WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE

Almost one-third of earth’s people claim to be “Christian.” For some of them it’s their tradition, for others a political statement. Many are part of religious systems classified as “Christian.” For others “Christian” designates who they aren’t—not Hindu, atheist or Muslim, for example.

Then there are those whose beliefs are taken from God’s Book, the Bible. They believe that through Jesus Christ their present lives and their eternal destiny have been changed. And three major historic events have shaped their beliefs.

The first event: Christians believe in Christmas

Put simply, when Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the virgin Mary’s womb and born nine months later, God himself entered human history.

How radical is the idea behind Christmas?

Who could have imagined that God, the creator of the universe, would have taken the form of a man with time/space limitations? Yet the Bible foretold centuries before that the Christ, the Messiah, would be born of a virgin and be called “Immanuel,” which means “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14).

Furthermore, an angel told Jesus’ adoptive father: “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20-21).

What must taking on human limitations have been like for God? Author Philip Yancey writes: “On that day in Bethlehem, the Maker of All That Is was born a helpless, dependent newborn....Christ came ‘in the flesh.’”

The second event: Christians believe in Good Friday

Thirty years later, after ministering throughout Palestine for three years, Jesus told his disciples that they were going to Jerusalem, where he would be arrested, “convicted” (in an illegally assembled kangaroo court on charges that he was claiming falsely to be the Messiah), and crucified on a Roman cross.

How radical is the idea behind Good Friday?

The Bible records that when Jesus explained his impending death, the disciples “understood none of these things” (Luke 18:34). It went completely against their hopes and dreams for the Messiah.

Yet the prophet Isaiah had also written that the Messiah would die for the sins of the people. He wrote: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

What kind of savior willingly does that? Jesus explained to his disciples beforehand: “I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again” (John 10:17-18).

What motivated him? The joy of bringing people into a right relationship with his Father by paying the penalty for their sins so they could have eternal life and become part of God’s family. Jesus said he didn’t come “to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). In other words, to save mankind from sin, death, and God’s judgment of sins.

The third event: Christians believe in Easter

After three days in a borrowed tomb Jesus Christ rose from the dead, appeared to his disciples repeatedly over a period of forty days, then met with hundreds of followers before returning to heaven. The early Christian leader Paul explained the good news this way: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas [Peter], and then to the twelve [disciples]. Then he appeared to more than five hundred…at one time, most of whom are still alive” (1 Corinthians 15:3-6a).

How radical is the idea behind Easter?

Even though the Jewish religious leaders and Jesus’ own disciples knew he had said he would rise again “on the third day” (Matthew 20:19), no one expected he would fulfill that prophecy literally. When his disciples first heard from reliable witnesses that Jesus had risen from the dead, they couldn’t believe it (Mark 16:10-11). When the resurrected Jesus first appeared to them, in the upper room, they were frightened (Luke 24:36-37)!

But, once convinced, those same disciples were transformed into bold witnesses to Christ’s resurrection. To a man, they were willing to lay down their lives as eyewitnesses to the resurrected Christ. According to a Newsweek cover story: “By any measure, the resurrection of Jesus is the most radical of Christian doctrines....of no other historical figures has the claim been made persistently that God has raised him from the dead.”

Who Is a True Christian?

Do those three events mean anything to you personally? To experience true Christianity you must come to God through Jesus Christ who came to earth to die for you, then rose from the dead. “There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:5-6).

Do you believe Christ is God’s Son who died for you so that you can be forgiven of your sins and have the gift of eternal life? Are you willing to change your mind about how a person gets right with God and come to God through the only way He has made available—through belief in Jesus?

If that’s your heartfelt conviction, you can tell God in your own prayer, like this: “Dear God, thank you for offering me forgiveness, even though I don’t deserve it. I confess my sins against you. As of right now I’m trusting in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of my sins and the gift of eternal life. I thank him for dying in my place. I want my life to count for you from now on. Thank you!”