How hard would it be to relate to someone who you have never seen? How difficult would it be to communicate with someone when you talk and they don’t speak back?

This is a dilemma that mankind has faced from the beginning with trying to form a relationship with God.

In the Garden of Eden, God walked and talked with Adam and Eve. Then something terrible happened. God had instructed them to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Satan, in the form of a serpent, tricked Eve into disobeying God and Adam followed suit. That broke the relationship between man and God.

To understand this problem, you have to recognize the duality of God’s character. He deeply loves men and women – His creation. Yet, He is holy and He can’t abide sin. He doesn’t have to.

Before the universe began, God understood that this problem would arise. Man was separated from a righteous God and their needed to be an accounting before there would be reconciliation.

What does that mean?

It means that somehow a sinful mankind needed a mechanism to come back into favor and relationship with God, our Creator. God won’t let sinners into His Heaven and the destiny for those apart from God is Hell.

God’s plan is laid out perfectly in the Bible. He would send His Son, Jesus Christ, to Earth to save mankind through His personal sacrifice.

Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and Mary gave birth to Him. He lived a sinless life. The religious leaders of that day despised Him and after a mock trial, they hanged Jesus on a cross. Three days later, Jesus rose from the dead and later ascended into Heaven.

One of the wonderful parts of His story is that He was God among us. Jesus was as much a man as if He had never been God but He was as much God as if He were never a man. For sure, this is difficult to understand.

We follow an invisible God but He had the foresight to put on flesh and walk among us. No man in the history of the world has had the impact that Jesus has. No other major religion claims that its founder died and came back to life.

The writers the Four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) chronicled the life and three-year public ministry of Jesus. He healed the sick. He raised the dead. He drove the money changers from the Temple. He turned water into wine. He taught in the synagogues. He walked on water. He calmed the storm. God’s overwhelming love for man was manifested in the actions and words of Jesus.

So, how do you get the salvation that Jesus spoke of? Do you earn your salvation by doing more good deeds than bad deeds? Not according to the Bible. We are urged to do good works but it is only by grace that we are saved through faith.

Doesn’t everyone go to Heaven? After all, how could a loving God send people to eternal punishment?

No, Heaven is for those who believe in Jesus Christ and have placed their trust in Him. Jesus made it very clear that He came to Earth to save people. If Hell didn’t exist, why would Jesus need to sacrifice His life on the cross?

Doesn’t everybody believe in Jesus?

No. The demons believe that Jesus is the Son of God but they don’t have a faith in Him.

How do we know that God exists?

Look around. Don’t you marvel at the intricacy of this planet we live on? Did this all happen by accident? Did lightning strike some molecules and a living creature climb out of the muck to eventually evolve into a human being? It takes a lot more faith to believe in that story than to trust in Jesus.

Someone has said that every person has a God-shaped vacuum in their heart. That’s profound. People reject a relationship with God for many reasons. Pride is close to top of the list. We want to be self-sufficient.

But if you study Jesus, you will see that He was so compassionate and so instructive. After His death and resurrection, His disciples were so convinced that He was the Son of God that many of them were martyred rather than denounce Jesus and their faith.

You don’t surrender your life for a lie.

Christmas is a great season to get right with God. Tulsa is filled with churches and Christians who are anxious to help answer the questions that surround us all. It’s surprising how little some people actually know of the story of Jesus. Hearing the details can be a life-changing event and an eternal benefit.

Talk to someone about Jesus this Christmas. Accept the forgiveness that He freely offers.

Then you can sing Joy to the World! with heightened passion.