What does it mean to be Christian?

Some of you reading this would consider yourself a Christian, and others decidedly not. And for probably really good reasons. So, what does it mean to be a Christian?

Well, it’s both a loaded and simple question. Being a Christian doesn’t start with you, it starts with God. Simply: being a Christian is a response to God’s love. This specific blog won’t go into proving His existence, rather I’ll touch on what a relationship with Him would look like.

The Trinity

God is infinite, meaning He has always been. And He’s not alone, He’s a Triune: God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. They have been in a loving communion for - well, forever. As we see in a handful of human examples, their love only grows over time. After an eternity, it’s hard to even fathom the magnitude of their love. In fact, we couldn’t if we tried.

All three persons are One God. He is the author of all love and all goodness. He is completely holy and righteous. And He doesn’t need us humans to give Him glory or give Him His title of God. He simply is. The Trinity continually glorifies each other, with no need for our worship to add to God’s glory. It’s difficult to picture, but the scene is striking to say the least. 

And yet, God’s love is so great, He wanted others to join in on His love. But it’s a kind of love we aren’t used to. It’s unconditional. To access it, we must accept His love. Wait, you say. Isn’t that a condition? Well, the same way you wouldn’t give someone a present and say “there’s just one condition. You must open it.”. There’s an implication that in order to accept the gift, they must receive it. In order to accept His love, we must love Him. I’ll write more about what this love looks like in later blogs.

For those of you who want to hear one of the best explanations of the Trinity, read Delighting in the Trinity by Michael Reeves - it may just change your life like it did mine. For anyone who knows me well, you’ve already been hounded to read this book. Nice to meet you, you’re officially in my inner circle. :) 

Creation & Sin

God wanted others to join in on His holiness and love. So He created us. He gave us a beautiful world to live in where we can gaze at His creation all around us at any time. When God created the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, He asked them to do something. Simply: don’t eat from a specific tree. Most of you know how this story ends, not well. They disobey God and with that disobedience, sin is introduced into the once perfectly created world.

The introduction of sin now raises a chasm between us and God. Nothing but complete goodness can come into community with God. We all have the freedom of choice in our lives to choose: sin or God. Life with perfect community with Him or death with sin’s temperamental joys. With sin, the world is distorted. Sins’ claws have been digging into the world ever since then, now so intertwined with all of humanity. 

Because God is perfect, He hates sin. Because sin separates us from Him. It only destroys and deceives. So, not one ounce of sin is allowed in God’s presence. And since the world is now utterly tainted with sin, we would have no way to be back in communion with God. There’s no good deed that will make us pure again. And we’d all be headed straight for punishment for that sin if God didn’t give up on us. 

Salvation

But He didn’t. He wanted to give us a way back into His community. The only way that He could was by sending His own Son, Jesus to take on our punishment for us. So He sent His Son to earth to live a perfect life that we couldn’t possibly live and redeem what Adam and Eve had destroyed. And He took on the guilt and shame of our sin and made it His own. Taking on the punishment as though He had committed those sins. Since He bore our sins, God had to turn His back on Him. And abandon Him completely. All of this, to give us salvation from our sins. So that we could accept this gift and no longer live in sin but live for Him.

What is a Christian? Someone who chooses God above anything else. One who accepts His gift of salvation. When Jesus left earth, He left us His Holy Spirit. Who alone allows us to have a relationship with God. Choosing Him is just the beginning. When you’re a Christian, you’re a daughter or son of God. We’re allowed to tap into the bottomless well of His lovingkindness, which is everlasting. If we would only seek Him. If we would only open our eyes to see His goodness right in front of us.

This may seem very table stakes to many of you. The truth is, we don’t remind ourselves enough of the basics of the gospel. And it’s showing in our relationship with God and our identity in Him. We forget who we are because we forget who God is and what He has done for us. The gospel should transform our day-to-day life. It should compel us to desire and seek Him more than anything else in our life.

The reality is, we still struggle. And we maybe don’t know if God is even worth discovering. But let’s break it down together and learn what it means to be a Christian. There’s so many questions. What does it even mean to seek Him? 

I’ll get to that next week.