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Have you ever wondered if everyone but the Christian Church is damned to hell? The Reformation gave us back something quite valuable by reminding us that the Bible teaches no hierarchy amongst believers. While some are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors or teachers all are called to love and serve each other as brothers, in the face-to-face manner of Jesus, a great man yet who walked amongst men as friends and washed their smelly feet.
While it is clear that all followers of Jesus are called to mission, it is far from clear, from Jesus’ teaching, that only his followers would be saved. Let us set aside our black-and-white conception of the world divided into saved Christians and damned non-Christians and consider Jesus’ own words which, as will be plain, contained other categories. What emerges is an inclusive picture of people entering the Kingdom based not on religion or beliefs but on a multitude of other factors. Read the rest of this entry »
I remember how visibly shocked an atheist friend of mine was when I told him that the core message of Christianity was NOT a moral one. Perhaps you are shocked and are sure that Christianity’s chief concern is our morality. Perhaps you are well past personal moral striving (self-righteousness) and into justification by faith but still sure that the whole point is our moral dilemma before God and that Jesus is the solution for our guilt as a result of our immorality. I hope to offer a glimmer of a much bigger plan which Jesus announced and is still being unveiled.
Christianity, as the name reveals, is about Christ at it’s core. If you understand Christ you get it. Christ is important because he sheds light on the most important questions a person can ask: namely, as to identity, value and purpose. Christ is unique because he does not just shed light and point to truth but embodies it – the message is the messenger.
Wise men debated identity, value and purpose for centuries but it was only with Jesus that their came an answer which was not from men and which was personal. Jesus says if you know who you are (identity) you will understand why you exist (purpose) and thus be in a position to perceive your own value.
Jesus’ life, death and resurrection confirm unambiguously that we were created by God, like God and for God. Each of us is thus valuable to God in terms of how we meet our individual purpose. Although the world will value people impersonally with a performance-based rating, God made the diversity we see and each person has a specific purpose. We cannot compare a handicapped person to a football star: each may be missing or fulfilling their purpose and only God can know this. Jesus says we are mistaken to judge the worth of others and calls us only to love them and help them find and fulfil their purpose (inter-dependence).
Yet how shall we discover our identity and personal purpose? By personally knowing the One who made us and can tell us. But God is distant and inaccessible in our natural state. Yet Jesus explains that he himself is ”The Way”. With Jesus we can be (re-)united with our Creator who can give us identity and purpose.
How does this work? God is spirit, our natural state can only see his natural creation. We must have a spirit breathed into us in order to communicate and experience God – we have to become new, spiritual creatures – a new kind of life. Jesus said he himself is ”The Life” which means that we must receive him in order to receive this spiritual life.
How do you receive Jesus, a person? Well, we receive guests by welcoming them into our homes, friends by welcoming them into our personal lives, our spouse by welcoming them into our beds and Jesus by welcoming him into our inner most being – our heart. We have to find our most sacred place, our control-centre where decisions are made and our will resides and say to Jesus: come in, you are welcome and wanted here.
What happens next? We are born into a new kind of life because Jesus, the Life, is in us. This life is spiritual and eternal and changes us radically on the inside. We are no longer enemies and strangers to God but like his own children because his Son is united with us. We are like his daughter in law and the image of marriage is used to describe the bond which cannot be broken.
Now, equipped with new life, unrestricted access to God we remain only to discover more and more who God is, who we are and what we are to do. We find our life consists not in obeying laws or meeting people’s expectations but in listening to the God who is there, in us, teach us individually how to live and love successfully. This personal coaching reveals our true self and calling and leads to peace and fulfilment in life which no impersonal philosophy or religion can give.
How liberating that ultimate Truth is a person and not a principle! Christianity is about Christ connecting us personally to God who comes to be with us and in us to help us live life to the fullest and show us who and why we are. The adventure begins!
Christianity is called religion which may give us the impression that it’s just another (boring) product on the shelf of discarded ideas belonging to a simpler, less informed age. Even a quick glance at one of the Gospels dispels this notion. Christianity is unique, personal, spiritual, and more real and transformative than anything else we can experience in this life.
Christianity is Personal
Christianity is not about principles, practices or philosophy although some have thought so and tried to make it that. Christianity is about a person: Christ – understand Him and you’ve understood Christianity. Know him and you know God. Accept his Gift and you’ve got what he came from God to give: God Himself.
Christianity is Unique
Herein lies the uniqueness of Christianity – the message IS the messenger. People think Christianity is just another thought system but it’s not even a thought system. You don’t change a few beliefs and thoughts and suddenly become a Christian – you ask, seek, knock and then open a door to meet a person who gives you a whole new life – a whole new you!
Christ is the Point
Whilst other religious leaders went on about rules and regulations, Jesus was always talking about himself – sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes not so subtle as is the case with the “I am” statements. If you think he was just a teacher then his short public ministry and premature death were indeed tragedies. But he didn’t think so: he knew he had come to die so that all might live – his death was the climax, the whole point, his resurrection was a grand vindication – God saying: “I stand behind this man”.
Christianity is NOT a Religion
There are loads of churches and religions based on the concept of Christ and most of them are organisations contrary to the spiritual organism Jesus had in mind. He was anti-religion and anti-legalism in his lifetime and many churches are up for the Pharisee-treatment when he gets back.
To show the difference between christian religion and real Christianity: imagine disbelieving in Brad Pitt versus, knowing of Brad Pitt, versus really knowing him personally. That’s the difference between atheism (disbelieving in Jesus), christian religion (knowing of Jesus) and Christianity (knowing Jesus).
Joining the Christian Club?
Many people believe they are Christian’s by birth or baptism. You might even imagine it’s easy to become a Christian: just believe Jesus is God’s son and start going to Church but, in the word’s of Keith Green:
Walking into a church makes you a Christian like walking into a McDonald’s makes you a hamburger.
Don’t get me wrong: a good church is a good place to start but people who only know of Jesus can’t help you past propositions about him to the glorious and transformative process of “meeting the man Himself”.
