Would you die for what you believe?

I heard this week of a young man in Iran who has been taken to court and prosecuted for being a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. This young man is faced with a stark choice of either denying what he passionately believes and saving his life or standing for his faith and potentially losing his life.

If you were faced with this choice what would you do? Do you have such strong convictions that you would risk your life to stand up for them?

The whole idea of anything being so important that you would risk your life for it is quite foreign to the current western way of thinking. For most of us the issues that we deal with are not life threatening. What if, however, we were faced with this type of choice? How would you evaluate things in your life? From a top down view how would they rank in priority? 

Health, Wealth, Relationships, Family, Beliefs, Car, House, Comfort, Safety etc. If you had to decide what were the most important things in your life and had a choice about what to keep and what to let go I wonder what your priorities would be?

I suppose if we are realistic it might depend on our circumstances when the question was asked. For instance - if you were ill you would not be so focused on your house, car etc. If you were in a plane which had developed problems with its landing gear you would be more interested in getting a parachute than being in the first class section!

Now stop and think for a moment. Your body will die but you, the real you will never cease to exist. The Bible says ‘it is appointed unto men once to die but after this the judgement’ (Hebrews.9.27). This is one of many statements from the Bible that teach that there is life after death and that we are accountable to God. God sent His Son, Jesus into the world to pay for our wrong, sin and evil by His death on the cross. Jesus rose from the dead three days later so that the message of ‘the forgiveness of sins’ could be made known to the world.

Now if you really believed all of this you would soon realize that there is nothing in life that is as important as knowing God. All other matters only relate to this life and have no relevance to the next. So if pushed a Christian realizes that to lose their life in this world only opens the door to the next. As they are already forgiven and heading for heaven there is nothing to gain by recanting their faith. The one they believe in, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the only one who can save them in this life and secure their destination in the next.

If it was you. What hope would you have and where would your loyalty lie?

To find out more about the message of the Bible visit www.seekthetruth.org.uk. Videos podcasts, blogs and audio podcasts can be accessed through this site.