The Heart of the Message of Christianity
Monday, August 24, 2009
For generations - centuries and centuries - Christians have tried to nail down the essence of our faith. In times past, Church leaders drew up documents called “creeds”, which were statements of faith. Others said, “We don’t believe in creeds, we just follow the Bible!” - a good thought, but not necessarily useful as a teaching tool - not everything in the Bible is of equal value in terms of Christian faith, and it’s pretty overwhelming to tell someone interested in learning the basics of our faith to read the entire Bible. What is a simple outline of the message about Jesus that we can quickly share with those who are asking?
Paul, an early Christian leader, wrote a letter to some Christ-followers (Christians) in the ancient city of Corinth. This was a messy church - there were lots of people with lots of problems in the church, and they couldn’t seem to get along with one another at all. As Paul writes to correct them on so many issues, toward the end of his letter he calls them back to the basics of their faith. He’s told them several ways they need to change their thinking and their actions, but before he ends his letter, he wants to remind them emphatically of why any of the rest of his letter matters. He wants to remind them of what followers of Jesus believe. This is what he tells them:
1-2Friends, let me go over the Message with you one final time— this Message that I proclaimed and that you made your own; this Message on which you took your stand and by which your life has been saved. (I’m assuming, now, that your belief was the real thing and not a passing fancy, that you’re in this for good and holding fast.) 3-9The first thing I did was place before you what was placed so emphatically before me: that the Messiah died for our sins, exactly as Scripture tells it; that he was buried; that he was raised from death on the third day, again exactly as Scripture says; that he presented himself alive to Peter, then to his closest followers, and later to more than five hundred of his followers all at the same time, most of them still around (although a few have since died); that he then spent time with James and the rest of those he commissioned to represent him; and that he finally presented himself alive to me. It was fitting that I bring up the rear. I don’t deserve to be included in that inner circle, as you well know, having spent all those early years trying my best to stamp God’s church right out of existence. (1 Corinthians 15:1-8, The Message)
Paul boils the message of Jesus down to four points: he died, he was buried, he rose from the dead, and he appeared alive to his followers. There’s a lot more to say about Jesus and about our lives, but the main things (some translations say “things of first importance") are pretty simple. Death. Burial. Resurrection. Appearances. This is what we believe. If we can unite on these things, a lot of other things take care of themselves.
Peace,
Matt