Question from a Site Viewer
I am Hindu by birth. Like all Hindus my family used to worship idols, but I believe in Jesus. My family knows it, and they scold me often, but I know Jesus has helped me in many ways. Still, I am not faithful to him. He is the living God yet I have never met Him. Let me see Him and be confirmed He is the true living God, or it would be the same as the Hindu gods. Let me tell my family that Jesus is real and that I have met Him.
Tim’s Answer
You have expressed a desire to see Jesus. For nearly 2,000 years, Christians have lived, communicated with, and followed Jesus without seeing Him. Those who saw Him, heard Him, touched Him, and knew Him while He was on this earth left us accounts of what He is like. We find these accounts in the four books (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) which open the collection of books we call the New Testament. Jesus knew that He was going back to the Father and told His disciples that He was going away to prepare a place for us and that He will come again (John 14:1-3, 28; 16:5-6, 16, 19, 28). Jesus knew that while He was away, we would not see Him. It is for this reason that He has left us His words as recorded in the four accounts. He also left us His Holy Spirit which bears witness with our hearts and teaches us all things (John 14:15-18; 16:7-15). He gave us His apostles and they instructed us through the words of the rest of the New Testament. And He left a special blessing for those who have not seen Him, and yet believe in Him (John 20:29). This then has been the situation for Christians since Jesus left. We believe and love Him, though we have not yet seen Him (1 Peter 1:8). But we know one day that the One who came and died for our sins will come again and then we will see Him.
However, though we have not yet seen Him with our eyes, this should never be interpreted to mean that He is not active in His people. Christians down through the centuries bear testimony to the active presence of Christ in their lives. Those who seek to abide in Him (John 15:1-8) find Him a rich source of strength, grace, and glory. You can read some of the testimonies on our website to see how Jesus has worked in people’s lives. As we seek to love Him with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind and to love our neighbors (Matthew 22:36-40), we find that He draws near to us in tangential ways that we experience and cherish. He shows Himself strong on our behalf.
So, my hope and prayer for you is that Christ will dwell in your heart through faith such that you are rooted and grounded in love and that you will come to know His love for you and His power that is made available to you through the Spirit of God (Ephesians 3:16-21).
I trust you have a Bible. If you do, I encourage you to spend some time every day in the Bible, asking the Holy Spirit to help you understand, and discovering in each passage what the Bible teaches about God and about our relationship with Him. Also, I encourage you to spend time in prayer, asking Jesus for power to overcome sin and to live a life worthy of Him. You will find Him to be a delight and the relationship with Him to be fully satisfying.
May the Lord Jesus and His Spirit guide you into a deep and personal relationship with the Triune God of the universe (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit).+
