Christianity

What is Christianity all about? What is this 'religion' actually? Is it different from other religions? How so? Why does it seem like every teaching regarding it clashes with one another? Well, before I go into what is Christianity, let me go into what Christianity isn't.

Christianity isn't a set of good moral values. Many have the perception that Christianity teaches you to be good and to know what is right or wrong. For a time, I also believed that. In fact, I believed the more I knew of this religion, the more those 'gray areas' of morality will be defined! Oh, how wrong I was! Christianity doesn't draw a hard and fast line anywhere! It doesn't have anything on driving etiquette and rules. You won't find the Bible saying what or who is right in any issue. In fact, Paul said that, "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is constructive." (1 Corinthians 10:23) Kinda gray, isn't it? Wine is constructive once in a while. But getting drunk on it is destructive. Which side of the line would you take?

Similarly, Christianity isn't a way of life. Well, it is and it isn't. What I mean is, Christianity's focus isn't about how Christians should behave or what they should be doing etc. Yes, God did leave us some commands to fulfill but if you study the Bible closely, they're quite generic and not very specific. Unlike self-help books that tell you exactly how the world works and ways to live well in it, the Bible offers no such teaching except as a consequence of living solely for Jesus.

Speaking about self-help books, the Bible definitely does not qualify as one! Lots of books have been written about how you can live a better life and how to be a better person but the difference is the focus. Self-help books asks you to focus on yourself. The Bible asks you to focus on Jesus. What's the difference? How can we focus on ourselves, when we don't even know what we're capable of? It's like asking a robot what is it's purpose in life! As a person, we may know better than anyone else about ourselves but we will never know what exactly are we capable of. How could we? We didn't create ourselves, we didn't choose our good and bad qualities. Only God, the Father who has created us will know. After all, when you want to know what any machine is build for and what is all it is capable of doing, you don't ask the machine; you ask the person who made it! Similarly, how can we be asking ourselves when our Creator is the one who knows best?

Oh, and Christianity is definitely not about doing good deeds. God has said, we cannot save ourselves. A thief who has committed crime all his life can still go to Heaven if he repents on his death bed. You can be the most holy person or contribute the most to charities and still end up in Hell. Sounds unfair doesn't it? That's because God isn't looking just for deeds. He's looking for a people who will honor Him. And while most of the time it comes through good deeds, all of the time is when people simply trust Him to come through and work through their lives. As Christians, we're compelled to do good deeds to honor Him but that's not what will save us.

So after all that, what is Christianity all about? It's not self-help, it's not doing good, it's not even living life in a certain way! In fact, it isn't exactly religion either because you don't actually has a set of practices that all Christians have to do. Definitely, there's a set of practices that would be good if we do practise it but on a whole, it isn't set in stone. The practices will help you find God but it won't help you gain favour in His eyes. In fact, there's no way for us as humans to live up to His standard! When having lustful and anger thoughts are enough to signify adultery and murder respectively, how much we will sin on a daily basis! Furthermore, if we ourselves can bring ourselves closer to God, why then would we have need Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us?

We needed and still need Jesus because we need a Saviour. The punishment of sin is death. Jesus had to come and die for our sins so that we may now know God and to have life. A good analogy would be someone offering to die for a condemned man. Except that Jesus didn't just die for 1 man, he died for all humanity. And the crux of Christianity is this very fact: that Jesus died for our sins. The main purpose of Jesus coming down wasn't to vindicate the Jewish lifestyle, it wasn't really about the teachings, it definitely wasn't about setting a new world order. It was simply this: to give humanity life through knowing the Father and have the abundant life He promised us. He died for our sins so that we are no longer cut off from the Father and may now know Him personally.

And that's what Christianity is all about. It's having a relationship with God. It's about knowing He is God and that He did die for our sins. It's acknowledging Him as master over our lives and to live it honouring him in all that we do. For at the end of the day, it isn't about the good deeds, it isn't about the lifestyle we live... when we get to heaven, the only thing God will be looking for is how much we have love Him and obey His word.

God is a loving god. His word is definitely towards us loving those around us. When we love God, we will be compelled to do His will. We will definitely be compelled to love those around us and to want to do what's best for them. But as much as all that, we also must trust and obey Him. Because we don't always know what's best for others. Only He does. His way is the best way. Any other way will fall short. As Christians, we do good deeds not for the glory, not for the fame, not even for the brownie points (which don't really exist anyways). We do good deeds because that's what God has ask us to do and because we want to please and honour Him, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. Nothing else will do, only Him.

In fact, the good deeds we do aren't just out of love. They also are to honour Him and to show others about Jesus. After all, God send us the Holy Spirit to help us and guide us in life. So it's still God leading us in doing those good deeds! It isn't our own strength that brings the success, it's all God. Yes, we have our part to play. Yes, we have to move to help. But more importantly, we must give all glory to Him and in everything that we do, let God have His way with us. Christianity doesn't make sense, all the good works Christians do will never make sense unless it is done to lift His name up high and to give Him all the glory and honour and praise He deserves. Amen.