What does it mean to be a Christian?
According to the census which was held in 2021, 46% of people in the UK describe themselves as “Christian” and according to another survey, about 49% of people believe in God. But if you look at the numbers going to Church, there is a big difference because only about 5% of people go to Church regularly.
So what do we mean about being a “Christian”… ?
Lots of people have different views on what a Christian is. According to Google and AI, “A Christian is someone who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, believing in his divinity and role as the Messiah.” OK, that’s a start and not a bad start. Lots of people say “Yes, Jesus was a good bloke, who taught us good things about the way we should live together, forgive each other and love each other”. They would probably say that, given the question, this matches Google’s version and so, yes, they would say they are a Christian. But there is a bit of a problem …
What Jesus actually said …
The problem is that if we “follow” or “adhere” to something, we usually have to agree with the main thrust of it. We surely have to do more than add a thumbs up emoji on Facebook. We have to engage with it, make some kind of active step of commitment that shows that it actually affects who we are and how we act. And, most of all, we have to find out more, explore more, search more. Jesus didn’t spend his time just saying “be nice to each other” and he wasn’t betrayed and executed for the crime of “being a good bloke.” He was far more radical than that. He challenged people at the root of the biggest issues in life – issues that you and I grapple with each and every day. And, by the way, he never claimed to be “just a good bloke”, he made the outrageous claim to be the Son of God, to be the Saviour of the World and much more. And his followers made equally outrageous claims that he healed sick people, brought the dead back to life, overruled the basic laws of nature and even death could not hold him – he rose from the grave.
Life … and Death … and Life
Imagine a brand-new luxury house. A perfect, pure, stunningly good and unspoilt place. And the owner wants to keep it that way. People like you and me want to go there and stay there but we always have muddy and messy shoes – and we mess it up. We spoil it – and it isn’t perfect anymore. That is an image of Heaven and a Perfect God, and the problem of what we call “sin”, the wrong things all of us do, on a daily basis, is simply about our messing up life. We try to be perfect but no matter how hard we try, we fail. And God says “sorry, but I can’t have you with me – now or in heaven for ever – because if I let you in and mess it up, it means heaven won’t be perfect anymore.” The Bible says that “All have sinned” (Romans 3:23) and that means everyone – Mother Teresa and every other amazingly good person: none of them can be good enough. We all are banished from Gods perfect house as the punishment for this “sin” stuff.
And this is where Jesus comes in …
Jesus is like the person in court who stands up when someone has been convicted of a crime and says “I’ll pay the fine or do the time for them.” The innocent person, who has done nothing wrong, takes the punishment, so that the convict can go free. The ultimate gift of life – the punishment for our sin, the death of our souls, is taken from us, so God sees us as innocent and invites us in, clean and pure in his eyes.
Jesus said “I have come that people may have life, and life in all its fullness.” Jesus says that whatever you and I have done, however awful or bad, can be seen as being forgiven, because of him dying on a Cross on Good Friday. And to prove that he meant it, he rose from the dead a couple of days later, showing the door to the perfect heavenly, luxury house is open.
So What’s a Christian?
A Christian is someone who simply accepts all of this for what it is – that Jesus did everything to deal with the biggest issue in life, sin. And when we accept that, it changes us, so that we begin to experience life in all its fullness, freed from the sin that holds us back and experience God and his plans in life. And there is more. The Bible talks about the “Holy Spirit”, the very essence and personality of God, who comes into our lives to help us, to guide us, to equip us and make us better people, more like Jesus.
Mad, Bad or God …
CS Lewis, the man who wrote the Narnia books once said “Don’t tell me that Jesus was just a good bloke” (my paraphrase!) because Jesus never claimed that. He said we have to decide whether Jesus is a fraud (he is a liar), whether he is deluded (because he believed all this nonsense about himself) or whether he is who he says he is (he is genuine). Ultimately, that is the question everyone has to answer and “good bloke” is not an answer which fits. Being a Christian is about saying that Jesus is who he says he is – and working through what that means in our lives.
How Does St Peter’s Help?
Our Vision at St Peters is that we want to be a Church where people “Go Deeper, Seek God and Reach Out”. Everything we do aims to explore who Jesus is and what he did, to seek out what God wants for us and live it out and to share this with the town of Yateley around us. Our Sunday services are all about doing this and we love for people to get into small groups to explore more, together as to what this means.
If you would like to Know More …
If you have been interested, intrigued or challenged by what you’ve read here, I would love to meet with you and talk more about what it means to be a Christian. You can contact us or come along to a service and chat about it – but please don’t stop looking. Jesus once said “Seek and you will find” (Matthew 7:7) and I would love to help you in your search.
You may find out a lot more about what it means to be a Christian on this website
