Good News from the Campus                                                                       

By Jordan McDevitt

 Editor’s Note: Jordan, a junior in college majoring in Philosophy,  is our campus correspondent.  This article answers a vital question as well as outlining the central message of the New Testament. 

Why I am a Christian 

Why am I a Christian? I am a Christian because by the grace of God, I believe. No answer should be more obvious in the mnd of a Christian than the answer to this question. On the other hand, perhaps no question is harder to answer in a way that will be understood by one without belief. Perhaps no answer could be less obvious to such a person. For if the answer was to be fully under-stood by one without belief, it is doubtful that disbelief would remain. It will be with great care that I will attempt to provide a reasonable answer for my faith. Bear in mind that reason alone, acting on a mind of unbelief, will never reconcile with Christianity, for it takes the element of belief to bridge the gap between faith and reason.

One thing I know for sure is that I am not a Christian because I am such a nice guy. I need no more than blink to know that the opposite is true. My life has been marked by the inseparable companions of selfishness and pride. I have wasted much of my time trying to hide my sin, giving me the appearance of goodness. However, this shows even more pointedly how helpless I am in my own efforts toward being good. Undoubtedly, I am as irrevocably sinful as anyone.

Who is good enough?

If being a Christian depended upon being a good person I assure you I never would be one. Left to ourselves we are destructive, selfish, and irreparably sinful. Romans 3:23 says that, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” A realization of this is paramount to an understanding of what it means to be a Christian. Every single person in the world has sinned and therefore has been separated from God. No one is good. In reality goodness is irrelevant to the Christian life because God does not require goodness, he requires perfection. And as Romans 3:23 shows, no person is perfect. So what are the consequences of falling short of God’s requirement?     

Romans 6:23 notifies humankind of the consequences of falling short of God’s requirement: “the wages of sin is death.” The death spoken of here is spiritual death. It is not merely falling into dreamless sleep, it is eternal death in hell. So the consequence of sin is death. There is no indication that it takes a certain number of sins to qualify as sinful. Nor does it indicate that they must be major sins. In fact it does not say sins at all. Rather it merely says sin. As Romans 3:23 has shown, all have sinned. Therefore, all are charged with the penalty of death as a result of their sin. Aside from dying, there is no other way to pay the penalty for being sinful. The penalty has to be paid. There is no way around it. Death is the only way we can pay for our sins. However, typically when you buy something you get to enjoy the benefits of that purchase. But in the case of paying for your own sins your benefit is eternal hell. There is no enjoyment or benefit that comes from this purchase.

Are we all doomed?

What hope is there then for the human race? All are doomed to death by their sin? All the goodness and niceness in the world cannot save us. There seems to be no hope. However, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).  God saw that human beings were separated from Him, and He from them, by their sin. He could not merely acquit them or find them not guilty for He knew they were guilty and deserved death. Furthermore, being a just God He could not do the injustice of letting them go free. A judge who lets a criminal's crime go unpaid is not a just judge. In the same way a God who lets sin go unpunished is not a just God. But God wanted to pay for sin so we would not have to. To remedy the problem he sent Jesus to earth to live a perfect life, which no human could, and then die in place of every single sinful person. 1 Corinthians 15:22 goes on to say that “in Christ all will be made alive.” So, while Adam represented us in death, Christ represented us in life. He gave up His life to save those who sin against Him. Can there be any greater demonstration of love? However, His love did not stop at death. He rose from the dead, overcoming death. In this act, Jesus gained power over death so that His sacrifice was not only the most loving of all gestures, it also had real life-saving power. This is the hope that Christians have.

Christ did all the work required on the cross. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3). All that men need to do is believe in Him and they will be saved. Again, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:26).  This key element, belief, is what makes a person a Christian. However, we are so lost in sins that we can not even make this step. Apart from the grace of God we are helpless in our sins. We are so helpless that we can not even choose to believe in God on our own. But when God gives a person  the  grace  to  believe  this  belief  changes  their  life.

What is belief?  This belief is not simply an acknowledgement of God, it is not even a profession of faith. James 2:19 says, “you believe that God is one. You do  well;  the demons also believe and shudder.” To merely believe that God exists is not enough. The truth is that there are millions of people who claim to be Christians, but Matthew 7:21 says that not everyone who claims to be a Christian really is one. Jesus states, “not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” This belief is not something that is merely claimed, but rather it is imparted to Christians by God. It is belief that brings about real change.

Earlier I only quoted the first half of Romans 6:23 which read, “for the wages of sin is death“ However, the second half reads, “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” What an amazing God! He came to earth and died for us just so we could live with Him. Furthermore, it is a free gift. No effort is required--only belief. The work is already done. This, then is the belief of which I speak  that marks the difference between Christians and non-Christians. A question that remains is what about all those who have belief in another God?

So many religions, so many ideas

Virtually every culture that has ever existed has believed in a god or gods; so what makes me a Christian and not a Buddhist? There are many religions that claim to be the way to heaven. What about them? There are an incalculable number of religions in the world, from Islam to Hinduism and from Judaism to Animism. What makes them all different from each other? The most notable and obvious difference is the fact that they all make different claims. That is, they all claim to be the way to reach heaven or to an equivalent to it. However, the law of non-contradiction necessitates that these religions cannot all be true.

Take Christianity as opposed to Islam, for example. Although the two religions lock horns in many areas, let us examine specifically the Christian view of Jesus as opposed to the Islamic view of Jesus. Jesus said, “I am the Son of God” (John 10:36).  From this verse and others, Christianity arrives at the claim that Jesus is the Son of God. Islam on the other hand claims that Jesus was not the Son of God. The Quran says, “God is Unique! God, the Source [of everything]. He has not fathered anyone nor was He fathered, and there is nothing comparable to Him” (112:1-4).  This verse is very clear that God certainly is not the father Jesus. So, Christianity claims that Jesus is the Son of God, but Islam claims that He is not. The law of non-contradiction comes into play here and says that Jesus cannot be both (A) the Son of God and (B) not the Son of God. This is a contradiction. He must be either one or the other, but they cannot both be true at the same time.

This is just one example of the countless contradictions that arise when comparing world religions. The fact is that if Jesus really was who He said He was, then Christianity is the only religion that can be true. This is not to say that there is not some truth in other world religions; however, it is to say that Christianity is the only religion which contains the full truth--and a partial truth can be more damaging than a falsehood. So, let it be said that there is only room for one true religion in the world. For the world can only actually be one way, as shown by the law of non-contradiction. Just as it was shown that both Christianity (A) and Islam (B) cannot both be right in their claim about Jesus, so, too, no two religions with competing claims can both be right.

It was said above that if Jesus was who He said He was, then Christianity is the only true religion. This is because Christianity is the only religion that believes all that He claimed. In one of His biggest claims he said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me” (John 14:6).  If Jesus said this then it is either true (A) or He, and therefore Christianity, is wrong (B), according to the law of non-contradiction. Furthermore, either the God of the Bible is God or He is not. He cannot be both (A) the God of the Bible and (B) not the God of the Bible. However, if He is the God of the Bible then the only way to Him is through Jesus Christ, for this was His claim in John 14:6. Finally, if Jesus is the only way to God then Christianity is the only true religion because it is only through Christianity that one can go through Jesus. Again, we hear his proclamation: “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me” (John 14:6).

What it all comes down to is the belief that Jesus was who He said He was.  The question then stands: do you accept Him as your Lord? For if you believe that he really was who He said He was and you submit yourself to His authority, then you will be a Christian. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”  In precise terms, a Christian is a person who believes that Jesus is who He said He is. True belief will necessarily be followed by obedience to the Bible, but there is no requirement of action for a Christian--only to take a step of belief made possible by the grace of God. Why am I a Christian? Because I have taken that step. Because I believe.