What is a Christian?
Anytime one hears the word, something inevitably comes to mind. For some, it´s politics. For others, tragically, it´s Ned Flanders. It may also be the girl in high school who refused to watch rated R movies and reacted like you ran over her puppy if you said a cuss word. The image that oftentimes doesn´t come to mind is that of Peter (who was crucified upside down because he didn´t consider himself worthy to die the same way as his Savior) or Lottie Moon, who starved to death while giving her food to others in need. Whatever it is, everyone has a preconceived notion of what it means to be a Christian.
However, as Shane Claiborne declares in
Irresistible Revolution (read it!), ¨Many of us are refusing to allow distorted images of our faith to define us.¨ What if I were to tell you that the heart of Christianity may be very different than what you have seen or experienced?
So what is a Christian? At its core, a Christian is someone who has a relationship with God. This relationship is established when one believes that Jesus Christ is the perfect Son of God, sent to be a man on earth, to die for the sins of the world, and to rise from the dead, thus reconciling God and humankind. This is the core of Christianity.
But isn´t there more?
YES! Praise the Lord, it does not end there! A Christian is also a disciple, a follower, of Jesus Christ. We
get to follow Him! As the hymn says, ¨Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all.¨
Why am I doing this? Why am I sleeping on the ground in Mexico? Because my life is not about me. It´s not about me getting what I want out of life, or making myself comfortable for the 80 some years that I am here. As Claiborne writes, ¨Jesus wrecked my life.¨ I believe that Jesus ¨redeemed my life from the pit¨ (Ps. 103). I believe I was dead in my sins, in my imperfections, and He raised me to life.
Don´t you see? I
have to follow Him – it´s the only way I know how to respond to what He has done for me! ¨I realize with joy that I cannot live my own life: I am a debtor to Christ¨ (Oswald Chambers,
So I Send You). I know that He died for me, that He took the punishment I deserved. All I can do is love in return. ¨Thank God, that when He saves us, He does give us something to do, some way of expressing our gratitude to Him. He gives us a great, noble since of spiritual honor, the realization that we are debtors to everyone because of the redemption of Jesus Christ. The sense of our debt to Jesus is so overwhelming that we are passionately concerned for that brother, that friend, those nations; in relation to them, we are the bondslaves of Jesus¨ (Chambers). And there is nothing more freeing.
Christianity is so much more than church on Sundays. In fact, ¨church¨ in reality is not meant to be a building – It is meant to be the collective body of Jesus-followers. Christianity is so much more than fitting some stereotype or pretending to have it all together. It is so much more than assurance for the next life, it is a call to be made more and more like Christ, to be loved, to love in
this life. Christianity is living a life of love because He first loved us. LOVE – not judgment. LOVE – not duty. LOVE – not complacency.
Terrible things have been done in the name of Christianity – worldwide and in individual lives. I pray that you would know that it was not Christ doing those things – it was imperfect people, some who were trying to follow after Him and some who were using His Name to serve their own purposes.
My prayer for you is that God would wipe away all those things in your mind and heart that have tainted the Name of Jesus Christ, and that He would reveal His true self to you.
¨Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.¨ Galatians 5:1
