Christianity is a religion with almost two thousand years of history, theology, and study. It is a bear to try and tackle in one go, but the fundamentals of Christianity can be explained as such:
- God’s Nature: There is one God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and perfectly loving. He created the universe and everything in it. He is perfectly good, perfectly just, and perfectly fair.
- Humanity’s State: All people have sinned and fallen short of God’s perfect standard. This sin separates humanity from God.
- Jesus Christ: God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to Earth. Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life and willingly died on a cross to pay the penalty for humanity’s sin.
- Salvation: The core belief is that by having faith in Jesus Christ and his sacrifice, a person can be forgiven of their sins and have a restored relationship with God.
- The Holy Spirit: After Jesus’s death and resurrection, God sent the Holy Spirit to live within believers, guiding, comforting, and empowering them to live a life that reflects God’s will.
Through Jesus’ death our sins against God are forgiven. Having lived a perfect, sinless life, Jesus was the only one able to take on the weight of all of mankind’s sins and pass God’s fair judgement. By dying in our place for our sins, we are washed clean of our sins. We have the free will to choose whether we want Jesus to cover for us or if we want to be judged for our sins on our own account by refusing to believe.
I often hear people ask why God can’t just save us from our sins, but He did. There’s an analogy I use that I feel explains it very well:
You are on a boat in the middle of the ocean with God. God warns you not to jump in the water, but you don't listen and jump in anyway. Quickly you realize that you are too tired and call out for help. God throws you a life vest. If you put on the life vest and get pulled into the boat, you will not be able to go back in the water, but you will live. If you refuse the life vest, you will die in the water. You wouldn't say, "I don't want the life vest, I want you to save me", because God has offered to save you by tossing you the life vest. It's the only way to life when God did not have to even save you. You disobeyed God in the first place.
A simple analogy: the water is sin, the life jacket is Jesus, the boat is life in Jesus, and drowning is death.
The Opinionated Christian 