This is a paper written out of frustration. I suppose it, in part, is a way to vent that frustration. What am I frustrated at, you might ask? I am frustrated that people don’t understand the message of Christ in the true way that it was originally meant and conveyed. At whom am I frustrated? To keep it short, everyone. I am frustrated at those who don’t profess Christianity for misrepresenting the faith, willfully and accidently. I am frustrated at fellow believers for also misrepresenting the faith and missing the point and for using Christianity as a manipulative and political tool. Also, I am frustrated with myself, for so easily falling into the same sins that I just mentioned. So here is an attempt to clear the smoke, or at least start to clear the smoke, and focus on Christ. What follows is my best interpretation of Christ’s message for this generation and forever. This is the gospel.
What Christianity is Not.
In order to clarify the true gospel message of Jesus Christ, I first have to clarify what it is not in order to state what it is. Listed are common misconceptions about what Christianity is not, or at least should never be.
· Morality for Morality’s Sake—I often hear the excuse that Christianity is just a silly and outdated system of rules and regulations that all mankind is supposed to follow. Those people who say this don’t truly understand Christ or his message. During Christ’s time here on Earth, he consistently attacked the “religious” and “moral” leaders and people while befriending and loving the sinners, the tax collectors, and prostitutes, etc. If we think that Christianity is only meant to “make us better,” then we are sorely mistaken. Christ’s own words are important here: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness” (Matt. 23:27). Sure, we still have the law and a desire to conform to it, but following dry rules and laws is not the point of Christianity.
· Conservative Politics—Secondly, Christianity has nothing to do with conservative or Republican politics or policies. I have the feeling that many people I talk to will turn down Christianity simply because they disagree with Republican politics. Everyone is at fault here: the person refusing the faith on the basis of politics is quite shallow, and the Christian parading around in the colors of partisan politics is responsible for hindering the proclamation of the gospel. Do we have convictions that we have to stand by? Most certainly. Is political involvement important in the life of a Christian? Most certainly yes! But it is never to be the only aspect of Christian life, or even one of the most important.
· Abandonment of Rationality and Reason—Another common objection that almost everyone has is that Christianity is an abandonment of reason and has an inherent disdain for science, rationality, and reason. In a sense, Christians are closed minded and backwards people. I do admit that this stereotype is accurate for some Christians, but not for all. Why does Christianity always seem to combat scientific findings and theories that appear to be true? Not because we don’t like science or reason or technology. Many great scientists, philosophers, and mathematicians have been Christians and/or have been influenced greatly by the Bible. We combat modern science and philosophy because they are rival religions. There comes a point when we have to recognize that science and philosophy are their own separate religions, enshrining reason as their god. Ultimately this is idolatry of the human mind. Christianity isn’t a blind commitment to faith and anyone who thinks so has not examined the evidence objectively. We Christians see ourselves as having open minds and having closed those minds when we found Truth. Isn’t finding truth the purpose of keeping our minds open? Who is to accuse us if we claim we have found It?
· Culture—Whole cultures have been built around Christianity. My biggest complaint is the culture of the conservative South, of which I am a part. We have made Christianity into a cultural thing with fried chicken and fire and damnation. Culture is never a substitute for faith, and my culture has greatly distorted the gospel. Fortunately, most Christians worldwide aren’t Southerners. God’s people come from every corner, culture, nation, and tribe, and race, not just from Georgia.
What Christianity Is.
· Depravity—We Christians believe in a thing called total human depravity. We believe that in the Garden of Eden, man fell from grace with God though our sin. Our good and just punishment for offending the most glorious and perfect Being is damnation for our sins. All have sinned (for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God…Romans 3:23) and because of our sin, we are helpless to restore our relationship with God. We are totally stuck in a state of sin and there is nothing we can do about it. Examine the newspaper and your own heart (the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?...Jeremiah 17:9) honestly and you will see that we don’t seek after God.
· Death—A holy God cannot stand in His presence the ugliness of sin. Sinful and depraved humans have violated and rejected the glory of God, a perfect Being. The just penalty for that is death, both physically and spiritually. Also, the Christian life is about death, but of a different kind. This is the kind of sacrificial death of Christ and the kind of ‘death’ to self that the Christian is called to.
· Atonement—The good news is that, even though there is nothing we can do to reach God, God has provided a way to draw us to him. This is through Christ, his son. This is the very heart of the gospel message. We couldn’t get to God, so God provided Christ, the mediator between the Father and man, to cleanse us of our sins and offer atonement. Jesus willfully came to Earth, shed His glory, lived a perfect life, and died a painful death, atoning for the sins of Christians. In the most loving act in all of human history, Christ took his sins on us to the grave and gave us his righteousness. In a sense, we saw a type of tradeoff: Christ took upon himself our sins and received the penalty of death we previously talked about while giving and applying to us His righteousness. In essence, a Christian is one who is clean from all their sin in the sight of God. They appear as beautiful and perfect before God as their Savior does. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor. 5:21). Because of this atonement, we receive eternal life with God in Heaven.
· Freedom—Once we realize that we are saved and counted righteous in Christ, there is immense freedom found in the faith, as a matter of fact, much more freedom that found outside of the faith. Our freedom comes from two places: first, a freedom from sin. Now that we are counted righteous in Christ, we have the freedom to not sin. Sin is dead to us and we do not have to return to it, for the things of Christ are much better. Also, we have Christian freedom and liberty. Christianity is more about the spirit of loving Christ and less about dry legalism. We choose not to sin and to obey because we love Christ. And we also know that since God’s wrath against sin has been appeased through Christ’s sacrifice, God is therefore not angry at his people and loves them with the ultimate love of Christ. But if we do sin, “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2).” Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.
· Unity—A lot of people complain that Christianity is not unified enough. This is decent complaint. Why are there so many denominations when there is only one truth? This is because many Christians disagree on non-essential truths and interpretations of the Bible. Nonetheless, we are called to be unified. Unified in love for each other, unified in worship of God, and unified in our mission to reach the world for the name of Jesus Christ. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13: 34-35)”
· Social Justice and Utility—In many Protestant circles, it seems like we have forgotten that we are to love the poor and destitute. And sometimes it seems that liberal churches have completely disregarded the gospel in the name of social justice. Christians are to be constantly caring for the poor, the old, the orphans, the widows, the homeless, the sad, and the depressed. This was one of Christ’s main missions here on Earth and we would do well to copy him. I think we forget sometimes that helping the poor and downtrodden is a picture of our own salvation. God was generous to us in saving us from spiritual poverty. Along with social justice is social utility. Each Christian has a calling to a special vocation, role, and occupation. In order to honor God in our lives, we would do well to do our best and to work as if we were working for the Lord.
· Love, Satisfaction, and Joy—This is the crowning point of our discussion of what Christianity is. In essence, Christianity is the love, satisfaction, and joy we get from our relationship with our Savior. Think of Christianity as a romance (the Bible uses this imagery a lot). In a romance, the lover gets his/her greatest satisfaction and joy from the beloved. The lover’s greatest joy is seeing the beloved find their greatest joy, which is consequently found in the lover. Our greatest and most passionate love, satisfaction, and joy is found in Christ, and God loves us just the same. It’s kind of like reading the Bible as a love letter. People claim that Christianity is dull, boring, and moralistic. They say that the find more joy, love, and satisfaction out of other things in life. These people might identify themselves as hedonists. We are all hedonists in a way, seeking the greatest pleasure out of life. To these unconverted people I say that you are not nearly living hedonistic enough! Do you want the greatest amount of happiness, fulfillment, peace, joy, satisfaction, and pleasure in life? Then you should be looking at Christ. Why does Christ call for repentance? Simply for our own good: He knows that if we turn to Him, we will ultimately be happier. Certainly there will be hardships (He promised that), but I promise that there is no greater joy than falling in love with Jesus Christ. Try it. You might be surprised what you find.
So in conclusion, these are the things that I think do not and do define Christianity. By no means is this little list comprehensive or complete, but it does cover the basics and essentials. Hopefully at this point your conception of Christ and His gospel has changed a little bit. Christianity is so much deeper than you think it is. We would do well to remember that.
No comments:
Post a Comment