The Gospel Explained! Why Christianity is different and unique?

The last post was about the options we had for who we thought Jesus was:

• Lord
• Liar 
• Lunatic

If you say he is a good teacher, how do you deal with the teaching he gave about Himself:

"I and the Father are One" (John 10:30)

If this is not clear, the response we get from the crowd is that they wanted to kill him:

"We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” (John 10:33)

If you think Jesus was a good teacher, you have to take the first option, and acknowledge him as Lord?! Jesus did not leave us the option of thinking of him as just a good teacher with the claims he made about himself.

I will get back to why Jesus' nature is so important. And how it participates to the "best news ever", but more foundations need to be made to answer why study Jesus at all?

There are many religions out there. I know that just because something sounds good does not make it true. There's a saying "if something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is". Logically speaking if we compare all the religions, just because we prefer one, it does not make it true! But I believe that God being God, would not be satisfied with anything less than what is best. If we see a religion, as the organization of a set of beliefs in order to explain the world around, the best religion by God's standards should be the true religion, otherwise He would have made things differently. Another hypothesis I am making, is that the best God, would want to be known by those He created who are capable of knowing him.

So now, all we have to do is compare the religions, and weigh up the pros and cons!

Here are some things I want to look at:

• truth exists and it can be known. And so I believe that if your religion leaves the door for truths other than the truth it holds, it is a false religion, and does not hold the truth.

• If you believe in something, you must see it as unique, and see it as there is no other possible explanation. If any other way is possible, then your way is wrong! Every religion, will have an "edge", it's "thing", making it unique. I think the way to chose the right religion, is to show how the uniqueness of your faith makes it essential, and better than the other. Starting from the fact that the greatest God, has the greatest religion!

Bruce L. Shelley wrote:

Christianity is the only major religion to have as its central event the humiliation of its God.

The Bible teaches we are born with sin. I think this can be verified at observing how, you never have to teach a young child how to lie or disobey, he just does it! God is perfect and heaven is perfect, so the only way you can go to heaven is by being perfect. If you could go to heaven if you were not perfect, heaven would no longer be perfect. So to make this as simple as possible, God found a way of making you perfect, you just have to believe it, and remember it, and live accordingly!

Let's say you now die, you need to defend your case before God, so that he can decide whether or not you go to heaven or hell.

Here are the options:

• You try to convince God that despite the bad, you were still a decent person,and God owes it to you, to look past the bad and let you in.  

• You remember that only perfection gets you into heaven, you tell God that you have your place in heaven because He found a way of making you perfect

I've done surveys asking this question, everyone answers with the first option, without realizing what they are doing to the perfect, just, righteous God. I think Christianity is the Only Religion that offers the second option.

People react this way to it: "that is too easy, you can live the life you please and just throw those words at God once you die, and that is it". In answering this way, you just tell me that in your own eyes, you think you are better than other people, you look down on murderers, on thieves those you consider to be sinners. You think that you are good enough to go to heaven, you think you can save yourself. What if God was the savior, and in thinking you can save yourself, you are trying to take His place? You are committing the only sin that will send you to hell, self-centeredness, thinking you are God.

Let's consider the second option, see why it is so essential:

If your eternal state does not depend on your actions, it does not depend on you, and the pressure is off your shoulders. And another thing, nobody for as long as they live can be disqualified!

No matter what race you are, your age, your sex, no matter who you are

No matter what you have done, lied, murdered, raped, stole, God knows that we have all sinned in one way or another. We were born with different disadvantages, in different cultures and NO, sin is NEVER Justified, and we can ALWAYS say No to sin, and Yet we do it anyway! But God's standard is perfection, so no matter how good you are, that is not good enough, if you try to be good enough, you are just making God a liar. The Good News, is that God as made a way for all. It is THE way, only one response is acceptable, that you receive it openly.

This is the uniqueness of Christianity, while you are still alive God tells you that, he has made a way, and you can live the rest of your life with the hope of eternal joy in the presence of God. When other religions tell you to try as hard as you can, and after you die you will see if what you did was enough. Christianity says, what you do will never be enough. Just accept the free gift and rejoice, and share it with the World. I don't see any other possible solution.