What We ALL Believe

What Do We Believe?

What is it that binds all Christians into a family? What is it that separates us from all the other religions? What is it that says to the world, “Jesus is different, follow Him”? The answer of course is Jesus Christ. Not just Jesus Christ, it is Jesus, and Him crucified, risen, and sitting at the right hand of God.

So what is it about Christianity that is so different? It is love. The love of God for us that was so great that He sent His only Son as the ransom, to pay the price Himself for our wrong doing so that we might go to heaven and have eternal life. It was the command to love God first and to love our neighbours as ourselves. Nowhere in scripture do we find God commanding us to hate other people or to kill anyone just because they don’t believe as we do.

Many religions say there are many ways to heaven, whatever their version of heaven may be. Christians believe that there is only ONE way to heaven. It is variously called the narrow gate and the narrow path. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 Christians believe that unless we are born again, unless we give our lives and ourselves to Jesus and have a personal relationship with Him, we will not get to heaven but we will get to hell.

So, in summary, we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, He came He died He rose again from the dead – all for our wrong doings and so that we can have eternal life. In order to gain the “prize” of eternal life, we must go through Jesus Himself. We must be born again and enter into a personal relationship with Him.

All this is what binds the whole church together as one big family of God. We have a difference of flavours of course, they are called denominations, but these are the basic beliefs of all real Christians everywhere. Our faith is not in a book, or any translation of that book, it is in a person – Jesus  Christ. This all being so, let me ask you all one simple question.

If we truly believe that any non-believer will go to hell, how can we not tell them about Jesus, heaven, and eternal life?

How will we answer that question on the day of judgement? How will we account for the members of our own family who died not knowing Jesus or not knowing about Jesus?

We must maintain our obedience to the great commandment to preach the Gospel. As the Word of God says in Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” The Gospel is the Power of God for salvation. Yet in thousands of churches worldwide, the Gospel is virtually never preached and virtually no-one is ever saved.

So it looks like it’s up to us – up to you and to me – to preach the Gospel to anyone or anywhere we have opportunity. Perhaps “share the Gospel” is a better way to put it as nobody like being preached at, least of all in a one to one environment. And remember, God never asks us to do something we cannot manage to do as He will always help us get the words right. He will use even our worst efforts for the good of His Kingdom.

P.S. Don’t forget the repentance bit of the Gospel – OK?