overcome death and the grave following the pattern of the resurrection of Jesus. Our entrance into Heaven is not based on our defective works but on the merits of the perfect Saviour, Jesus Christ.

As you read the pages of the Bible, you will discover that God’s eternal plan to reach out and save sinners was already in place before the world was made by Him (see Ephesians 3:3-11). There is much that God has not chosen to reveal to us. There is no boundary to the vast universe that He has made. However, we do know that God wanted to share His glory and perfection in Heaven with a family made in His own likeness.

This plan introduced a huge puzzle. If He created His creatures perfect and without a free will people’s love for Him would be meaningless. However, if He made people with a free will, He knew they would inevitably reject and ignore Him.

Consequently, He came up with His Master stroke. He would plan for a way of escape culminating in the sending of His One and Only Son to be humanity’s sin-bearer and substitute. We read in the New Testament of the Bible that John the Baptizer identified Jesus as God’s (sacrificial) Lamb Who takes away the sin of the (whole) world (see John 1:29; Revelation 13:8; 17:8). To as many as have received the Saviour, God chose them in Christ before the foundation of the world that they should be holy and blameless before Him (see Ephesians 1:4). In other words, God already had a counter plan to make us perfect for Heaven before time came into existence.

Why was I born and why will I die? God placed us into time because we all have a beginning and an end. We are all born and we will all die. The whole point of time is for us to exercise our free will to give God His rightful place in our lives.

However, we all have a dilemma. Our predecessors Adam & Eve disobeyed God. Their sinful natures have been passed down to us (see Romans 5:12-21). This means that we all offend God in thought, word, and actions every single day. It means that no person can qualify for God’s perfect Heaven. It means that we are cut off from the eternal God both in this life and the life to come.

This would have been a disaster of monumental proportions if it had not been for God’s overarching purpose that He had framed before time began. God devised this amazing rescue plan that Christian believers call “the gospel” or good news of Jesus Christ.

Most people are trapped by their pride, selfishness, immorality, anger, jealousy, and the like. We see this in individuals and nations. Jesus explained in what is called the ‘Parable of the Sower’ or ‘Seeds,’ (see Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23) that there are endless reasons people ignore the truth about God. He suggested that suffering, persecution, the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of wealth, distract many from finding time to make peace with God. Life also has many anomalies where we can thoughtlessly blame God for the evil done by those with power. Some try to find refuge in partying, drugs, and alcohol, to mask the pain they feel inside. People do desperately need a Saviour.

Down through history, God has sent His servants the prophets who made their appeals to the hearts of straying people on God’s behalf. However, none could rival the Son Who fleshed out God’s message and revealed God’s heart for lost sinners (see John 1;1, 14,18; Hebrews 1:1).

The opening verses of the first chapter of Hebrews describes Jesus as …

  • None other than the Son of God.
  • Heir & Owner of the Universe.
  • Creator of the ages of time, space, and eternity.
  • The outshining of God’s glory.
  • The exact replica of His glory.
  • Upholder of the Universe.
  • Redeemer of us sinners
  • Risen King of Glory.

He is the One to perfectly speak and live out God’s message. What is revealed in the Bible is profound … and yet even a child can receive Jesus and love Him.

It was extremely complicated for God’s ancient people, Israel to approach a holy God. A complete tribe of the twelve tribes of Israel was commissioned to represent the people before God. Even the complex sacrifices and offerings could only at best cover their sins. When God sent His Son into the world, He provided a better way by placing all our sins on His Son. Because He was a real man, Jesus could die and pay our penalty. Because He was true God, death could not hold Him in its grasp and He rose on the third day as predicted by many ancient prophets (see Acts 2:23-32).

What marks out the Christian gospel from all other religions is that the Founder rose from the dead and is alive forevermore. If Jesus never rose from death, believers would have to rely on empty promises. Because Jesus rose to life after His crucifixion, Christian believers have a rational basis upon which to believe that Christ’s promise of Heaven and eternal life is believable and achievable.

The great celebrations of Christmas and Easter underscore the message of the gospel. Christmas celebrates the miraculous virgin birth of God in the flesh. Easter reminds us of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus and His triumph over death for us.

Many who trust in their religions vainly imagine they can be saved by their own good works and efforts. Sadly, many Christians also mistakenly think that they will be accepted by God through their own merits and efforts.

The Bible declares – 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Based on my own daily experience of sinful thoughts, words, and actions, I knew something drastic was needed to change me and make me fit for heaven. The Christian gospel provides believers with three parts in the process of SALVATION –

  • JUSTIFICATION: Upon repentance from my sin and faith in the Saviour, God declares me righteous or gives me right standing in His sight.
  • SANCTIFICATION: Because I am far from righteous, God places His Holy Spirit in me to change me from the inside out to become what He has already declared me to be.

REDEMPTION: When we leave this earth, God will give me a brand-new perfect body – 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself (Philippians 3:20-21)

Religion is a ‘thing’ not a person. Religion is about what people do to somehow earn credit with God. Religious activities may give you a feeling of acceptance or failure depending on how honest you are or how defeated you are by your sins. How could people ever imagine that an invisible and almighty God would be pleased with our flawed human efforts?

God has already shown us how much He hates meaningless religion when He took the drastic step to remove Israel from the land into exile (see Isaiah 1:10-15). When God’s Son challenged the religious establishment of His day, they spurned God’s love and had Jesus crucified. God wants a relationship with us.

God placed us into families and relationships, as a reflection of His own heart’s desire for the human race whom He created in His likeness. The years between your birth and death provide you with time to get to know your Creator and Saviour. Not much else matters. If your religion does not help you grow in your personal relationship with God, it is a waste of time.

The Bible is unlike any other book. It is a library of 66 books. It has forty different authors writing over a period of 1,600 years. Yet from Genesis to Revelation they unfold one story of redemption history. The Bible gives hundreds of prophecies of the coming, birth, sufferings, and resurrection, and coming again of Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself claimed – 44 … “These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” …  46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem (Luke 24:44-47). 

My life was changed at twenty when I became convicted about my unforgiven sins by the Bible’s honesty. I have preached the Bible from cover to cover, from all over the sixty-six books. I affirm – 20 … that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21).

Relationships have two parties. In healthy relationships both parties communicate. It is no different with God. God should be speaking to you regularly and you should be speaking with Him. If you cannot express what God has been saying to you it is probably because there is something wrong with your relationship or alternately, there is no relationship. That is where I was at until Jesus found me. My birthday is in August 1944. My spiritual birthdate is in October 1964.

There are usually a number of pointers to a real relationship with Jesus Christ:

  • A new love for the Scripture and desire to pray.
  • A new awareness of right and wrong. Victory over sinful habits.
  • A new desire to be like Jesus.
  • A new love for other believers.
  • A new enjoyment of worship.
  • A new passion to share your new-found faith with others.
  • A pressure from others convicted by your changed life.

Seek out other believers and join a Bible believing church or house church.

It will help you grow if you begin the Discipleship Notes with another Christian. There are twenty studies that will lay the foundation for you to grow your relationship with God. These will also prepare you to form a sharing group with others. It is better to do it with someone of the same gender. It is good to have more than two sharing.

You will find some helpful basic steps on this website. At the end of the Discipleship Lessons you will find seven ‘First Steps in Following Jesus’ after lesson twenty. Ask the Christian believer who shared the gospel with you to spend time going through these First Steps.

Decide where you will start with the Bible Reading Plan (BRP). You could choose a particular book to study. However, it is best that you become familiar with the whole Bible.

May the Lord bless your search. Jesus promised – 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened (Matthew 7:7-8). He will never fail you.