In the name of Jesus, televangelists make bold promises and ask for money, people walk onto a stage where a preacher in a white robe touches heads and heals blindness and, don’t even get me started on Jehovah’s Witnesses. The only thing that might be weirder and more offensive than the aforementioned knock-offs of Christianity is actually the real thing — real Biblical Christianity, which claims that there is only one way to live, one way and truth to freedom and salvation — Jesus Christ.

Contrastly, today’s postmodern moral relativism believes in no absolute truth. Claiming that there is only one straight and true path to anything doesn’t really fly — what does fly is “whatever works for you, works for you,” which usually suffices when it comes to most everyday decisions with small and temporal consequences. But when it comes to something as heavy as mankind’s origins and purpose, I can’t settle for “what works for you, works for you”; I want truth.

Many agree that belief in a loving God is a challenge in such a pain-filled and unjust world. But where does our idea of just and unjust come from? We certainly are not qualified to call a line crooked unless we have some idea of what a straight line looks like. We all seem to be grasping for a straight line, for justice, for relationships, for peace, for beauty, for meaning. In fact, if the universe has no meaning, we would never know that it had no meaning, just as if there was no light in the universe and therefore we could see nothing, we would never know it was dark. Dark would have no meaning.

The Christian story claims to be the true story about God and the world. It offers an explanation for our purposes and origins, for the echoes and voices in our head that demand justice, enjoy beauty and seek meaning. While these reflections may bring all human beings towards a common center in the maze, they won’t quite ever lead us fully to God.

So what if God, on his own initiative, came bursting out of the center of the maze? That is what the great monotheistic traditions all claim, though science quickly dismisses them since it cannot pin God in a corner and analyze him with technical instruments.

But there was a moment where God was pinned down, subject not only to human inspection but to trial, torture and death — 2,000 years ago as the person of Jesus.

Instead of considering Christianity based on its knock-off products that get the most airtime, one needs to examine the center, Jesus Christ. Let’s not argue over his existence, as there are volumes of archeological-historical evidence from Christian, Jewish and secular sources about his life and death. While we can all certainly admit that he was a good moral teacher, he also said something quite striking. He said he was God. That he was the way, the truth and the life. That he came to satisfy and fulfill our every need. Interestingly, Jesus is exclusive in that no other religious or philosophical figure has ever claimed Divinity quite the way he did.

So what do you do with a man like that? Well, he is either a lunatic, a nut in the head, a space cadet, someone who thought he was God but was just as much God as he was a flamingo. Or, he was a liar, trying to gain popularity and attention at the expense of persecution and death. Or, he actually was who he says he was. If the last is the case, that changes everything.

Christianity says our main problem is that, though we were made to be in a relationship with God, we have turned away, breaking God’s covenant by finding our meaning and joy outside of him, and thus, his face is hidden from us. Though God lost us, he was determined to win us back, entering history as Jesus to deal with all the causes and results of our broken relationship with him. While all religions operate on the principle: “I obey, therefore I am accepted by God,” the basic operating principle of the Christian Gospel is: “I am accepted by God through Christ, therefore I obey.” Our efforts cannot bridge this great unseen divide between man and God, but Jesus does, restoring the relationship of man to his Maker so that we are able to freely live for, know and enjoy what we were made for.

For years I could not believe in God because there was a void of logic, no signs, no evidence, but only a leap of what appeared to be senseless faith. But the Bible explains that God didn’t intend for us to believe based on signs, wisdom, evidence, only by faith. God has made it so that he won’t ever be found in a telescope or microscope, so that it isn’t the smartest or the wisest that come to him, but rather the humble and meek-hearted, only those willing to surrender and rely on Christ’s work and life through faith.

We can’t know Jesus as the answer until we surrender to him. I couldn’t know him as the truth until I gave my life to him. Then I knew.

God wants us to know him and find our happiness in him. All of human history, money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery, seems to be the long, terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy. I can tell you as a recent hardcore atheist that there is nothing quite like finding joy in God and finally being made right with him. Christianity isn’t simply another option in a “what works for me or you” world. It is the truth.

Big ups to my editors, Carlos and Olivia, and my readers, specifically my biggest fan, Katie Weible. “Gain through Loss” means not being afraid of losing the temporary joys and promises of the world to gain something more satisfying and permanent. “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose” — Jim Elliot.

Behzad Varamini is a graduate student in Nutritional Sciences. He can be contacted at bvaramini@cornellsun.com. Gain Through Loss appeared alternate Tuesdays.