TO:   My students

FR:   Dr. Dick Sleight 

RE:   An important question.

        Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be God. It's that simple. A claim like that today might have landed him in a mental asylum. Yet, nearly 2000 years ago that claim led Jesus to a cross.
        So why all the fuss about an apparent lunatic who got himself killed?  Just this: the evidence shows that he didn't stay dead. (As Shakespeare would say, "ay, there's the rub.")
        In May of 1980, while I was teaching at the University of Washington, I asked this Jesus to come into my life and to begin to change me from the inside-out.  Although I'd been running from him, I discovered that he'd been seeking me all along.
        I still had many doubts and questions but in the years since that decision, every intellectual argument I may have had has been well answered.  I affirm, along with my Christian brothers and sisters around the world and across time, that I belong to God.  As the Heidelberg Catechism says in its opening response:

"I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him."

        I know that your education will forever be incomplete until you make an honest investigation of the claims of Jesus Christ. Or simply come to him with your sins that so clearly demonstrate your need for a new life -- and trade your old life for his. He will lift the burden of your sins and wash their stain from your life.  It's what he does.   It's what he did for me. If you've already found new life in the One who is both Son of David and Son of God then I happily greet you as kin. 

        I am always eager to talk with you about this all-important question. How have you answered Jesus' question, "Who do you say that I am?"