Whoever believes in him
You overcame the sting of death,
And opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Te Deum
Read John 3:16—21
Why? Why this belief? This belief that I must hold to? Why should this belief be the lucky winner? The belief in Jesus? Out of all the beliefs on offer, all the possibilities that present themselves to a normally educated person, why single out just one for eternal life? As I put the question in this way I suppose the very solid factuality of it is borne in upon me. I could answer in several ways, perhaps, but here is one. This quest did not start with me and my question. No one else has come from God. No one else has been nominated by God as way and truth and life and resurrection and bread of life and door and gate and good shepherd, and the great I am. Or as Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is God’s quest, not mine. It is God’s quest to find me.
Loving God, I thank you that this is the love with which you have loved me. The love that reaches to me. The love that sent the Son. The love that can only come to me because I am in the world that you love. The love that empties out into death. The love that has not left me dead, but has brought me into a new birth, a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.[1] This belief I have is not my doing. It is because of your life-giving that I believe at all.
[1] 1 Peter 1:3