Pastor Eugene Low shares how he came to believe in Jesus as His Lord and Saviour and sought to live to serve Christ, His redeemer. 

Pastor Eugene with his wife Claire, and their two sons, Iain and Zachary.

I grew up in a non-Christian home in Singapore and my first contact with the gospel came in 1989 when I was 15 years old. Two young men, who were doing street evangelism near a crowded shopping mall, approached me and asked whether I had heard the gospel before. I could have walked away but I stopped to listen to them explain the gospel. 

As a teenager, I was only interested in living for myself. Fun, excitement, and pleasure were the things I craved. I was very much in the grip of the world. There may have been no blatant sin in my life, but my heart was consumed with self-centeredness. But as I sat there listening to the gospel being explained to me, I learned for the first time about God and my obligation to Him. I saw how I had usurped God’s rightful rule by seeking to live life my way. 

God created all things and he made me in His image. But instead of glorifying Him as God, I had rebelled against His authority. I was a sinner who fell short of the glory of a perfectly holy God. I also learned about God’s love and grace towards sinners. He so loved the world that He gave His only Son, Jesus Christ, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Jesus lived a perfect life, but He died on the cross to bear the punishment that I deserved. He died as a substitute – bearing God’s wrath in the place of guilty sinners like me. Christ was a sacrifice for sin. He died – the righteous for the unrighteous – in order to reconcile me to God. He then rose from the dead in victory over sin and death. Jesus’ resurrection is evidence that His sacrifice was acceptable to God, and that it fully satisfied His justice and holiness.           

When the two young men asked if I wanted to believe in Jesus and to let him rule my life, I replied that I did. They led me in prayer and I believed myself to be Christian. However, my profession of faith was not accompanied by a genuine change in life. My repentance was shallow and I still loved the things of this world. My heart remained sold to sin. I attended church for around half a year, until the burden of schoolwork prompted me to stop going. But God continued to pursue me. In His gracious providence, a friend from school invited me to the youth group at his church. I soon became a regular at the group and became quite involved. I also began attending the Sunday services regularly. I was even “baptised”. In spite of my involvement in Christian activities, my heart remained unchanged. I had an intellectual grasp of the gospel, but no true submission or commitment to Christ. I honoured God with my lips, but my heart was still far from Him. 

Still God dealt with me with grace and patience. When I left Singapore to attend university in London, He put it upon my heart to attend church regularly and I went to a sound, gospel-preaching church every week. In His kindness, God brought me under the regular preaching of the gospel. 

One Sunday in 1997, God used the preaching to challenge me. As I examined my own life in the light of the sermon I had just heard, I realised that while I had professed to be a believer, my heart was still far from the Lord. I was convicted of my hypocrisy and rebellion. I saw how my previous repentance had been spurious. I had not truly yielded my life to Christ Jesus by trusting in Him and forsaking my sins. The direction of my life needed to change. The Holy Spirit worked powerfully in me, replacing my heart of stone with a heart that desired to follow Christ. I confessed my sins to God and pleaded for mercy through Christ. I asked for God’s forgiveness, not because of what I had done, but because of the finished work of Christ alone. I believed in Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, trusting in His righteousness alone to save me from God's just wrath. By grace I had been saved through faith in Christ. It was not my own doing, but my salvation was entirely the gift of God. I can only boast in Christ! Thereafter, I sought to live to serve Christ, my redeemer. I praise and thank God for His grace to me in Christ.