What do Christians believe?
This article below outlines what a Christian believes. There are 5 key elements discussed. The article is from www.agape.org.uk.
Key 1: Everything is God's
The starting point to understand God is the first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1v1: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The opening chapters of Genesis are not a scientific manual on how to build a creation. Their point is not how the world was made, but who made it. The universe is the purposeful design of a loving creator, not a meaningless sneeze of nature.
A couple of things follow from this. Firstly, if God is the creator then everything else finds its meaning, purpose and definition in him. This is great news. There are three fundamental questions that have haunted humanity throughout the ages: "Who am I?" (the question of identity), "Why am I here?" (the question of purpose) and "Where am I going?" (the question of destiny). If there's a creator then there's someone big enough to give meaningful answers to these questions.
Secondly, if God made everything then he owns everything. This world and everyone in it is his. I am not my own, I belong to God. If I'm not my own and this world is not mine, then I'm accountable to God for my life and what I choose to do with it. As Psalm 95 says:
"In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker..."
So that's Key 1: God created everything so everything finds its meaning, purpose and definition in him. As God is the creator we belong to him and are accountable to him for our life.
Key 2: God created us for a purpose
God created us and this world for a purpose. He intended that we should be stewards of all he had made, developing and caring for his creation. We're intended to reflect God's love, his rule and his creativity in the world. We're made to share in his heart, his life and his purposes. We're made to know God and live in intimate relationship with him.
This moment by moment loving friendship lies at the heart of following Jesus. A relationship with God can be a difficult idea to grasp as God is invisible and inaudible. However, the phrase "friendship with God" isn't just a nice way of saying "do religious things and try to be nice to people". It means exactly what it says.
A friendship with God is in some ways like any other friendship. It involves two way communication, a growing understanding of each other, sharing each others lives, caring about what matters most deeply to each other, commitment to common goals, doing things together, trusting each other, loving each other, having fun and so on. Jesus described this as the heart of eternal life: "this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."
This is the second key: We are created to reflect our creator, to share in his heart and life, and to know him. We are dearly and tenderly loved by God.
Key 3: We have rejected our creator
Reflecting on the world around us quickly and clearly confirms two things. Firstly the world is amazingly good. Secondly, the world is profoundly broken. As we look around we see beauty, joy, wonder, significance, hope and love. At the same time, we see pain, fear, despair, hatred, guilt, confusion, frustration, boredom and death.
The Bible's explanation is that God has made a good creation, but that sin has ruined the world and everyone who lives in it. When people think of sin they often think of a list: murder, theft, lying and so on. Increasingly we're encouraged us to think of sin as the fun stuff that God finds embarrassing so we should try and avoid it! However the Bible presents the essence of sin as being much deeper than just the wrong things we do.
Sin is a fundamental rejection of our creator, an attitude of giving God the finger so we can live independently of him doing whatever we want. It goes further, this rejection of God is not based on ignorance. In our heart of hearts we all know that God is for real. We suppress and push away what we know about God, hiding from him so we can justify centring our lives around ourselves and whatever we choose to give ourselves to. We ditch God and choose god substitutes instead.
It's this wilful rejection of God that has ruined the creation. Because only God can answer the big questions of life, everything becomes dark and confusing. Because God is the source of our life, cutting ourselves off from him leads to our death. Because God is a God of love and justice, we find ourselves at odds with our maker, deserving his judgement for our rebellion against him. If nothing changes, we will find ourselves eternally locked out of his presence, locked out of creation, locked out from relationship with others and locked out of ourselves. This is hell. Sin is not "naughty but nice", it's sugar coated death!
So this is the third key of understanding. The creation has been broken by our rejection and rebellion against God. We are on a collision course with our maker.
Key 4: God hasn't given up on us
If the Christian message stopped here, it certainly wouldn't be good news. The good news is this. Despite our contempt for our creator, God hasn't given up on us. Jesus is God stepping into human space and time in order to offer us a way out of the mess we're in and to come back into relationship with him. When you study Jesus in the Bible, you study God. When you talk to Jesus in prayer, you talk to God. When you ignore Jesus, you ignore God.
As we said, we stand guilty before a good and just God. He cannot just let us off what we've done wrong without compromising his justice. If he compromises his justice, then what we do has no eternal significance. God loves us too much for our lives not to matter so his justice must be satisfied. However, to a God who sees anger and murder, lust and adultery alike, justice demands our death and separation from him. We're in big trouble.
The extraordinary Christian answer to this problem is that God pays for our sin himself. When Jesus was executed by crucifixion he took on himself our sin and the punishment we deserve. He tasted death and hell in our place so we can be justly forgiven by God. By rising from the dead, Jesus broke the power of sin and death, showing that he has the power to overcome all that stands between us and God.
This is amazing but the Christian message is not just about forgiveness. Forgiveness makes it possible for us to come back into relationship with God, but Jesus also offers us a new life. This gives us the power to change, to be delivered from the power of evil in our lives and to be restored to the purposes for which God made us. He offers to implant new life in us by his Spirit. As we make God the central person in our lives, aligning our life with his, he begins to transform us from within.
God is renewing the whole creation. That new world has broken into our dying world in the resurrection of Jesus. As we receive forgiveness and new life, we too become a foretaste of God's new world. There will come a day when Jesus returns to judge everyone. Those who have received his offer of forgiveness and new life will be welcomed into his renewed creation. Those who reject him will be shut out forever.
So this is the fourth key. Jesus is God stepping into our world. In his death, he offers us forgiveness. In his resurrection he offers us new life. God is renewing his creation and the first stage of this, before he returns in judgement, is rescuing people from sin and death.
Key 5: How will we respond?
This is God's creation. He's made us to know him and share in his life and heart. However, we've rebelled against our maker and ruined both the world and ourselves. We face death, judgement and hell. In the person of Jesus, God has stepped into our suffering, dying world to bring us back to God. But he will not force us to respond. We have a choice.
The choice is this. Either we continue to live independently of God, ignoring him and filling our lives with other things. We remain under his judgement and when he returns we will be banished to hell. Or we can turn around, abandon our independence and surrender ourselves to his love and goodness. He will forgive us, begin a work of transforming our lives and ultimately welcome us into his new creation.
Jesus encourages us to think carefully before we respond. To receive Jesus' offer of forgiveness and new life is to embrace change. To follow Jesus is to begin to reorganise our life with him at the centre, no longer living for ourselves but for him. This changes everything: our priorities, relationships, lifestyle and outlook. This brings us into direct conflict with a world that hates God. For many people throughout history and even today, to give your life to Jesus means to give your life for Jesus. There were more martyrs in the last century than all the others put together.
To become a Christian is to put your trust in him. Practically that means several things. Firstly, it means to acknowledge that God is real and that you've been living in rebellion against him. It is to agree with him that this is wrong and deserving of death and hell. Secondly, it means to put your trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus as God's way to put you right with him. This means recognising that you can't pay for your own sin, that you must receive forgiveness as a free gift paid for by Jesus. Thirdly, it means to trust Jesus with your life.
When we give our lives to Jesus, he comes and implants new spiritual life in us. This is how we change. Giving our life to Jesus means we commit ourselves to following him as God. This means finding out what he wants through the Bible and prayer and obeying what he says. Trust is vital here as well. If we trust that God is good, that he loves us perfectly, is our maker and designer and a genius on how to live, we will gladly follow him. If we suspect he's out of touch and don't trust him we will resent obeying him.
If we decide to abandon our old life of independence and choose to give our life to him, trusting and following him moment by moment for the rest of our lives, he offers us this promise: Yet to all who received [Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. John 1v12-13.