* Because Jesus and the Father are both one and distinct, we can say that God ‘sent his son into the world’ - (John 3:16), and also that Jesus came into the world (1 Tim 1:15) - we are speaking about essentially the same action on the part of God, but on the one hand, God the Father sends, on the other, God the Son comes.

None of us has loved God or our neighbours to the extent that Jesus describes. God holds us responsible for our failure. Jesus teaches about a time in the future when we will all have to come before God in judgement and face the consequences for the way we have lived. This is a serious business. Yet there is a way out

The Jews wanted to stone Jesus because he ‘being a man’, claimed he was God (John 10:33). Jesus doesn’t dispute that he is a man, and both he and the Jews are talking about God as a third party. He says he is the Son of this God, they say that’s blasphemy. Jesus has just said, ‘I and the Father are one’ (in John 10:30).

Jesus also accepted worship as God, an implicit claim to divinity. After his resurrection, he showed himself to a disciple called Thomas, who exclaimed"My Lord and my God” , which Jesus accepted (John 10:24-29). Thomas’ reaction is typical of the early church’s understanding of who Jesus claimed to be.

But with the coming of Jesus, this forced Christians to extend their thinking on just what God was like. In the New Testament, Jesus made it clear that not only was he the son of the Father [John 8:42 & 14:9], but he was also God, right from the beginning [John 1:1-3 & 1:14]. The HS becomes significantly more prominent in the New Testament as well.

However the nature of the oneness of God shifted radically with the coming of Jesus. As the Son of God, Jesus taught his disciples that he and his Father were one [John 10:30, 17:11]. In addition, Jesus teaching about himself and the Holy Spirit [John 14:26; 15:26] demonstrated that God is one God, but three different persons - Father, Son and ...

The best way to “convince” people is to introduce them to Jesus (in the Bible) and let God do the convincing. So pray for the people around you who aren’t Christians, live the godly life God called you to live before them, make the most ofthe opportunities that come your way and trust that God will use you to bring others into his kingdom.

God sent Jesus to show the world that even though we don’t want a relationship with God, he still wants a relationship with us. Even though we deserve God’s punishment, Jesus died to save us and bring us back to God. This is what Jesus says about his death, ‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself’.

After all God is the one whose responsibility it is to convert them. So ask him for the right words to say and ask him to call the other person to himself. Know the gospel. Peter calls us to “be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope we have in heaven”. (1 Peter 3:15).

If Jesus’ death is effective for you and me 2000 years after his death, then it can be effective for those who lived 2000 years before. It’s about trusting God to save us by the one he sends, rather than thinking we can get to God by ourselves without him.