Why Christianity?

Questions:

How do we know there is a God?

What is it that condemns us?

Why is that problematic, why should we care?

What does it mean to bring glory to God?

Who is God? Who is Jesus?

What is God?

Why would we obey God?

Is Christianity nothing more than a social club? Or is there a deeper purpose behind the coming of the Messiah, YHWH, Jesus the Christ.

I want to answer these questions in a meaningful way in hopes to better understand the purpose and meaning of christianity and why or how we can help and encourage others to follow Jesus and put their faith in him. This is meant to challenge us intellectually so that we can be rational and also assured that our beliefs are sound and planted in reality. There is a lot of spiritual warfare going on and a lot of things can lead someone away from Christ. Let us get into why we should not let that happen.

The Gospel

God > Man > Christ > Response

The message or the “good news” of Jesus Christ is easily the first place we should start when trying to rationalize Christianity. We have a problem, that problem is sin, sin leads to death and destruction, God paves a way for us to avoid that path, through the sacrificial blood and atonement of His only Son Jesus who is the Christ. Now through our faith in Jesus, our whole sin is nailed to the cross and forgiven and we can now enjoy eternal life SINLESS.

This leads us to our first major point. Why is sin bad?

We can see the real time effects of sin. Romans 1-2, Colossians 3, and many other areas of the New Testament will lay out a list of sin. Things from slander and gossip, to sexual immorality and drunkenness. If you just take a look around at the world and ask yourself; does this do more harm than good? Then you can pretty much discern what sin is.

Jesus Christ lived on this earth for 30-33 years and NEVER sinned. He lived a perfect life, setting the example for how we should be and live and how God originally intended for us to be. But why are we not perfect if God originally made us perfect? The answer is simple, free will. Romans 1:24 points to us having free will by saying “God gave them up”. Many other passages all throughout scripture say the very same thing when it comes to someone sinning. So, God does not force us to sin, He lets us sin. That puts the responsibility onto us. We are responsible for our own actions. So, by understanding this, we understand accountability. In order to be saved one must recognize their need for salvation.

Romans 1:24 ESV

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

Is God real?

Of course the Gospel does not make much sense if there is no rational reason to believe that there is a higher power. How do we know that God is real?

The beauty of Romans 1-2 is that is lays out Christian theology. We know just by creation itself that God exists. Rational thinking leads us to this conclusion.

Creation cannot come from non-creation.

In order for something to be created, there has to be something that exists that creates it. With that, there has to be a creator. In the same way that when we see a car driving down the road, we know that someone designed, manufactured and built that car. The car did not just appear out of nowhere.

This leads us to the very next question, Who or what is that higher power?

God has made himself known to man through His written word. Not only that, but throughout history He has shown signs and wonders. For example, Moses and the burning bush, Jesus Christ and His miracles including but not limited to, the resurrection of others and Himself from the dead.

If you take the teachings of Jesus Christ and apply them to your life, you can see first hand that everything He says holds true in every aspect of life. I have seen this as my own testimony. So then what is the purpose? Why do we exist?

Bringing Glory to God

I believe our purpose on this earth is to bring glory to God. But what does that mean? How? Why?

The main teaching of the Bible is love. Jesus taught us to love not only God, not only our neighbor, but even our enemies. He believed and told us that Love is absolutely the most important thing in life. This is made very clear in Matthew 22: 34-40.

Matthew 22:34–40 ESV

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

So what is love?

Why should we do that? Well in 1 Corinthians 13 we are given the divine definition of what love is.

1 Corinthians 13 ESV

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

This passage lays out the defining characteristics of love. You cannot have love without patience and forgiveness and grace. It is not possible. Furthermore, claiming to be a christian while also lacking love in your life is like saying you are a Republican but voting Democrat.

Why should we love?

I think 1 John 4 lays out the answer to this question perfectly. We love because God first loved us. GOD IS LOVE. He is the embodiment of love and we would not even know what love is outside of God.

This brings me to a very important point: The true power of God is displayed when we show love.

When my wife and I went to Guatemala on our first mission trip, we did what was called home visits. We went to someone's house with their permission, someone who had not been active in church for a while due to unfortunate circumstances. This family had lost a child, and another one of their children had come up missing. So it may be understandable why they wanted to distance themselves from the church. But it was not just the church they were staying away from, it was God. God led us as a group to go to that person’s house and pray for them, be there for them, listen to them, hug them, and share God’s word with them. The very next day, and the days that followed, they showed up to church. Not only did they show up to church, they showed up to church with smiles on their faces. Not only did they show up to church with smiles on their faces, they showed up to church with smiles on their faces, BEARING GIFTS. Imagine that, this family had just lost two children, one of them they will never see again. Yet, after only ONE visit, their whole family came to church, smiling, and bringing gifts. I don’t know about you but I have never given someone a gift after only meeting them ONE time. This is where the true power of God is displayed. It is not about making our life better. It is about knowing that when we love one another, he is standing by us because we are complying with his command. It is knowing that in the darkest times of our lives, He is there for us and with us. It was Jesus Christ who took the punishment for our sin after all.

Christianity

This leads me to my final point.

Christianity is the solution to evil.

Through Christ we have full repentance and are made perfect in the image of God as we were originally intended to be. ‘Perfect’ means that we are without sin. Just as Jesus Christ was without sin. This is a task that is only accomplished by putting our trust and faith in Jesus Christ.

Christianity is much more than just a social club. It is a way of life. It is the means by which we can truly love one another. Without love, life is completely and totally meaningless, it would be nothing but chaos and no one would be held accountable. God is Love.

Imagine if everyone in the world made an active attempt to be Christ-like. Jesus said “do not retaliate” and “pray for those who persecute you”. I find myself asking, Why would I not want to do that?

Christian Prescription

Romans 12 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

On top of this, we have Matthew 28 where Jesus is telling us to go and baptize EVERYONE in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. So, we conclude with God wanting to make His house full. God’s wrath is upon all evil, so STOP BEING EVIL.

What is faith?

Is faith merely being a part of the club? Or is it being adopted into the family of God and becoming a child of God. Where we were lost and orphaned, God chose us and called us to Him to be a part of His Holy family.

Is faith just saying something out loud or is it backed up by action? The Bible teaches us to repent from our sin, not just being hearers of the Word but doers of the word also.

Is faith merely the idea that we should learn to love? Whether or not someone understands that it comes from God through His son Jesus?

Faith is believing that which we have not seen and also that which there is good evidence for.

There is far more evidence FOR the existence of God and the life of Jesus Christ than there is AGAINST it. In fact, the only evidence that someone would ever have that God does not exist is that they have not seen Him with their own two eyes. and to that I say: John 20:29

John 20:29 ESV

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

This concludes my argument for God. To whomever this may concern, the absolute truth is, there is no greater treasure in life than that of Jesus Christ. Amen.