Words can change their meaning over time. For example, we may like being told we’re “nice” but many years ago the word was apparently used to describe someone who was ignorant or stupid! In a similar way, the word “Christian” is now widely misused and misunderstood. Many people use it to describe someone they think is a “good” person (although without a fixed reference point everyone’s idea of good is of course different!). Other people think of themselves as being a Christian on the basis they have at least some belief in the existence of “God” or in life after death, or because they occasionally go to church, read the bible or pray, or that they were christened as a baby or went to Sunday School as a child.
Then you still hear it said today that, because Christianity has been the main religion in the UK for many years, this is therefore still a “Christian” country.
God’s definition
However the Bible (which is the only true basis for the beliefs and practices of the Christian Church) defines a Christian far more specifically, although the actual word is not often used. The first time it occurs is in the book of Acts chapter 11 and verse 26, where it records that the name was originally given (probably in a fairly derogatory way) to some of the first followers or disciples of Jesus Christ. Just as in parts of the world still today, to publicly state you were a follower of Jesus brought you into direct conflict with both the secular and religious authorities and the real danger of imprisonment and even death. So these weren’t just people who were followers in the sense they agreed with some of things he taught or who looked upon him as a kind of “folk hero”. Rather they were people who were prepared to sacrifice everything in the belief that this man was the God-given answer to their greatest need.
Our great problem
So to know what a Christian really is we therefore have to know the answer to this further question. What is our greatest need as human beings? Once again people would have very different ideas. The most common would probably be the need for financial provision and security, many viewing money and the things it can buy as an essential requirement in order to be happy in this life. Other answers might include such things as the need for good health, a long life, a loving family and good friends – or the answer so loved by all by beauty contest entrants, world peace!
The Bible however once again gives us a very different answer. It tells us that, contrary to the evolutionary view of origins now so widely taught and accepted, human beings were created by God “in his image” – that is with an eternal soul, able to know him and worship him. Many laugh at such an idea but that “spiritual” side to our humanity can be seen in various ways;
- The questions we all ask at some point – such as is there a God, what is the point of my life, and is this life really all there is?
- The inclination human beings have to worship something outside of themselves, to pray when they or loved ones are in trouble, or to hope in the existence of Heaven when facing the pain of bereavement;
- Or the fact that, although animals are perfectly happy provided their physical and emotional needs are met, we are not. Indeed the often short-lived and tragic lives of those who have everything that money can buy bears eloquent witness to what Jesus himself said 2,000 years ago, that “man cannot live by bread alone”
Instead the Bible states that Man was made for a purpose, that his life will continue after death and that Heaven is not just pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking but a glorious reality. Other religions of course teach similar things, but the Bible’s message is fundamentally different in that it says mankind has a great problem – that although God is kind and loving he isn’t the celestial grandfather figure many imagine him to be, who loves everyone and will “turn a blind eye” to all their faults. God instead is revealed as also being holy and just. This basically means that he’s utterly perfect and therefore finds any “sin” (which simply means any deviation from his laws or commands) utterly intolerable, and because he is also perfect in his justice this means that he must and will judge every one of these sins. Yes, Heaven is a glorious reality, but the Bible also tells us that there is an awful and terrible reality called Hell, a place where such sins will be eternally punished. Most people sneer at such an idea, mistakenly saying that this was just an invention of the medieval Church, or that such a punishment would be grossly excessive and quite unjust. Such a view however stems from the fact none of us like to consider ourselves as being “sinners”, and that we cannot even begin to comprehend how offensive sin is to a perfect and holy God.
In spite of this many people still have a nagging concern about what might happen to them when they die, which leads to the very common idea that even if there is some sort of “judgement” their good deeds will hopefully “outweigh” their bad ones.
The trouble however is that even human justice doesn’t generally work on that basis – a murderer will still get life imprisonment in spite of claiming he was really kind to that person beforehand! The good we might do cannot lesson or remove our sins. And this is our great problem – one we all have irrespective of whether or not we believe God exists, sin is real, or the Bible is true. It is how as sinful human beings we can stand before such a God at the end of our life and not be eternally judged – a situation we are utterly powerless to change.
God’s solution
Obviously that’s a pretty depressing message, and one which most people therefore reject and even find offensive – we all naturally think we’re a “good” person (or at least a lot better than many other people!). We also don’t like the idea of being accountable for our life, or not being able to do “earn” a place in Heaven. As the writer Mark Twain wrote: “Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.”
Unfortunately many churches over the years have therefore toned-down such teaching in order to make the message of the Bible easier for people to accept. But that undermines the greatest message of the Bible, which is that, although mankind has this problem, God has not left us in this predicament – which is where we return to Jesus Christ and the Bible’s definition of a Christian.
It tells us that, although God is holy and just, he is also loving and merciful, and to make a way for us to be forgiven whilst at the same time satisfying his holy justice he provided someone in history who would be punished for sin in our place – that person being Jesus Christ. His first followers or disciples didn’t therefore just believe Jesus was a good man, but that he was no less than the Messiah, God’s Son, who had come to die and be judged on the cross in the place of sinful people like them (such teaching being what is termed “the gospel” which simply means “good news”).
A Christian is therefore not just a good person (indeed in God’s eyes there is no one completely good), nor are they someone who attends a certain church or who adopts a certain set of values and beliefs. Rather it is someone who has acknowledged that as a sinner they cannot make themselves good enough for God, but who believes Jesus Christ died in their place, and has sincerely prayed for God’s forgiveness on the basis of what he did for them. Does that mean that a Christian is someone who is now perfect? No, far from it! But it does mean they are someone who should be fundamentally different in how they live their lives, because the Bible says that such a person is given a new nature by God so that they now want to please and obey God rather than do those things which he defines as being sinful. In other words, being a Christian is not about being “religious” – indeed Jesus reserved some of his fiercest criticisms for such people. It means having a restored relationship with God through trusting in the provision he has made for us in Jesus Christ, and experiencing for ourselves the greatest answer to our greatest problem!