The Essence of Christianity - Part One

In my post about formspring.me, I said someone had asked me a question that was too involved for that venue, so I would answer it here. Turns out, "involved" is the right word. I have been writing for almost 3 hours now in answer to this question:

What do you consider to be the most important aspect of your faith?

So I've broken this up into 3 or 4 posts. I thought about doing a "Theology Thursday" series, but I can't sit on a finished post for an entire week. So I'll give you a little chunk of my answer to that question each day for the next 3 or 4 days.

One point of clarification up front: I was asked what's the most important aspect of "my faith". As you likely already know, I am unquestionably a Christian. And, as the title of this series suggests, when I think about my "faith", I think the word "Christianity". There's a lot of baggage on that word. So let me be clear:

By "Christianity", I don't mean the formal institutions of Christianity (i.e. the Catholic church, the Baptist denomination, Protestantism, etc.). I really have no thought in my mind of any political position or influence, or social or moral bent that might be implied by Christianity. If it helps, you might want think in terms of distinguishing the Christian faith from the Christian religion (though I think that's a really tricky and probably impossible distinction).

So, what do I consider the most important aspect of my faith as a Christian?

In a word: The Gospel.

Or to be more clear: I believe the most important, most essential part of Christianity is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe this so strongly that I use the terms "Christianity" and "Gospel" interchangeably. They are one and the same - without the Gospel there is no such thing as real Christianity.

If you're slightly cynical, you'll immediately point out that this "one aspect" of the Christian faith has a thousand facets and implications and embodiments. So I'll try to narrow it down.

By "Gospel" I mean the historical, reliable, propositional, Biblical truths regarding Jesus Christ.

I know, I know. Those aren't fun, loving, relevant, relational words. They're big, loaded, academic words. That definition of "Gospel" doesn't sit well with people who like to describe Christianity in vague, feel-good, Jesus-is-my-boyfriend* language.

So give me a couple of minutes (or days) to explain why I chose that particular definition and why I say it is the most important aspect of Christianity.

I say the Gospel is historical.

What I mean is that Christianity is not a collection of contrived, mythical stories created to bring a sense of meaning to our existence or explain why the world is the way it is.

At its most basic level, Christianity is the true-life account of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh - the divine man - who lived and breathed and talked and healed people and turned water into wine and died and rose again and ascended into heaven. And I say all of those things are historical realities - in other words they really happened.

As I've said before: Ultimately, Christianity only matters to the degree that Jesus actually was who he claimed to be, and actually did what the apostles said he did.

Which is why I also say the Gospel is reliable.

Perhaps I could have simply said that Christianity is "historically reliable". Volumes and volumes have been written to show that Christianity is in fact historically reliable - that there is reasonable evidence that the Gospel corresponds and attests to historical people and events. But I don't want to limit "reliable" to just historical fact.

"Reliable" also implies a consistent trustworthiness. In other words, the Gospel continues to prove itself trustworthy over and over again. Consider the fact that, 2000 years after Jesus, millions still believe in him; people still experience radical life-change when they hear and believe the Gospel; Christianity finds a home and thrives in places with unbelievably different cultural dispositions and practices. The Gospel consistently transcends culture, race, color, background, and economic status. It has proven to be worthy of our attention (and acceptance!).

And so I assert that you can't have a Christianity without the historical, reliable truths of who Jesus is and what he said and did on Earth. Sure, you can have a religion and call it Christianity, but make no mistake: it will be an altogether new religion.

If you try and separate Christianity from its historic foundation, you will end up with a flimsy, obscure religion-of-convenience with no lasting power to transform hearts or do any real good. In other words, you'll have an ineffective, worthless "gospel".

Tomorrow I'll tackle the next "essential" part of the Christian faith: that it is by nature propositional. (It won't be as painful or boring as it sounds...)

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*Jesus-is-my-boyfriend is most often used to describe "Christian" music that is ambiguous enough that it's difficult to determine if you're singing about Jesus or about your boyfriend.

I can't stand that kind of music.

But also there are a lot of Christians who want Christianity to be as vague and ambiguous as that music. They hate the thought of trying to "define" Christianity. Maybe they think it's cold and unloving to do so. Or maybe they think Christianity is more appealing to our culture if we only talk in terms of feelings and relationships and emotional needs - steering clear of any concrete "theology" that might be offensive or turn people off to Christianity.

Obviously I disagree. I'll really outline why tomorrow.

And, incidentally, Abraham Piper offers an insightful challenge to my distaste for Jesus-is-my-boyfriend music. Though I wonder how he feels about "You-could-say-Jesus-is-my-'boyfriend'-but-we-don't-really-like-labels" theology.