How Does Christianity Differ?
Who was the greatest revolutionary who ever lived? Was it Martin Luther, who rebelled against a corrupt religious system that sold salvation to the people and its offices to the highest bidder, and thus brought on the Protestant Reformation, changing the world forever? Was it, not one person, but the founding fathers of the United States, who established the first government on this earth that was truly of, by, and for the people, and that has subsequently, and consequently, produced the greatest freedom and prosperity in the history of the world, a condition that continues after 227 years? Was it Karl Marx, whose ideas led to the establishing of a new empire that enslaved, and murdered, millions of its own people for 70 years? Was it Lenin, who put Marx’s ideas into flesh? Was it, again not one, but a group, of thinkers called humanists whose ideas have undermined the foundations of the United States and threaten to bring an end to this republic as we know it?
A case could be made for any of these possibilities, and for others I have not mentioned, but I believe there can be no doubt that the greatest revolutionary who ever lived was Jesus of Nazareth. And I believe he lives today and is still working for revolution. How does he do so?
Jesus of Nazareth set forth a radically new approach to God that no religion can compare with. What is different about Christianity from other faiths? Many things, but three in particular stand out in my mind at this point. The first is that the Christian faith is based on grace. Every religion that has ever existed holds forth some sort of promise of salvation based on the works of its followers. And people who are not religious, if they believe there is a God and an afterlife, base their hopes on works. If one were to approach the average person in the United States today and ask him if he were going to Heaven, he would answer, I hope so. When asked what he would base his hope on, he would say that he had tried to live a good life. Works. He would be good enough to earn salvation. His good would outweigh his bad.
The Lord Jesus said that all of us have sinned against God and had no hope of salvation. There was absolutely nothing we could do to get God to save us. We were without God and without hope in the world. But there are two little words that change all this: But God…. But God, being rich in mercy, through his great love with which he loved us … made us alive together with Christ…. By grace you have been saved through faith. We can be saved because of who and what God is. His nature is grace, to give himself because he loves, because he is love. We cannot buy salvation. It is not available at any price. But it is free for the asking. Just take what God is offering freely and you have eternal salvation. There is nothing else like this approach in world history. It is unique. It is radical. It is revolutionary. It is grace.
A second way in which the Lord Jesus is revolutionary is that he taught that we must be born again by a spiritual birth. We have physical life because we were conceived and born physically. Because of what the theologians call original sin, we are born spiritually dead, dead in our trespasses and sins. We are all born sinners, and the law of sin and death says that if we live long enough, we will sin and we will die as the result of being a sinner. The Lord Jesus says that we can have spiritual life by being born again – spiritually. New birth is simply the coming of the Holy Spirit into our dead human spirits and making them alive toward God when we repent and trust Christ as Lord and Savior.
Religion tells those who seek salvation to do something to gain it. There is a list of religious rites to observe or of good works to perform or of bad works to avoid. The rich young ruler asked Jesus what he should do to inherit eternal life. The key word is do. He was looking for some work to perform. When the Lord named some of the commandments, the man said he had kept them all. Then the Lord gave him a new work to do and the young man turned away, unable to part with his wealth, but thus revealing his desire to do some work to obtain salvation without a radical surrender to Jesus Christ as Lord of everything he was and had. Jesus of Nazareth was too revolutionary for him. Judaism set forth works. The rich young ruler looked for a new work. Jesus set forth new life, a changed heart, to be gained, not by works, but by new birth, death to the old and birth into the new.
There is nothing like this approach in any religion. It is absolutely unique. Nowhere else are people told to be born again literally. There may be myths that set forth some sort of new birth, but it is not a historical fact. But when one becomes a Christian, he literally dies spiritually with Christ and is raised up with a new life that he did not have before. He is changed within. God lives within him and makes him spiritually alive in actual fact.
The third way in which Christianity differs from religions is that it consists of a relationship with a person who is alive, and alive physically, we might, or must, add. Jesus Christ is not alive just spiritually. His dead body was brought back to life and he lives today in a human body, fully human and fully God. And we can know him in a personal way through his Spirit who lives within us. This truth is the very heart of Christianity. Our faith is not a religion, a system invented by men, under Satan’s inspiration, and designed to appease an angry god so he will not do harm to his people or to gain his favor so he will do something they want. Our God loves us and delights to do only the best for us. This does not mean we will not have hardships in life, but it does mean that he will see us through them and will reveal himself to us in them, more fully perhaps than in any other way. He does indeed use all things for our good, even the bad things, if we will let him.
A second aspect of this relationship with Christ is that there is no priesthood between God and his people. Every religion has some kind of priesthood, a man or men who can come into contact with the god and reveal to the people what he wants. The people, though, cannot contact the god. They can only follow the instructions of the priest. The history of religion is fraught with examples of priests using this position to their own advantage by the exploitation of the people who fear what their god might do if they do not obey the priest. There is no priesthood in the New Testament except for the priesthood of every believer. If you have been born again, you are a priest and live always in the presence of God. You are spiritually in the holy of holies now, as you read these words, if you are the Lord’s. No religion can bestow such a blessing. This direct personal relationship with God by every one of his people is unique to Christianity. It is revolutionary.
In addition to these three ways in which Christianity differs from religions, there are also a couple more ways in which Jesus of Nazareth is revolutionary. First, he revolutionizes lives. How many millions of people, from the great cloud of witnesses to those living today, can testify to a broken life repaired and remade by the Master Carpenter? He does not build great buildings and worldwide programs. He builds lives. He rebuilds people. He rebuilds them from within, beginning with putting his life within and changing the heart. Then what he has put within works its way out into the person’s life, changing his behavior and perhaps even his appearance. What religion can do that? Religion works from the outside, telling people to do something to be what they ought to be. Jesus Christ works from within, telling people to be something in order to do what they ought to do, and he himself provides the being, which is actually nothing other than himself living within and through the person given over to him. This is revolutionary.
The other way in which the Lord Jesus is revolutionary is that he is working for the overthrow, not of a government in this world, but of every government in this world. The prophecy of Daniel tells us that in the end, the kingdom of Christ will destroy all the kingdoms of men and will become a great kingdom filling all the earth, and it will never end. You and I as Christians are parts of the greatest revolutionary movement in world history. We are all guilty of trying to overthrow the government. We want to replace the rule of sinful people with the rule of King Jesus. Ultimately, we want to replace the usurped rule of Satan with that of the rightful King.
There is no one more revolutionary than the Lord Jesus Christ, for he set forth an entirely new and unique approach to God based on grace, new life, and personal relationship, and he wants to transform the entire world, one heart at a time, and to take over the entire world with a government that will be perfectly righteous and that will know no end. Our revolutionary prayer is, Yes, Lord Jesus, come and take your rightful throne and reign forever. Amen and amen. Amen.
Copyright © 2003 by Tom Adcox. All rights reserved. You may share this work with others, provided you do not alter it and do not sell it or use it for any commercial purpose. “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10.8). Also you must include this notice if you share it or any part of it.
Scripture quotations from the Old Testament are the author’s updates of the American Standard Version. Quotations from the New Testament are the author’s translations.
