what is christianity?
what is christianity?
Christianity is about God and how he enters into a loving relationship with people like you and me
Many people think of God as an old man sitting on a cloud, or as someone who just gives people a load of rules to follow. However, the Bible says differently. The Bible says that God is a God of loving community: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He therefore created us for relationship. First and foremost relationship with him, but also relationship with other people.
The problem is that we naturally reject our relationship with God by forgetting about him and living as though he doesn’t exist. It’s what the Bible calls sin, a falling short of God’s perfect standards. We all sin and this brings guilt, shame and separation from God. Sinful people can’t come near to a holy, perfect God.
This is why we see a world of broken relationships and disharmony between families and people groups. And we are powerless to do anything about our separation from God, no amount of doing good can erase the sin that has already been committed.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Romans 3:23
However, God provided a solution. He came into the world as a man, Jesus. Jesus was fully man, but he lived the perfect, undefiled life. He was also fully God, as the accounts of Jesus’ life demonstrate, he was able to perform miracles and know people’s thoughts. But although Jesus performed powerful miracles and taught with great wisdom, those are not the primary reasons he came. He came to die.
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Hebrews 2:14-15
Jesus’ death and resurrection are the central events of the Christian faith. It is here that God deals with the problems caused by sin. The Bible says that, “the wages of sin is death.” Jesus didn’t deserve death. As the innocent Jesus was killed on a cross, he was taking the disgrace and punishment that was rightly ours. He was healing the broken relationship.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23
Jesus died and was buried. But he didn’t stay dead. After 3 days he rose again, powerfully conquering death. In doing so, he proved that the humiliation and punishment people like you and me deserve had been fully dealt with, giving us a perfect standing before God. God’s justice satisfied, there is now a way for a holy, perfect God and people to be reconciled into community again.
For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2
This healed relationship is open to all by faith. The Bible says we’re to repent and believe. Repent simply means to turn, turning from living without God, and turning to Jesus as saviour and Lord. It’s not about earning this relationship ourselves, it’s believing Jesus has done all that’s needed for this relationship to begin.
If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9
Within this new relationship, God accepts us and gives us the greatest gift, eternal life with him. Our guilt and shame from sin is taken away, so we’re given a place of honour as one his adopted children and a power through his Holy Spirit to live a new life for him. It’s a life that begins now and continues into eternity. An eternity with no more sin, shame, death, fear, pain, or anything bad, because of what Jesus has done.
This is the Christian faith we believe and proclaim at Platt, from it springs our worship. And as a family of believers in Jesus, we think this is the most important good news you’ll ever hear. We’d love to talk to you more about it.
Got questions? Want to know more?
Get in touch: hello@plattchurch.org