Audio Transcript
Imagine a man who invests years of his life trying to be a good, decent, godly man. It’s not easy to balance it all. He goes to church every week, cares for and supports his wife, and works hard. He’s a reputable man, but his life keeps falling apart. Things keep breaking, to the point that one day he shrugs and decides to stop trying so hard because of how hard it is to maintain it all. And what he finds is a life that in many ways just got easier, raising a question that’s hard to even ask: Is it worth following Christ if following him makes life harder? Today on Ask Pastor John: when walking away feels good.
That’s what’s happening in Jared’s life in Asheville, North Carolina. “Pastor John, I’ve recently walked away from God, and I honestly don’t want much to do with him. I feel like he’s let me down so many times. When I was close to him and going to church, I tried to fix my marriage, get a house, and improve my life, but everything seemed to fall apart. No matter how hard I tried, I felt like I could never satisfy him. I kept falling into sins I swore to leave behind. Since I stopped going to church and trying to follow Jesus, life feels a lot easier, to be honest with you. I don’t feel guilty about how I live anymore. That said, I still believe Jesus rose from the grave and that there’s evidence to support it, but I’m questioning whether he’s worth following. Why should I believe in Jesus if my life is better now without him?”
Jared, when I saw your question, the first thing I did was to pray for you, because I know that when the rich young ruler turned away from Jesus because it looked like the cost was simply too high to follow him, the disciples were absolutely staggered that Jesus would say, “It’s hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom.” So, they said to Jesus, “Well, then who can be saved?” And Jesus didn’t say, “You misunderstood.” He said, “With man this is impossible” (Matthew 19:23–26). In other words, to be saved is impossible, but not with God, for “with God all things are possible.”
I know, and I suspect, Jared, you know that my words by themselves are not going to bring about the kind of change in your mind and heart that needs to happen, so that’s why I prayed. I’m praying in my mind right now. I asked God to do through my words what words alone can never do, and maybe if you’re so inclined, you should whisper that prayer with me.
You ask, “Why should I believe in Jesus if my life is better now without him?” And you explain to us how it’s better. He didn’t fix your marriage; he didn’t provide the house you hoped for; he didn’t improve your life. Everything fell apart. You felt you could never satisfy him, and now there’s this huge gain: “I don’t feel guilty anymore about how I live.” And I’ll tell you, that’s a good feeling — not feeling guilty is a good feeling. So, even if Jesus did rise from the dead, you say, “Why would he be worth following? He doesn’t make things better.”
Appointed to Suffer
I’m going to give you some reasons why Jesus is worth following, but first, let me make clear that one of those reasons will not be that he makes your life go better — not the way you were expecting it to go better, evidently. Jesus never promised that. He never promised that.
He said if we suffer with him, we will be glorified with him (Romans 8:17). He said it might involve tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword (Romans 8:35). He said, “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20). He said we must take up our cross and deny ourselves and follow him (Luke 9:23). He said unless we renounce all that we have, we cannot be his disciples (Luke 14:33). He said that the creation is groaning — the whole creation is groaning — and we, “who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:22–23). He said that our bodies are wasting away (2 Corinthians 4:16). And he said it’s appointed for everybody to die (Hebrews 9:27). I suppose one way you could sum up all that would be to say he promised that things would fall apart, and in spite of all that — indeed, in and through all that — he said that his people can have more joy in this life and forever than the world has when its grain and wine abound (Psalm 4:7).
The apostle Peter said, “Though you have not seen [Jesus], you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Peter 1:8). The happiest people that I have ever met or read about are the ones that have sacrificed most and tasted the love of Christ most deeply in their suffering.
“Every single little good thing you do by faith is pleasing to God.”
So, I say all that, Jared, just to make clear that when I give you the reasons for why you should believe in Jesus, you will know it isn’t because he makes your life in this world better. That’s just not one of the reasons. He never promised it, and it’s not what the New Testament teaches. If somebody taught you that, they misled you. They didn’t teach you to count the cost. My guess is that you can make a better life for yourself without Jesus if you ignore everything I’m about to say.
Reasons to Believe
You say you could never satisfy him. Well, neither could I — my goodness. He says, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Who can satisfy that? One person can satisfy that — Jesus Christ — and he did, and if you believe in him, Jared, his perfection will count as yours. He perfectly satisfied God. It’s called justification by faith (Romans 3:24–26; 5:1).
This was so helpful to me when I read it in C.S. Lewis. I should have seen it in the Bible first, but I didn’t. Have you ever thought that even though God’s standards of perfection are impossible to satisfy in this life, he is nevertheless easy to please? Have you ever thought about that? Every single little good thing you do by faith is pleasing to God. C.S. Lewis said, “God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy” (Mere Christianity, 203). That’s really helpful to me. I hope it is to you.
There are reasons, lots of reasons — oh my goodness — that you should believe in Jesus, even if your life is not better now, even if it is better without him. Lots of reasons.
If you trust him as your Savior and Lord and treasure, he will forgive all your sins — past, present, and future — because he died in your place. He will make you eternally secure so that from the moment you are justified — declared perfect with the perfection of Jesus — you can know that you will someday be glorified forever and ever and ever (Romans 8:30). He will adopt you into his family and call you his son (Romans 8:15–17; Galatians 4:4–7). Think of it: a son of God, the Creator of the universe. He promises that as a son, you will inherit absolutely everything because God owns the universe (Romans 8:17; 1 Corinthians 3:21–23). In the age to come, he will put everything at your disposal for your benefit forever. And he promises that in spite of all the hardships in this life, his yoke will be easy, and his burden will be light because he’ll help you carry it (Matthew 11:28–30). He promises never to leave you or forsake you, but always to be with you until the very end — the precious friendship of Jesus, right now and all of your life (Matthew 28:20).
He promises that absolutely everything will work together for your good, even the bad things, when your life is falling apart. He is that wise. He is that strong. He is that good. They will work together for your good as you trust him (Romans 8:28).
Fullness of Joy
He will pursue you with goodness and mercy all your days (Psalm 23:6). He will never turn away from doing good to you. He’ll rejoice over you with all his heart and with all his soul. It actually says that in Jeremiah 32:40–41. It’s almost too good to be true. He will help you and strengthen you and hold you up with his victorious right hand in all your trials (Isaiah 41:10). He promised to guide the humble in what is right and to lead us in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake (Psalms 25:9; 23:3). You won’t be left without guidance. And when you are old like me, he will still be with you to help you die.
Even to your old age I am he,
and to gray hairs I will carry you.
I have made, and I will bear;
I will carry and will save. (Isaiah 46:4)
And at the end, Jared, he will deliver you from the wrath of God, and instead of God’s wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 5:9), he will bring you into eternal life in God’s presence, where there is fullness of joy and pleasures at his right hand forevermore (Psalm 16:11). And it cannot get any better than that. Fullness of joy — not partial. Forever — not eighty thousand years, but forever. And Jared, this list of reasons why it makes sense to follow Jesus could go on and on and on.
May I testify as an 80-year-old who has walked with Jesus for 74 years: He is worth it. To know him and live with him is a better life, no matter how many things fall apart.
