Basics of Christian Faith

The best way to give an overview of the Christian faith is to start from the beginning.  Without a discussion about creation, sin, and sacrifice, one cannot fully understand the importance on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  With that, the summary below is extremely shortened, but will cover the base points of the Christian faith, starting with the creation story. 

The Bible tells us that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth.  During the creation process, God formed the face of the earth, separating the land from the waters.  He created the sun, moon, and stars, separating the day from the night.  Then he made all of the living creatures of the earth and of the sea, and He created man in his own image, giving man dominion over all the other beasts.  God had placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, and He gave Adam only one commandment.  Adam was told he could eat from any tree in the garden, including the tree of life, but not from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  The penalty for eating of this tree would be death.  God then created a woman, Eve, to join Adam in the garden.  God saw that His creation was good.

Next, we are introduced to our enemy for the first time in Scripture, as a serpent appears to Eve in the Garden of Eden.  The serpent tempts Eve to eat of the tree of which God had commanded her not to eat.  While Eve first states the consequences of eating fruit from the tree, the serpent replies with a lie, telling Eve that she would surely not die, and that she shall become as a god, with knowledge of good and evil.  So, Eve ate of the tree, and took the fruit to Adam, who also ate.  Immediately, their eyes were opened to their nakedness, and to the sin they had committed.  It is this sin that separated Adam and Eve from perfect fellowship with their Creator.  It is also this sin that continues to separate us from our Father in Heaven today.  As a result, Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden of Eden.

Next, we see that Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel.  It is with these two sons that we find the first example of making sacrifices to God.  Genesis 4 gives us an account of the sacrifices that both Cain and Abel brought to the Lord.  Abel, being a shepherd, brought forth a firstling of his flock as a sacrifice to God.  Cain, being a tiller of the land, brought forth a sacrifice from the fruit of his own work.  The result of what happens here is crucial to helping us understand what type of sacrifice God demands.  The Lord had respect for Abel’s offering, but not for Cain’s offering.  This is significant and shows us for the first time that it is a blood sacrifice that God demands.  There are plenty of examples of this in the Old Testament that we will not cover in this post.  However, it is imperative to understand God’s demand for a blood sacrifice in order to understand why His son Jesus’ sacrifice was necessary.  One additional reference, perhaps the most obvious foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, an be found in the story of Abraham, Isaac, and the ram caught in the thicket.  Just as Abraham was about to sacrifice his son to the Lord, the Father spoke and gave a substitution in the form of a ram, which was caught in the thicket. 

Now, we could move into a discussion about the many prophets of the Old Testament, and again we could further look at why the blood sacrifice is what the Lord demands.  We could discuss Noah and the flood, Moses and the Exodus, father Abraham, King David, etc., and we could discuss the reason that His chosen people are the people of Israel.  We could discuss the Old Testament stories of the Lord’s wrath, His redemption, and His love for His people Israel.  We could also discuss the innumerable accounts of prophetic Scripture in the Old Testament concerning the times we are now living in.  However, for this particular post, the goal is to explain the basics of the Christian faith.  So, we are going to move into explaining who Jesus is, why He came, and what the Lord has accomplished for us through our Savior.  Suffice it to say that throughout the Old Testament, we are given an overwhelming amount of prophecy about a coming Messiah, and that Messiah is Jesus Christ.

Now we come to the birth of Jesus Christ.  It is important to know that prior to His birth, the Lord sent an angel, Gabriel, to visit his mother Mary.  The angel explained to Mary that the Holy Spirit of God would come upon her and that she would conceive and bear a son that would be called the Son of God.  This signifies that He would be both the Son of God and the Son of Man.  This also signifies that while Jesus had the body and flesh of a human, he was also fully God. 

Jesus performed many miracles while He was here on earth.  He also fulfilled all Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah that was foretold to be coming.  His life on earth is the perfect example for us as to how to live, how to treat others, how to abstain from temptation, and how to defeat the enemy.  While he was able to accomplish all of these things without committing any sin whatsoever, it was appointed to Him to become the ultimate sacrifice for all mankind.  Regardless of what you have heard about the group of Pharisees that wanted to crucify Jesus, or the Romans that gave Him over to the Jews, what is crucial to understand is that all of us are guilty of putting Him on the cross and crucifying Him.  The Bible tells us that we have all sinned and even that our best works are no good in front of him.  It is our collective sins against the Father that the Son took upon himself when He sacrificed Himself for us.  It is this sacrifice and Jesus' blood that has redeemed all who will believe in Him back to our Father in Heaven.  Hebrews 10:10 tells us the “we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”  Further, the Bible tells us in John 3:16  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” 

That is how much our Lord and Savior loves us, in that He would die for us!  Praise God, the story does not end with His crucifixion.  After 3 days, our Lord was resurrected, having defeated death and having set us free from sin!  The Bible says that He is seated at the right hand of the Father, and also that we are able to have a new hope in Him.  1 Peter, 1:3 says “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” 

So, you see, this is not about religion at all.  It is and has always been about a relationship with our living God!  Make no mistake; there is no other way but Jesus!  The Bible tells us in John 14:6, as Jesus says “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No man cometh unto the Father but by me.”  Will you believe this in your heart today and acknowledge your own sins against God, and claim the blood of Christ as your redemption?  If you have read through this summary of faith and would like to discuss how to become a Christian, please contact me or the person that led you to this site.  The Bible tells us that God is willing that none should perish, He wants us to come to know Him and He wants to have a relationship with us.  Not only does He save us from our sinful state, but He calls us to be "born again" of His Holy Spirit, and it is through His Spirit that we are able to truly experience the life He has for us.

The story STILL doesn’t end there, because one day He is coming again, which is why this blog site exists.  We are to be ever looking for His return.  In other posts, we will look more into the nature of our God, and we will also look into who our enemy is, for it is important for us at this point to wake up to what is going on in the world.  Thank you for visiting and thank you for reading.  Again, please feel free to contact me from the home page.