The Big Questions About Christianity预览

What does it mean to be a Christian?

My idea of what being a Christian is all about has changed a lot over the years.

When I was younger, I thought being a Christian was about going to church and being part of a religious community that believed in the same things about God. It gave me a sense of safety. In a way, it was all about conforming, and it was all about being aware that I was different from other people and, in a sense, judging them because they weren’t like me and didn’t have what I had.

In reality, I guess that’s how many non-Christians view believers in Jesus. But the thing is, that’s what I thought being a Christian was all about when I was a kid growing up in church. I think it’s a very immature view of what it means to be a Christian, and it’s taken me a long time to grow up.

What made me change my understanding of what it means to be a Christian were two things, I guess, and they were related. The first one was that I started to question my beliefs, and the second one was just the disappointments that always come as you travel through life, even, to be honest, disappointments with the church. It’s often the disappointments in life that make us re-evaluate things, right? Because they help us see the world doesn’t work the way we thought it did.

I came to some bedrock facts, and I think these are the core facts of what it means to be a Christian and what started the whole Christianity thing in the beginning.

The first fact was that Jesus Christ actually lived, died, and rose again from the dead. Not because some religion says so, but because history stacks up, attested by multiple eyewitness testimonies, and the ripple effects, even tidal wave effects, of these events throughout history.

If these things are true, then what Jesus claimed for himself was true. God came to save the world, and he did it through the Cross, so everyone who believes in him belongs to his kingdom and has eternal life.

Being a Christian is very, very personal because Jesus promised he would never leave us. He is with us through his Spirit, and I’ve personally found that to be true.

Jesus teaches us a new way to live. Christianity calls it the way of grace, and the truth is that “grace” is a word Christianity owns because it’s one of the key things that sets Christianity apart from every other belief system in the world. Grace is the idea that we cannot earn God’s love and forgiveness, and it is offered to every person, even the most unworthy.

It’s not just an “idea.” It’s a reality that followers of Jesus learn to walk in and find their identity. Knowing you are accepted and loved despite who you are and what anyone else could say about you is incredibly liberating in your daily life. It frees you up to show grace, forgiveness, and unselfish kindness to those around you.

Of course, I go to church, but I’m not a Christian because of the church. I’m a Christian because of what Christ has done for me. I am encouraged to go to church and encourage others to live out their lives in freedom, happiness, and hope.

– Eliezer Gonzalez