What is Christianity?
If someone came
up to you and asked, “What is Christianity?”, what would you say? I would bet that you would get 100 different answers from 100 different people.
So, can Christianity
be properly defined? Yes.
Christianity
simply put is a religious worldview based on Jesus Christ as presented in and
throughout the Christian Bible.
Where do we get
the term Christian from? It comes from the word Christ. No, Christ isn’t Jesus’
last name. Christ means, “messiah, anointed one.” Simply put: a savior.
So, is
Christianity a religion? Well, yes and no. Yes, because it answers four key
questions about reality: origin, destiny, meaning, and morality. By answering
these questions, Christians build a worldview. Christianity’s worldview is
built from the Bible.
But
Christianity really isn’t a religion because religion is a list of dos and
don’ts. Religion tells people how they can gain salvation, how they can gain
access to God or many gods. Religion is all about what you do to achieve a
desired result.
Christianity
has nothing to do with what we can do. Why? Because, Ephesians
2:1-3 says, “And
you were dead in the trespasses and sins in
which you once walked, following the course of this world… among whom we all once lived in the
passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,
and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
People are sinful and totally spiritually dead, cut off from
God. Our sinfulness separates us from God and nothing we can do can repay that
spiritual debt.
But what comes next in Ephesians are two of the sweetest
words in all the Bible: "But God,
being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved
us, even when
we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by
grace you have been saved."
What is Christianity? It’s the belief that
because of our sinfulness, we can’t save ourselves. But God, being rich in
mercy and grace, sent Jesus Christ to pay for our sins. Because of this act of
mercy and grace, we have an unending relationship with God through Jesus
Christ.
How did Jesus accomplish this?
1 Corinthians 15 says, “Christ died for our
sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was
raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”
Christianity establishes who we are, who God is,
and what He has done to save us if we are willing.
Reflect: Which part of these passages is hardest
to believe (our sinfulness, God’s mercy and grace, the resurrection of Jesus,
something else)? Why? Which part is the most appealing? Why?
Respond: If Christianity is true, what difference
does that make for you?
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