In this last post, I want to reveal the primary reason I believe “Christianity” is true. And remember, I’m not alking about the religion of Christianity, but the aspect of my life where I believe in Jesus for eternal life, and try to follow His leading and His example.
It seems that most studies in comparative religion look at all the various options, find the scores upon scores of similarities between the religions, and conclude that “they are basically all the same.” To me, that’s like taking an orange, an apple, and a mango and saying, “They all basically round, they’re all fruits, they can all be eaten, they all grow on trees,… so they are all the same.” Yet as everybody knows, these three fruits are certainly not all the same. You distinguish them not by focusing on the similaraties, but by focusing on the differences.
When it comes to “Christianity” and all other religions, there seems to be one primary difference: grace. (Diane and William mentioned this in the comment section of the previous post!) Grace is the reason I believe “Christianity” as true. Grace makes Christianity unique, and grace provides the only way for sinful people to be restored to God. Without grace, Christianity is just another religion.
And I don’t mean the weak-kneed concept of grace that is found in most our churches where we talk and teach it, but don’t really believe it. No, I mean true, no restrictions, no fine print, limitlness, boundless, liberating grace.
Let me be clear. As I observe people of all religions (including many Christians), most have a concept of grace. But the popular religious idea of grace does not come close to what I believe the Bible teaches about grace. Most religious people (including most “Christians”) believe that we have to gain and maintain a certain level of morality in order to stay in God’s good graces, in order to please and appease God. Most religious people I have talked to, speak about being “saved by the grace of God” (or some sort of similar terminology). But as I ask more questions, and dig a little deeper, I find that most people believe that God’s grace only extends as far as our obedience. If we rebell against Him, or persistently act contrary to His will and commands, He removes His grace from us. For many, being a recipient of God’s grace means that God gives us the grace (or gift) of having the power and ability to obey God.
This is not what I believe about grace, nor is it what I believe the Bible teaches about grace. I believe the Bible teaches that God’s grace is without limit, stipulations, or conditions. Once we have received God’s grace through faith in Jesus, there is nothing we can do or say to separate ourselves from God’s grace. His grace covers all sin, past, present, and future.
When people of most religions hear this (even “Christians”), they often say, “Well then, why can’t you just go out and sin all you want?”
When I hear that, I know I have done a good job explaining grace. This is the same reaction Paul got when he explained grace (cf. Romans 6:1). If your understanding of God’s grace does not lead to this objection, then let me suggest that you don’t understand grace.
So why do I think that grace separates “Christianity” from the rest of religions? Because grace teaches us that God, who loves us, wants so much for things to be restored between us and Him, that He did everything necessary to restore that relationship. He left nothing up to us. God knew that if He left anything up to us as far as obedience is concerned, all of us would fail. Without grace, nobody could be sure they were good enough, obedient enough, holy enough to be on “God’s good side.” But with grace, all of the fear and effort fades away, and we can simply focus on enjoying the presence (and presents) of God.
So there it is. Why is Christianity true? I think there are a lot of factors that contribute to it’s “trueness,” most of which, however, can be found in other religions as well. But the one characteristic which sets Christianity apart from all other religions is grace. And grace is the only way for sinful people to get back into a relationship with a holy God.
OOPS!
I accidentally deleted the original post for this blog entry, and with it, all the comments! I am so sorry to those of you who commented!
If any of you get email notices of the comments, could you please forward them to me? I will repost the comments.
All I have left is my reply to Helen’s comment, which will post below.
Reading my reply to her comment will be like reading Paul’s reply to the questions from Corinth (I’m not implying that I am like Paul and Helen is like Corinth!). It’s just that you can maybe figure out what her excellent comment and questions where by what I wrote….
Helen,
Great comment and questions. This is why I love blogs…the comments always challenge me! So here is my looooong attempt at an answer.
I am not saying that there isn’t a concept of grace in other religions. There is. But so far, I have not found the kind of grace I described above in any other religion. They all talk about grace, and even have various forms of grace. But when I ask “So what would happen to me if I sinned a lot and kept on sinning?” I get a view of grace that is different than the one I tried to present above.
So far, I have talked with numerous people of the following religions:
Judaism, Mormonism, Christianity (which has a wide variety of ideas of grace, most of which would not agree with my definition above), Islam, Santeria, Jehovah Witness, and Native American spitualism. I have not talked to many people within Buddhism and Hinduism, although I did talk to a Hindu last year who said that a particular form of Hinduism has a view of grace very similar to that of Christianity. I did not get to talk to him more to find out what he meant.
The closest form of grace I have found to what I have described above is in Universalism. I can’t hold to Universalism, because I think it doesn’t have a good answer for God’s justice.
By the way, I am not a Calvinist, and I don’t think most Calvinists would agree with my definition of grace above. I also don’t believe in such a thing as a non-elect person, at least, not as they define it. I think the whole Calvinistic explanation of election is the complete opposite of grace.
Your question about those who live the best lives they can but are unable to believe God is real is a very good question. I’ve read some of your story in books and blogs, and so I know this is a personal question for you in many ways.
The truth is, I am not sure.
When I run into people like this, as I do from time to time, I tend to just ask lots of questions. I’m not looking for “the right” answers, but am simply hoping to learn more about where they are coming from. I ask questions like:
-What do you believe happens when we die? Do you think there is life after death?
-Do you believe humans have a spiritual side?
-Do you think Jesus lived, and if so, who do you think he was? Did he do and say some (or all) of what the Bible says?
-What is keeping you from believing that God is real? What has happened in your life, or what arguments for/against the existence of God do you hold to?
-Do you pray to a God who *might* be there?
-What is your religious background, if any?
I don’t grill them with these questions, interrogation style. I always want to maintain the friendship, no matter what. If they like talking about these things, then so do I. If they don’t, then I don’t press it.
Your comment has raised an interesting question in my mind which I will raise in a future post.
By MarkR
Hi Jeremy,
Absoluely this is the greatest example of the uniqueness of Christianity. I now see your point. The truth of the gospel is how it is uniquely suited to mans predicament. It also allows for a Holy God to maintain His standards as He took upon Himself the sins on mankind. I know when I share the Gospel correctly I get that response. Sorry Jeremy- it takes me time to get things sometimes. God Bless.
Jeremy, thanks for responding to my comment. I had a copy of it – here it is:
————————————-
Hi Jeremy,
I’ve heard “grace is what separates Christianity from other religions” many times but I’m skeptical.
1. How do you know there’s no grace in other religions? How much have you studied other religions and talked to members of them? If they believe themselves in God’s favor and yet they aren’t perfect isn’t that the definition of grace? In general the Christians I’ve heard say that grace separates Christianity from other religions seem to have a poor understanding of them which comes from second-hand sources like other Christians who have a poor understanding of other religions. So misinformed stereotypes are propagated. Maybe you do know a lot about other religions but my own experience has been that whenever I’ve read any of their own materials or talked with their members I find grace.
2. When you say there’s grace in Christianity, where is the grace for people who live the best lives they can and care about others, but find themselves unable to believe God is real? Where is the grace for all the non-elect in Calvinism?
I’d be very interested to hear how other people who aren’t Christians respond to the idea that grace separates Christianity from other religions.
————————–
I’m glad you find the concept of the non-elect the opposite of grace. Me too.
Another issue I have with Christian grace is that the need for it is created by the way Christian sets things up/defines them. Maybe other religions don’t seem to incorporate grace because they don’t define humans and God in a way that necessitates it. Christianity defines God as requiring perfection from humans otherwise they can’t be around him. That definition sets up the need for grace as its defined in Christianity.
Other belief systems which define humans as basically good don’t need grace in the same way.
Helen,
Thank you for reposting your comment.
That is an excellent point about grace, and how we Christians need grace because of how we have framed the question. I’ll have to think more on this, and continue to interact with people of other faiths….
Thanks Jeremy.
Okay, here goes a feeble attempt at… something…
We know people will go to heaven. We know people will go to hell. Right? So, some go to heaven; some go to hell. There has to be something, then, that seperates those who go to heaven and those who go to hell. What is it? Why does person X get to go to heaven, but person Y has to go to hell?
Clearly, there is a condition.
So, to say God’s grace is “unconditional” we have to explain what we mean. That is because some people go to hell. Why should they have to go to hell if God’s grace is unconditional?
There HAS to be a reason some go to hell and others go to heaven. So we have to choose one of the two following options:
1) The reason some go to hell and others go to heaven has nothing to do with the people themselves–God chooses arbitrarily. He gives unconditional grace to same, condemnation to others.
2) The reason some go to hell and others go to heaven is because those who go to heaven have fulfilled the requirement and others have not fulfilled the requirement.
We often think, “If there is a requirement then God’s grace is not unconditional?” And unless you agree with explanation #1 above, that is right–there IS a requirement to go to heaven. It is very conditional.
Now, before you go haywire, let’s talk about this “requirement.” This is where people like to disagree and fight the most. What constitutes fulfillment of God’s requirement. The traditional religious explanation is “goodness”–if we are good we go to heaven, if we are bad we go to hell. Now, all good Protestant Christians know that this is NOT the biblical requirement. We know very well that we are saved by grace and NOT by works. So we have said the requirement is belief. If we say anything like confession, repentence, baptism, etc., then that just sounds too much like works righteousness. That can’t be, so we are left saying it is just belief.
Here is my point: Doing something to RECEIVE salvation and doing something to EARN salvation are two very different things. If God required me to do 52 jumping jacks while holding my tongue out and crossing my eyes to be forgiven of my sin then I would still be saved by grace no matter how much sweat I produced in the process. WHY??? Because doing those things doesn’t pay the price of my sin. Only Jesus’ death on the cross did. I would still DESERVE hell no matter how many jumping jacks I did–that is just what I was asked to do to ACCEPT the gift of eternal salvation.
If I am stuck in China for Christmas because I have no money to buy a ticket home and my parents send me a ticket to the post office–My actions of going to get the ticket, showing my ID, and using it to get on the plane in no way PAID the price of the ticket. Yet, if I don’t do those things I am not going home.
The condition for recieving God’s grace is putting our faith in Christ. So, I do believe that we are saved by faith. Of course, I think the discussion then leads to “what constitutes faith?” That is because our idea of “belief” in certain facts is very different from the Greek meaning which implies trust.
So, we should be very careful when we throw the word “unconditional” around. It leads to much confusion which results in a lot of argument. We instead should say that God’s salvation is not conditional upon my goodness. Thank God. I’d be in hell for sure!
Hi Jeremy,
Good conversations going on here. Makes me think!!!
My only thought is that grace can never be mixed with works or it is no longer grace. Doing anything would be effort. It would be like this….. Jesus did His 99% and now I must do my 1% (like jump those 52 jumping jacks). It’s true that Jesus paid for my sins and nothing I do can add to that. But grace says I do nothing but believe. I guess you could say that it is a condition to believe, BUT it’s not a “work.” Is believe a “work?” NO! Believe is just the receiving of a free gift. It’s not even a decision that I make. FAITH HAPPENS and I find myself believing in Jesus Christ for eternal life. I didn’t do anything. The light went on for me. That was faith happening. That was the Holy Spirit shining the light of the glorious gospel of Christ on me.
My part in the light going on was to respond to the light that God was giving me along life’s journey. The Bible says that He is drawing all men to Himself. Because He draws us, we can seek Him. That’s our responsibility. We may not even be conscious that we’re doing that. But when we respond to the light He gives, we will get to that place where we find ourselves believing in Jesus. FAITH HAPPENS. That’s grace. NO works whatsoever involved.
Just a thought.
Thanks for making me think.
🙂
Koffijah, thanks for making the point that grace in Christianity isn’t unconditional since there’s a condition to receive it (faith). As you pointed out, it’s confusing saying it’s unconditional when it isn’t.
I think it’s ironic how Christians often imply, isn’t it wonderful that grace is based on faith, not works? Because it isn’t, if you aren’t able to believe what you need to believe to receive grace. If you aren’t able to then it would be a lot better if it were based on goodness. Anyone can make the choice to do good acts (although I realize if the amount of good acts required is too high then grace would be unattainable) but who can make themselves believe something they don’t believe? Can people make themselves believe Santa Claus is real or the earth is flat? I don’t think they can even if there’s a benefit to doing so. Similarly I don’t think some people can make themselves believe in God even though they’re told there are eternal benefits to doing so.
It could be argued that faith is a gift from God and so people believe if/when God enables them. But then we are back to the elect/non-elect scenario that grace is never genuinely offered to some people.
Also, what about people who used to believe and then found themselves unable to believe any more? I’ve read accounts by people who wanted to keep their faith, who pleaded with God to help them, but it slipped away and they found themselves unable to believe any more.
In view of this I’m not convinced that faith is any more attainable than perfect goodness, for some people. So I can’t rejoice over what a wonderful system it is that God has made grace available to those who believe.
My Friends,
God is a loving, gracious God. He proved it by sending His only Son to suffer and die for our sins. He now offers us eternal life as a free gift…. no works involved. Helen is right when she says we can’t MAKE ourselves believe what we don’t believe. Faith is NOT a decision. Faith happens when we gaze upon Christ. The Bible tells us that Jesus is drawing all men to Himself. We are able to respond to His drawing. If we respond to the light that He is giving us, He will give us more light until we get to the place where we FIND ourselves believing. Faith happens!!! That is not a work. That is pure grace. Here’s what the Bible says…..
Rom. 11:6… And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
Because God is a loving, gracious God, He did the work to provide for our salvation. He did it all~!!! He offers us eternal life as a free gift. Faith is not a work. Faith is receiving a free gift. The Bible tells us that.
Thank you again dear friends for making me think.
Jeremy,
Amen and amen to this post.
I’ve said the same regarding grace: if I’m not being accused of giving permission to sin, as Paul was, I’m not holding to the same understanding of grace that he taught. Great post!
Hi all,
Good discussion going here. Thanks for keeping it full of grace! Ha ha.
Helen, I’ve been thinking about your statement about grace being necessary due to how we frame the question about human goodness.
I realized, however, that even those who believe in the basic goodness of humanity still have to face the “sin” issue. Even religions which teach that humans are basically good still recognize that we occassionally sin, and something must be done about this sin. The answer of most of the world religions is that as long as the good outweighs the bad, we’re OK.
Christianity (not all forms) is the only “religion” I’m aware of which answers differently: It doesn’t matter if the good outweighs the bad, even by a ratio of 1 trillion to one; God is holy, and so requires perfect holiness, and the only way to get that is by God giving it to us by grace through faith.
So certainly, this is a Christian framing of the question, but that is exactly what makes Christianity unique. We have a different solution to the sin question than any other faith. All the others depend on human goodness.
Thanks for your response, Jeremy.
See, I’d call overlooking the bad as long as there’s enough good there too ‘grace’.
Agreed. But why does that make Christianity a) better b) more true than other religions? You began this post by saying this is the primary reason you believe Christianity is true. With all due respect, I don’t see the connection between grace in Christianity and that indicating Christianity is true.
About human goodness: Jesus’ words imply that he cares a great deal about human goodness. However, the amount of emphasis placed on ‘grace through faith’ in some Christian circles doesn’t provide much incentive to be good. I’m not saying those Christians are intentionally not good, but it’s a known trait of humans (ask any insurance company) that they are less careful when they are protected against negative consequences of their actions. I think that applies in Christian circles where grace through faith and not works-based is highly emphasized. There’s no need to be good to avoid hell so it’s not such an imperative. Which means that this definition of grace might actually make Christianity worse than other religions in which human goodness is critically important.
Hi again to my friends,
GREAT DISCUSSION!!!
Grace is the REASON we serve Jesus Christ joyfully. Yes, a Christian is free to sin, but there are consequences. The more we learn about God’s grace, the more we are motivated to live for Him because of His great love for us. Just like in a family……. Parents love their children. There’s nothing they wouldn’t do for them. But when their children are rebellious and disobedient, good parents discipline. God disciplines His children for the purpose of keeping them safe and close to Him. He loves us!!! He saved us UNCONDITIONALLY. And I use that term in the sense that “FAITH HAPPENED!” Yes, the “CONDITION” was that we had to believe, but when we saw the truth that Jesus was the giver of eternal life, FAITH HAPPENED. We found ourselves believing. We didn’t make a decision. We didn’t do anything. We believed. Like walking into a lighted room from the darkness outside. We don’t CHOOSE to believe the light is on. We just see it. Faith happens. HOW did it happen? We responded to the light that God gave us along our journey of life. The “DECISION” on our part was to reject light or accept it. It wasn’t a “work” that we were doing to GET SAVED. God would never save us that way because that would be a work. But He says in His Word….. “if you seek Me you’ll find Me.”
Grace is not a WORK because the Bible says that. It’s impossible. God does not lie.
If anyone wants to be saved eternally, they can without doing any work.
Believe God’s Word.
John 3:16….. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
THAT’S GRACE. There’s not any other religion that can claim that.
So the question becomes……. “Do you believe the light that God has give you? Just gaze upon Christ and faith will happen!!!!!
🙂
Thanks for keeping me thinking.
Your friend because of Jesus,
Diane
🙂
Diane, I’ve never knowingly rejected any light from God. But I suppose you would say I must have since God isn’t a liar.
“if I’m not being accused of giving permission to sin, as Paul was, I’m not holding to the same understanding of grace that he taught.”
Was Paul giving permission to sin? Of course not. So, if I say something that makes people think I give permission to sin then it automatically makes my argument good?
What if I AM giving permission to sin? Then, if people understand me correctly, they will say I’m giving permission to sin (which I am). So then I have the right view of grace?
C’mon. People’s misunderstanding of our explanation is not a good standard of evaluation just because they misunderstood Paul in the same way.
People didn’t accuse Jesus of permitting sin. I guess Jesus didn’t explain things as well as Paul. People didn’t accuse James of permitting sin.
We would understand grace a lot beter if we demystified it. The Greek word means “gift.” The whole point of grace and works isn’t whether or not we DO anything like a physical action. It is that salvation is God’s gift to us. We didn’t buy it. It is not wages we earned. We get stuck because of our Gnostic worldview of spirit and flesh, emotion and action. We think that an “action” constitutes a “work.” But we just confuse the whole issue and make it about something that it isn’t about.
Koffijah I think it’s interesting Jesus said things like “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.”
That doesn’t sound like permission to sin 🙂
Grace is the unmerited provision of God to pour out His love upon me.
His love was restrained because of sin. Because He is just, sin He condemned. His justice was satisfied by His dear Son. His love now is unrestrained because of Him.
That’s GRACE!
(Those words were from a little song I composed years ago after reading a book by J. F. Strombeck.)
The sin barrier that kept us from God was removed by His dear Son.
He now freely gives the gift of eternal life (life with Him forever) to anyone who wants it. Only He can give it. We can’t work for it, but we can take His gift freely. The way you receive the gift is to believe in Him for it.
Believing is NOT a work.
If you want to say that believing in Jesus is a condition, you’ve missed the point of what a gift is. JESUS has the gift in His hands to give. Just take it. Believe. That’s how you take it. You don’t have to do anything but take it. Taking it is NOT a work. God’s Word says so!!! That settles it for me. And besides, I took the gift. It’s AWESOME!!! HE’S AWESOME!!!
I hope everyone here has taken His gift. Anyone who wants it can have it. We can have HIM.
NEAT!
🙂
Koffijah,
I certainly was not proposing my being misunderstood as proof I was right. It’s just that the scriptural notion of grace is so far from the natural inclination toward works-righteousness that the immediate concern that many people have is the perceived license to sin they infer from true grace. That is exactly what Paul was answering in Rom. 6:14–
“What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!”
If Paul did not hear this objection a lot, it would be strange of him to bring it up and answer it.
I only meant: if my teaching on grace doesn’t raise the same sort of objections –is it the same thing Paul taught? Probably not.
Koffijah,
Also–
you said:
“People didn’t accuse Jesus of permitting sin.”
Actually they did. Jesus was accused of tolerating sin by fellowshipping with known sinners. See Mt 9:11 and Mt 11:19.
His association with sinners is the living out of grace, of His love for the undeserving, identifying with outcasts, being a doctor to the sick. And yes, it was misunderstood.
Steve,
I couldn’t have said it better. Thanks!
Sorry for not being specific enough. But try to understand the main point and not miss the point.
Jesus ate with sinners and others didn’t like it and thought negatively about him. Still wasn’t an accusation that he was *permitting* sin in terms of what people need to do to get saved. Jesus may have been accused of tolerating sin, but that is not the same as accusing him of teaching people that “sin is no big deal when it comes to salvation.”
I think people go a little too far when they read *some* of what Paul wrote and stay there, ignoring things that Jesus said, ignoring things said by the other apostles. Both John the Baptist and Jesus told people to “repent” in addition to telling people to believe. Peter told people to repent. If I tell people to “repent” then they won’t think I’m permitting sin.
So, if I want people to accuse me of permitting sin in order to feel like I’ve rightly described grace, then I won’t tell them to repent. Because if I did, then they will know that I’m not permitting sin and then I will not have understood grace correctly.
Koffijah,
I’ve really enjoyed your recent posts about church over on your blog. I might repost them here.
Please understand that I am not trying to give people permission to sin. When people say “What? Can’t I just sin all I want then?” I give them the same answer Paul does in Romans. And I’m not basing my theology on a single statement from Paul. I was only using him as an example. I do try to base my theology on what Jesus taught and did.
Regarding repentance….wow…what a subject. Let’s just say that I don’t believe the Bible teaches that repentance of sin is necessary to receive eternal life. Maybe we can do a post on this later…ha ha.
If you remember from Malina’s readings, most Context Group members believe that grace isn’t so free. They take the client-patron paradigm to the point where if you don’t respond to God’s grace with gratitude, he cuts off the relationship the same way most patrons did with their ungrateful clients. For them, this cut-off happens here-and-now and cuts you off from the community that enters the kingdom. You and I know that as far as eternal life is concerned, even if we’re faithless and morally asleep (2 Tim 2:13 and 1 Thess 5:6,10), we’ll live with Him. So obviously Jeremy, if the client-patron paradigm applies, it has to be shifted to the area of rewards. All I’m saying is that we need to keep a careful eye on all the honor/shame issues. Malina and company seem to think of the honor/shame and client/patron paradigms as being applied homogeneously by all Meditteranean communities in the first-centrury.
Another problem is that even when we modify client/patron to fit FG, we make it seem that Grace is only good for eternal life and nothing else. Even without this stuff, both regular FG and even works-oriented Context Group don’t really seem to have an amazing view of Grace as far as this life is concerned. How many times do are fellow FGers talk about Grace for eternal life, and then sanctification and rewards becomes a huge burden because we become so works-oriented in our mindset.
Also, one of my professors, Scott Bartchy, a member of the Context Group, said that Grace is given to those who can’t pay you back (Luke 14:15-24 – invite the lame, blind, and poor). Bartchy never talks about eternal life at UCLA, just the social justice side of Jesus. But still, his definition of Grace is giving to people who can’t pay you back. I’m not sure if he knows it, but the Context Group as a whole ain’t with that – or they’re all just inconsistent. After all, they mostly say that if you don’t respond to his Grace by paying him back with gratitute, it’s the guillotine!
Danny,
I agree with you, that they don’t understand grace. But as with most authors we can learn a lot from, this is no reason to reject everything these writers say. I am not suggesting you are doing that, but I have run across numerous FG people who feel that if a person doesn’t understand grace the way we do, there isn’t anything we can learn from them.
Hey Jeremy. Yeah, I’ve learned a lot from them as far as cultural values go, and I accept the basics of honor/shame. I didn’t just attack their view of grace, I also mentioned how even we FGers have a weak view of grace as well (rewards and guillotine). If you recall, I told you before on how I’ve agreed that we may be in a client/patron relationship, just in FG fashion. But even that seems harsh. We’ll find out all the answers to these questions in the Resurrection.
Thanx for reminding me about Gods grace Jeremy.