Christianity is all about the birth, life, teachings, miracles, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ and the significance of all of this for the whole world. It is an ongoing relationship between a person and Jesus Christ.
At its core Christianity is a belief in these events as recorded for us in the Bible and a conscious walk of life that seeks to live honourably and loyally to Jesus and what he did and taught. In many ways Christianity then is an ongoing relationship between a person and Jesus Christ.
Christians believe (as Christ himself taught) that the whole Bible (both Old & New Testaments) is the divinely inspired word of God. We believe that God created the world and set human beings over it to rule creation in love and obedience under the ultimate kingship of God. However mankind has rebelled against God and as result we have fractured our relationship with him and all stand guilty before him.
The wonderful news of Christianity is that God has ultimately taken it upon himself to restore the broken relationship and forgive us all. The Bible tells the story of how God began this great restoration through the life of one family that became the nation of Israel. However the story of restoration to a life with God climaxes paradoxically through the death of a man on a Roman crucifix. Jesus of Nazareth, as God incarnate, was the only person able to take upon himself the full responsibility of our rebellion and deal with it once for all. He literally died in our place receiving in himself the due punishment we all rightly deserve. His resurrection 3 days later not only confirmed this but became an example to all of the full life (both spiritually and one day ultimately physically) we can each have if we believe in him and seek to honour him.
Christianity then, is about life- real life; life to the fullest as God intended it be; a life of love, hope and peace. This comes about through faith in him and the transforming work of His Spirit in the Christian’s life.
If you would like to know more about Christianity please come along to our next Christianity Explored course.
The link below is also a helpful online summary of the message of the bible and shows the centrality of Jesus in the Christian Faith.