Why am I a Christian? Answer: Jesus Christ is a real person with whom I can interact, know, love and commune with. If He were anything less He would be an 'it', a religion, a philosophy.
God's original intent for mankind was intimate communion with Himself through conversation, fellowship and the enjoying of each other's company. Yes, the God who created all is the God of love and is, in fact, love. What is true love if it is not a benevolence that springs from the extreme vulnerability of intimacy. One cannot be intimate and defensive simultaneously.
Jesus Christ is real and wants to be known. It is a fact, God wants your company. He wants to walk with you in the cool of the day. He wants you to share with Him your day.
The quality of any relationship between people is dependent upon the position held by or granted to the one with whom we have such a relationship. Jesus Christ is a Person, therefore the same principle applies to relating to Him. If Christ is at the centre of my life, the very fulcrum, then the quality of relationship and its potential is unrestricted. That quality will be the access point for blessing. To have Christ at the centre guarantees deliverance and liberty that is both permanent and ever increasing. To have Him at the centre of one's life is to give free reign to the rule of the Kingdom of God and the subsequent'release' of all that citizenship of that Kingdom guarantees.
All of this is nothing more or less than real Christianity. The life of the disciple of Jesus Christ is not without challenge, but it is full of hope because of the position of Christ in the life of the disciple. The position granted determines the quality experienced.
Jesus Christ purchased for me the immeasurable gift of right standing, i.e. righteousness. Sin's power over me has been destroyed because of what Jesus accomplished for me on Calvary. For that I am forever thankful, but I now live in the enjoyment of relationship with Him who breathed planets into being, sustains the universes and seeks me out for conversation.
Such a relationship is not possible with a relic, a proclamation or a statement of faith. Real Chrisitianity requires a real Christ at its centre. Let's keep it real.
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Thanks be to God for a Christ-centred blog! Long may it continue to provoke thought and comment! Do readers consider that “sin’s power over [us] had been destroyed because of what Jesus accomplished for [us] on Calvary”? Is it not the case that a Christian has been saved from the penalty of sin at Calvary, is being saved from the power of sin and will be saved from the presence of sin in eternity (justification, sanctification, glorification)? Or is there a class of super-Christian who is immune to sin, who reads, “I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practise the evil that I do not want to do” and says, ‘Poor old confused Apostle Paul’, rather than acknowledging that overcoming sin’s power and presence is a life-time struggle? All glory to God that the indwelling Holy Spirit is constantly seeking to break the power of sin in the sense of diminishing its attractiveness and hold over us but destroying it...surely not in our short earthly span? Although Christians are not sinless, they should certainly and progressively sin less, otherwise would Paul have mentioned 95 times, in his less argued about chapters, the inestimable value of God’s overwhelming grace!
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