Christianity is a hard topic to discuss. I claim it as my religion because there’s nothing else to claim that people would understand! But even so, who really understands what I mean even if I do use a common word like “Christianity?”

Denotation

Let’s get some definitions straight. “Religion” and “Christian” are words used so loosely that some may be unsure of their meanings. For the purposes of this discussion, let’s keep these definitions in mind.

1. Religion: a specific, fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects.

2. Christian: a person who exemplifies in his or her life the teachings of Jesus Christ.

  • Real
    Jesus Christ was a real person who lived a real life in a real past. He did real miracles and healed real people and died a real death for real sins. When I’m using the word “Christian,” it’s not a synonym for “someone with good behavior” or for “someone who’s decent.” Being a Christian isn’t like being Latino; you can’t inherit it from your parents. It doesn’t mean that you go to church sometimes or all the time, or that you take communion, or that you pray.
  • More Than Real
    A Christian is someone who recognizes Jesus Christ as not only a real person, but the one and only Son of God. Matthew 3, Matthew 14, and II Peter 1 make reference to a voice from the heavens speaking that “This is My Son, in whom I am well pleased.” John 3 says that God gave “His only begotten Son,” because of how much He loved the world, so that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life. (Also see I John 5)
  • Not Only The Son
    Not only is Jesus the Son of God, but he is also one with God. Romans 10 says you must confess that Jesus is Lord. In John 14, Jesus tells Philip that he who has seen Him (Jesus), has seen the Father. Jesus the Son and God the Father are two parts of the Holy Trinity.

3. Holy Trinity: the union of three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) in one Godhead, or the threefold personality of the one Divine Being.

  • The Trinity’s third member is the Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost in KJV). John 14 says Jesus will ask the Father to send us the Spirit to be a Counselor with us. Romans 5 says that the “love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (NASB) I Corinthians 2 says that the Holy Spirit teaches us about spiritual matters. The end of the book of Matthew says to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Beyond The Dictionary

The word Christian appears only three times in the Bible. Acts 11:26, Acts 26:28, and I Peter 4:16. The disciples of Christ were called Christians (or Christianos) by Gentiles (non-Jews) in Antioch. By my understanding, the name was first meant as a sort of insult, but that doesn’t really matter – it later grew to a title of honor. To be named as a follower of Christ means that people could see that their works, behaviors, and teachings mirrored those of Christ. They could see Jesus through these people.

Now, we call ourselves Christians; we are not given the name by outsiders. Is it in hopes that people can see Jesus through us? Or is it simply convenient? I am sometimes hesitant to even take the name for myself because I know how little I deserve it. To me, it would definitely be an honor for someone to be able to look at me and say they see Christ in me enough to call me a “Christian.”

Christ-likeness, that’s what it really means.

Who was He? How can you emulate Christ if you don’t even know Him? Many people name themselves Christians though have no idea what Christ was like or what his teachings were. It’s true that Jesus says all that’s required for salvation is to believe in His death and resurrection and confess that He is Lord, but the life of a Christian involves more than that. There is more. There are other things involved in being a Christian; things that don’t make you more or less saved, but that show your obedience and love of God.

Who Is Jesus?

  • Fulfiller of Prophecy
    The Old Testament contains about sixty Messianic prophecies (with many more – over 300 – references to the coming Messiah), and Jesus is the only man in history who fulfilled every one of them. (Click for list of references.) Therefore we know that he is the Son of the God of the Bible, who created the world. The foretold Messiah.
  • Sacrificial Lamb
    The purpose of Jesus’ life was to die for sins. Sin, brought into the world first through Adam and Eve, and passed down from father to son. In the Old Testament, God set up a system of sacrifices for people to atone for their sins. Sin cannot be forgiven without the shedding of blood. Romans 6 says the wages of sin is death. There is no way around it. A Holy God cannot overlook sin, un-holiness, evil. In the New Testament, Jesus, as a sinless, pure Lamb of God, gave himself for a sacrifice, so that we would not have to. This is why we no longer make sacrifices. This is why we can be sure of eternal life. Jesus took on the sins of the world to save us from death and separation from God. That is the meaning of salvation! That is the meaning of John 3:16!

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (Romans 5:6-11, NIV)

The Message puts it like this:
“Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!”

Salvation

Some people use different phrases to refer to this same concept. To be saved, to be born again, to become a Christian – they all mean that you are accepting salvation, which is the free gift (see Romans 6) given by Jesus, possible only by His death and resurrection.

In Ephesians 2, it is reiterated that we are saved by the grace of God, through faith. It is not “of ourselves,” or not “of works.” In other words, it’s nothing we have done or can do; it is the gift of God. In Romans 3, we are reminded that there is “none righteous, no not one,” and that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Where, then, is boasting? How can we pat ourselves on the back when we know that it was nothing we did, but a gift? We can’t.

So, the question is, where does that leave us? First of all, it leaves us as still sinners. As the saying goes, “I’m not perfect, just forgiven.” We’ve been forgiven of our sins, but we will still continue to disobey and misbehave (sin). Even Jesus’ disciples struggled with it. Romans 7 is a good example, where Paul says, “…the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.” (NASB)

It’s a struggle! We will always struggle with sin because our very nature is sinful!

“So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not!

“If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace–a new life in a new land!

“…What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death be the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us.

“From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.

“That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. Don’t even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time–remember, you’ve been raised from the dead!–into God’s way of doing things.” (Romans 6:1-2, 8-13, The Message. Click for NIV.)

To summarize, we must do our best not to live in sin any longer. Just because we are forgiven does not give us license to live as we please. In John 14, Jesus says twice that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. II Corinthians 5 says that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation.

Where does that leave us? Read God’s word! Learn what he has to say. Find out what pleases God, and what grieves Him. Spread the Good News (the Great Commission)! We are ambassadors, or representatives, for Christ! (II Corinthians 5)

(Read More in Part Two)