What is Christianity? I mean at
the very center of our faith what is there?
Maybe I am talking about what C.S. Lewis called, “Mere Christianity” and
Chesterton referred to simply as “Orthodoxy”.
If we were to compare the faith of Adam, Abraham, Peter, Augustine,
Calvin, Sproul, Miquel in Belize, Don Michael in Scotland and Thokosani in
Malawi, what would they have in common?
The expression of their faiths is vastly different but surely the
central characteristics would be the same.
I am firmly convinced of Covenant Theology. Covenant Theology believes that the unifying
idea of all of Scripture is the covenant of God. The covenant is, simply put, the terms of
man’s relationship with God. We can use
lots of words to describe it, but the central concept of a covenant is a
relationship. I think that relationship with the one true God is the heart of
Christianity. Dick Keyes describes
the central claim of Christianity in his book, Chameleon Christianity, “…we believe that individuals and the whole
community have actually met the transcendant God—the Creator of heaven and
earth—who in turn is deeply concerned for us and even loves us.” God initiated
a relationship with His image in creation.
That relationship was broken by sin but restored through Jesus. For this reason Jesus describes the greatest
commandments as loving God and loving our neighbor. That is to say, maintaining right
relationships.
I am sad that too often relationship with God has been replaced with a
reliance on religious rites. The rites
are good but not as replacements for knowing Jesus, John 17:3. We read and study our Bibles confident that
this is the way to eternal life all the while missing Jesus say to us, “You search the Scriptures
because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear
witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” We list our prayer requests in bulletins and
web-pages. We read the list to God
expecting Him to heal our diseases and make us prosperous; all the while
missing that God’s plan for us includes suffering and hardship so that we may
trust Him more tenaciously. We should
hope for His presence through the difficulties rather than the removal of
hardship, Psalm 23:4. Too often we go on
in our superstitious religion while God still invites us to more, Isaiah
1:14-18, 29:13; Revelation 2:4, 3:18-20.
I want
Him: that is all, just Him. “Whom have I
in heaven but Thee and besides Thee, I desire nothing on earth.”
