What kind of person is a Christian?

What kind of person is a Christian?

 

The word Christian appears three times in the New Testament. In Acts 11:25-26, "Barnabas went to Tarsus to seek Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a large number of people. The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch."

The followers of Jesus Christ were first called Christians in Antioch because, to the Gentiles, their words, actions, and activities resembled Jesus Christ.

However, since Paul and Barnabas taught the believers in the church in Antioch about Jesus Christ, they came to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and preached it to the Gentiles. In the process of preaching, the non-believers began to call the followers of Jesus Christians. "The fact that the non-believing Gentiles called them Christians out of caution" actually brought about a communal identity for the followers of Jesus Christ.

And in Acts 26:28, "Agrippa said to Paul, 'Almost you persuade me to become a Christian.'" This is what King Agrippa said when Paul preached the gospel of Jesus to him. Likewise, King Agrippa was wary of the gospel that Paul preached, so he treated it with cynicism.

In 1 Peter 4:16, it says, "If you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but glorify God in that name." When believers preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, there are many cases where they face strong opposition, and even humiliate or threaten believers. The meaning of being a Christian does not give a good image to foreigners. There may be several reasons for this.

First, there is the problem of original sin. If you tell Gentiles that humans are born sinners, they strongly deny it. Therefore, they hate the idea that Jesus died as a substitute for mankind. They react by saying, “What does it mean that Jesus died on the cross for blasphemy?” This problem is because people who call themselves Christians do not accurately recognize the problem of sin. Christians do not accurately understand the nature of original sin and tell Gentiles about it, so they become a laughing stock.

Second, regarding original sin, it is connected to the incident in the Garden of Eden, and it is said that we must believe it unconditionally. The Garden of Eden symbolically represents the kingdom of God. However, Adam became the originator of sin, and foreigners think of the story of the Garden of Eden as a myth.

Third, the issue of faith and salvation. Because they say that Jesus is God, the Gentiles are extremely wary of Christians. They ask how a man can be God. Jesus is not God, but the Son of God, who was born into the world to atone for sin. And believers preach that if they just believe in this Jesus, they will be saved.

Most churches do not seem to accurately recognize the problem that Gentiles think about Christians. This is because, although Christians should have extensive knowledge of the Bible, they focus on how Christians should live. Although it is more important to resolve the perspectives of Gentiles, they consider the guidelines for how Christians should act more important.

Pastors often say that Christians are those who have a personal encounter with Jesus. They do not specifically say what a personal encounter is, but they implicitly mention faithfulness in church life, emotional emotion, and experiential faith. But even those who say such things cannot say anything specific. God approaches those who repent and cry out in various ways. That is why God gives them faith and leads them to salvation. It is not a personal encounter, but only when you discover that you are spiritually imprisoned can you cry out.

In the nation and society, Christians talk about how they should act like Christians. They provide an image of obeying the law, helping unjust neighbors, living honestly, loving neighbors, and even helping poor countries that are in trouble due to war. So they define their own identity as Christians. However, this identity is not important to Christians. The identity of Christians is believing that they died with Jesus and were resurrected with Christ. Then, these problems will be solved naturally.

It is said that Christians should spread the gospel beyond their own nationality to other countries and ethnicities. It is not wrong. However, when we look at the target countries, the word missionary is used even in countries where the percentage of Christians is much higher than ours. That is why churches send missionaries and spread doctrinally problematic content.

The important thing is that Christians must know the Bible well. Because they have a sad understanding of the Bible, Gentiles look at it cynically. They think that if you just believe in Jesus, you will be saved. There are not many churches that say that Jesus' death only redeems my sins, and that I also died with Jesus. They do not have a correct understanding of resurrection, so they talk about the body dying and being resurrected. Resurrection is an event that happened with Jesus in the present, and it means a new creation. If you do not know that you have been created anew, you will say that you will act like a Christian, but you will not be able to do so in real life.

Church people are preaching diligently and the number of Christians is approaching 10 million, but how many of them really know the Bible? Most of the people who come to church through diligent preaching are those who came with their family, relatives, or friends, and because their religious life is helpful to them, they become believers. However, they do not even know the contents of the Bible properly, but they think they have become believers through activities such as listening to sermons at church, attending church diligently, and keeping the commandments well.

Therefore, how can the Gentiles view Christians without being cynical? They think they are Christians without properly understanding the gospel, which is the real problem. Those who define the identity of Christians as such are also problematic. There is no internal change, and the focus is only on external change. The internal change is ultimately the death of the cross and the present resurrection. God wants this. It is to die together with Jesus on the cross, and to be resurrected together with Christ in the present.