Campus CrossWalk Magazine: 2008 Spring Issue -- What is Christianity?

: “We assume people in the pulpit understand [Christianity] and people in the churches understand it, but they don’t… We cannot defend our faith nor can we live it if we don’t know what it is.” ~ Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship, speaking to pastors and ministry leaders at the 19th Annual National Conference in Woodbridge, VA (April 9, 2008).

Ouch! Are most Christians really that ignorant of Christianity? There may be some overstatement in Colson's quote above for shock therapy, but I take that as a challenge to define Christianity clearly. My attempt below is not perfect but it might be better than the one you’re not using.

Christianity means living, not as a loner but as a member of God’s family, by the following convictions:

1. CREATION! This world, including you and me, exists by virtue of a God who acted creatively on purpose. We are NOT mere accidents of nature (see Ephesians 2:10).

2. SIN! All human beings are hopeless sinners, lost from our Creator and unable to find our way back to Him on our own (see Romans 3:10 & 23). If you cannot accept this, then go no further in the name of Christianity.

3. SALVATION! God, in His mercy, initiated our reconciliation with Him (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). He loved us enough (John 3:16) to send His Son, Jesus, to save us from our sin. He obediently came down to earth in the form of a man (the Christmas story) and lived sinlessly among sinful men and women, calling them to repent of their sins (Mark 1:15). They killed him. Mary’s little lamb grew up to become the sacrifice for the sins of humankind. He absorbed our debt, delivered us from our guilt and redeemed us from our slavery to sin. Then, He rose from the dead (the Easter story) and He lives forever, interceding with God on our behalf (Hebrews 7:23-25). Christians drink from the cup of salvation remembering that Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath, for us.

4. RESPONSE! Having repented, we are called to participate with Jesus in His death (Galatians 2:20), burial (Colossians 2:12) and resurrection through baptism, which is our water grave from which we also rise with Him to a brand new life (Romans 6:4). God responds by forgiving our sins and giving us the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38) through whom we live as new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17), reconciled with God and bearing fruit pleasing to God (Galatians 5:22). From there, Christians are walking worship services, with their lives laid on God’s altar as living sacrifices to God (Romans 12:1-2). We belong to Him and not to ourselves (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). We worship God "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24), rather than just going through the motions. We are commanded to love God (heart, soul, mind and strength), and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:28-31). And when we die, we graduate by the grace of God to eternal life with the Lord in heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:17). [NOTE: The scripture references above are among the hottest in the Bible. They will help you to help others understand Christianity more clearly.]

CONCLUSION: I suspect that many people cannot properly define Christianity because they stumble at the point (#2) of fully grasping the depth and reality of their sin. Get that straight and the story of God's love takes on new meaning and life for you and makes it easy to remember and explain to others.

Joel Mark Solliday, B.A., M.Div., is the editor of Campus CrossWalk and the pulpit minister of the Northern Light Church of Christ in Minnesota . He earned his M.Div. at Fuller Theological Seminary and has worked at Pepperdine and ACU. His wife Katie is a junior high school teacher.