This has been a long time in my mind and I decided to blog on this. I hope I can fully express what I really wanted to say.
In the turn of the centuries Christianity has been boiled down to more likely a tradition, religion, belief, exercises, books, crucifix, songs and acitvities in the church and etc. This was never the case when you study the early church. This was never the picture when you study the gospels and the epistles.Christianity has become everything else except Christ. (Not to generalize but majority) I venture to say "Christianity without CHRIST is no Christianity at all." Jesus Christ is the hingepin of Christianity.1 Corinthians 15: 17-20 (17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.)
The Gospels and Epistles were centered on Jesus Christ and His finish work on the cross. The message that changed the known world that time and turned the tide was that "there was a person who died on the cross to forgive sin and that righteousness is not by the law but by faith in Him." People left families, possessions, gods, and sins and that were being made followers of the Lord Jesus Christ was because of the preaching of the Gospel of Grace. The word of mouth of Apostle Paul was Jesus Christ and His wonderful work on the cross. That's the power that can change life.Today, Christianity has become far less like that. We are all told of what's in the Bible but for most Christians they don't see Jesus in it. It is even possible for a Christian to die saying the sinner's prayer and go to heaven without ever fully understanding the magnitude and gravity of Christ love for him and Christ redemptive work on the cross making him His co-heir. It is even possible that you do all the church stuff, sing in the choir, active in Sunday schools and attend church, preach on the pulpit, and teach small groups material but not really in love with the Savior. How to be a good Christian is thought thoroughly but one thing that lack that is most essential that is the real love, devotion, passion of having encountered Jesus for who He is as revealed in the Scripture. Our goal is not behavior modification but real heart transformation that can only be achieved as we know Him and His finished work
When you see Jesus in the Scripture it is impossible that you'll not be in loved and be devoted to Him. Jesus is irresistible. When you see Jesus in his majesty, beauty and sufficiency, and love and grace and mercy you will be transformed. Yet most of the Christians are satisfied with the good teachings in the bible without fully knowing Jesus. As Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3: 7-11 7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. In this passage it is evidently seen that Jesus is Paul's all.That Christianity is all about knowing Jesus Christ and fulfilling His purpose.That the hingepin of His faith was His his encounter with the Savior and being found in Him. He considered everything a garbage and Christ is GAIN. How beautiful must be the Savior in his eyes?
If anyone has prayed the sinner's prayer and didn't have a personal, life-transforming revelation of the risen Savior must have lived a shallow Christianity, just saved so as by fire. How's yours?
