Knowing Jesus
Start wherever you actually are.
Seven short steps. Take them at your own pace, go back whenever you like, or skip to the end. Nobody is counting how long you spend here.
Where it begins
You were made on purpose.
Not assembled by accident, and not an afterthought. The Bible opens with a God who makes things deliberately and then calls them good — including people.
Whatever you have been told about your worth since, that is where the account starts.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him.
Genesis 1:27
Stage 1 of 6
What went wrong
And something broke.
Most people know this part already, even without religious words for it. There is a gap between who you meant to be and who you have been.
The Bible calls it sin — less a list of rules broken than a relationship broken. And it is not something you can undo by trying harder, any more than an apology unbreaks a thing.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23
Stage 2 of 6
What God did
He came and took it Himself.
Jesus was executed. That much is history. What Christians believe about it is that He was not a victim of it — He went to it deliberately, and carried what was ours.
Three days later the tomb was empty. Everything the church has ever claimed rests on that. If it did not happen, none of this is worth your time. If it did, nothing else is.
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
Stage 3 of 6
What it means
It cannot be earned. That is the point.
Grace means God moved toward you before you cleaned yourself up, and not because of anything you brought Him.
If it could be earned it would be wages, and it would belong to the people already doing well. It is a gift, which is why it can reach anyone.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.
Ephesians 2:8
Stage 4 of 6
What faith is
Trust, not certainty.
Faith is not pretending to be sure. It is not switching off your mind, and it is not a feeling you have to work up.
It is turning toward Him instead of away, and saying: I cannot carry this, and I believe You can. Doubt can sit right beside it. Most honest faith does.
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9
Stage 5 of 6
What changes
A direction, not a finish line.
It is not a personality transplant and it does not end your problems. Following Christ usually looks ordinary: learning to pray, reading the Bible, being known by people doing the same.
Slowly becoming someone a little more like Him than you were last year. That is the whole shape of it.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Stage 6 of 6
If you want to pray it
God, I believe You made me, and I know I have not lived like it.
I believe Jesus died for me and rose again.
I am turning toward You. Forgive me, and take my life.
I want to follow You from here.
There is nothing magic in those particular words. God is not listening for a formula.