"Why Do You Believe In God?" Here's My Answer.
Introduction
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” This is Genesis 1:1, the first verse of the Bible.
It was written by Moses, 3,500 years ago.
And it states that God’s existence is the most fundamental fact in the universe.
Is it true? Or is this an outdated belief?
This is what we’re going to talk about today.
I want to share with you why I believe belief in God is not only intellectually valid, but that it is also the only way of making sense of the world.
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So… why do I believe in God? And why do I think you should too?
As a man, this is one of the most important questions you can answer in your life. Knowing how to articulate what you believe about God is going to help you make sense of where you come from, why you are here, and where your life is headed.
And it’s going to help you lead your family well on a day-to-day basis.
So, if you’re a Christian, this talk is for you. My goal is to help you gain more confidence in explaining why you believe in God.
And if you’re not a Christian, my goal is to challenge you with the reasons that I believe in God, and—speaking very candidly—I hope to change your mind.
And if you’re on the fence, then this talk is for you too.
If you enjoy this and want to get more stuff like this, I have a podcast.
It’s the show that helps Christian laymen—guys who aren’t pastors—to become the worldview leaders their families and churches need.
I’ll tell you more about that at the end.
So here we go.
This is my big idea today: Belief in God just makes sense.
Now I am a Christian. So I believe that the cause of my belief in God is God Himself. The Holy Spirit has given me faith in God.
However, there is a difference between the cause of belief, and the reason for belief.
Today I want to give you three reasons that reveal that belief in the God of the Bible is the only way to make sense of the world at all.
Specifically, we are going to look at three ways that belief in God makes sense.
It makes sense of the Bible.
It makes sense of the world.
It makes sense of my own experience.
Let’s start with how belief in God makes sense of the Bible.
From the first book of Genesis, to the last book of Revelation, the Bible is clear that God is real.
Now you might say, yeah, but what if someone doesn’t believe the Bible?
Here’s the answer: truth is truth, whether someone believes it or not.
And authority is authority, whether you believe it or not.
If you speed in a school zone, it’s not going to matter to the cop that you “don’t believe in the speed limit!”
The authority is still valid, whether or not the driver agrees with it or believes in it.
This is true for the Bible, too.
The Bible is authoritative, because it is God’s word.
And there are different ways we can tell this.
First, the Bible is self-authenticating.
What does that mean?
It means that the Bible shows itself to be from God.
The Bible demonstrates its own power and authority.
It is a living book; as you read it, you realize that it is reading you.
Scripture itself says this in Hebrews 4:13:
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Maybe you’ve experienced this. You’ve been reading the Bible, and you’ve realized that it was revealing to you certain qualities about yourself—it was convicting you about a sin in your life, or it was encouraging you with a promise from God that was exactly what you needed
The Bible bears the marks of being “breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16–17).
The Bible is living and active. It is authoritative, and it authenticates itself.
There is another way it authenticates itself.
Let’s say you wanted to investigate the Bible.
You want to see if it’s logical (does it contain any contradictions), if it’s moral (are its teachings good), and if it’s true.
To make your investigation, you need an absolute standard—of logic, of morality, and of truth.
Now, this standard would have to be objective—not subjective, as well as unchanging and universal.
Guess what: the Bible teaches that there is such a standard. It is God Himself.
But if you take God out of the picture, you are left with no standard. You lose the very criteria you need to investigate the Bible—or any other book.
In other words, to even investigate the Bible, you need to assume that its teachings are true.
“Is the Bible true?”
If it weren’t, then you couldn’t make sense of the question.
Isn’t that amazing?
And it just so happens that, yes, it is logical. It has no true contradictions.
It is moral.
And it is true.
But wait, there’s more!
The Bible has other incredible qualities.
You might know that the Bible is not really one book. It is a library of 66 books, written over 1,500 years, by 40 authors, in three languages, on three continents.
And yet the Bible has one single, cohesive message, centered on God’s plan to save sinners through His Son, Jesus Christ.
But wait! There’s more!
The Bible contains fulfilled prophecies. In fact, Jesus alone fulfilled between 300–500 prophecies!
The odds of one man fulfilling just eight of these prophecies is one in 10^17. That’s one in 100 quadrillion!
No other book is like the Bible; it is totally unique. This is exactly what we would expect from a book given by God.
But wait! There’s more!
The Bible is historically accurate. The Bible is constantly being corroborated by archaeological research.
The Bible is amazing.
And it is so authoritative, that to even question it, one must presuppose that it is true.
It is like the speed limit: whether you believe in it or not, it is authoritative.
And the Bible says God is real.
So, here’s the choice: You can rule out God and try to explain the Bible as something written by mere men alone.
Flawed, bumbling men.
I don’t think so.
Or, you can believe in God.
And the existence of the Bible, the greatest of all books, will make sense.
Belief in God just makes sense.
Now we’re ready to move on. Let’s talk about…
How belief in God makes sense of the world.
When you believe in God, you can make sense of the world. Without God, you can’t.
This is hugely important, but it is something we very rarely think about.
Every day, we wake up and expect the world to behave a certain way.
Look at this.
We all have a sense of morality. A conscience.
We all also assume that the world is intelligible (that means we can make sense of it).
Everyone believes in logic—we expect that the person we’re talking to won't contradict himself.
Everyone believes that the universe behaves in a reliable, consistent way.
We all expect that the sun will come up tomorrow morning.
We believe that we won't fall "up" to the ceiling when we climb out of bed in the morning.
We believe the future will basically be like the past.
This is the view of the world that makes science possible.
The Scientific Revolution was kickstarted by Christians who believed the Bible, living out their Christian worldview.
Science requires uniformity in nature and the possibility of inductive reasoning.
These assumptions only make sense in a consistent, reliable world.
If God is not there, then there is no reason to assume the world is that way.
In a godless, unguided, universe, the only “god” would be random chance.
Say good-bye to science!
If God is there—and He is—then an orderly world is exactly what you should expect.
Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus “upholds the universe by the word of his power…” and Hebrews 13:8 says “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
God is reliable.
We value reliability. If you run a business, how important is it to you that your employees be reliable?
We place a high value on dependability.
Our God—the God who is there—is dependable. More than anything else in the world, He is faithful. Reliable. He keeps His promises.
Because He is faithful, and He has created the world, we can make sense of the world.
When you believe in God, you can make sense of the world.
Belief in God just makes sense.
Now I want to share with you…
How belief in God makes sense of my own life’s experience.
This is the most personal of my points. And it will be the shortest.
God is not some abstract concept.
The God of the Bible is personal.
He wants us to know Him.
And in my life I have seen Him at work.
In my adult life, I have been through hardship. I know you can relate. You have had your share of hardship too.
I am a man who has been through the valley of the shadow of death with my family.
When our son Lukas was 10 months old, he was diagnosed with Leukemia.
After two years the doctors declared him to be in remission, only to be relapse three weeks later.
After another year-and-a-half of chemo and radiation, Lukas was doing much better.
But then, on February 14, 2019, Lukas went into heart failure. He spent the majority of that year inpatient at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.
I tell you this because, for all that time, during each and every one of those trials, I will tell you that I never lost my faith.
Am I just a really holy person? No—but God sustained me.
Every time my world felt like it was collapsing again, the Lord was there to keep me from going under. He gave me hope. Through His word. Through friends to strengthen me. Through prayer.
God was there for me.
And that is exactly what the Bible says about Him.
Psalm 34:18 says the LORD is close to the brokenhearted.
1 Peter 5:7 says to cast “all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”
I have also experienced the Lord delivering me from sin.
He has overcome sinful, destructive habits in my life.
This was not me. I am not strong. I am not overly holy. I take no credit.
It was God.
Maybe you’ve seen this in your own life.
Now, is this visible evidence for God? No.
However, there is more to life than what we can see.
Take the wind. You cannot see it, but on a windy afternoon you can see your lawn furniture being tossed off your patio and all over the backyard—which happened to me one day last fall.
You can see the effects of the wind.
And I’ve seen the effects of God on my life.
Now God doesn’t promise to deliver us from every trial, or to give us financial prosperity or perfect health or moral perfection or anything like that—not in this life.
But if you belong to Jesus Christ, He does promise never to leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).
But how do we get to belong to Jesus?
After all, the Bible says God is holy, and the judge of everyone.
And the Bible says that, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
God has seen everything you have ever said, thought, and done.
Every time you lied, cheated, lusted, or coveted.
And the Bible says that, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a).
Our sin earned us death and Hell.
And yet that same Bible verse also says that the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15).
He died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. He was buried. And then he was raised to life on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. Then He appeared to many, and He ascended to Heaven as King.
God has promised that to everyone who receives Him—who believe in His name—He gives the right to become children of God.
This is the most important choice in all of life:
How will you respond to Jesus Christ?
—————
At this point, someone might say…
“You know what, I’m still not convinced. I just don’t have enough faith to really go all in with God, Jesus, and Christianity.”
How can you get past that unbelief?
First, remember that to even make sense of the question, you have to presuppose that the Bible is true!
We already discussed that.
But second, know this—no one is saved because of how much faith he has, or how strong his faith is.
We are saved because of Who our faith is in.
It is Jesus who saves.
In Mark 9:24, a man whose son was sick—demon possessed—cried out to Jesus, “I believe; help my unbelief!” And Jesus healed his son.
If that’s you today, cry out to Jesus to help you with your unbelief.
He is faithful. He will hear you.
—————
In Summary…
So we’ve seen how belief in God leads inevitably to the question of Jesus Christ.
And we’ve seen how belief in God makes sense.
It makes sense of experience, of the world, and of the Bible itself.
Belief in God just makes sense.
So, go back to Genesis 1:1. Was Moses correct? Is the reality of God really the most fundamental fact in the universe?
I hope you have seen that God really is there. Believing in Him is not only a good idea, but it is the only way we can make sense of human experience, of the world around us, and of the astonishing testimony of the Bible.
God really is real. And believing in Him just makes sense.
Now, about my podcast. It’s called Worldview Legacy. It’s the show for Christian men who aren’t pastors, but are trying to pass on the Christian faith to the younger generation and want to be ready to give a good answer to questions the world is asking.
The goal of the show is that you will build a legacy for your family. You, your kids and your wife will be able to confidently articulate the answers to the questions the world is asking, from the Bible.
I’m not going to be your family’s Bible answer man. YOU ARE.
Listen now.
