WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY? Pastor J. C. O'Hair

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In this lesson we are to consider the very interesting question: “What is Christianity?” As we know, the word “Christianity” is not in the Bible. The word “Christian” is used just three times.

Christianity has been defined as the fruit and flower of Judaism and again as the religion of Jesus Christ. These definitions do not satisfy those who have obeyed II Timothy 2:15, “rightly dividing the Word of Truth.”

A rabbi one said to an outstanding evangelical pastor, “Doctor, it was not your Jesus who gave you Christianity as you evangelicals preach it. It was the apostle Paul. Your Jesus was a Jew in the two-fold sense of the word. 

He descended from Judah and He was a Jew by religion.” (John 4:22).

This answer was neither 100% wrong nor 100% right.

When we get into Paul’s final Epistles, we learn that Christianity is life, love and heaven, and not religion. Moreover, all that Paul preached in his “dispensation of the grace of God” (Ephesians 3:1 to 4), in what he called “my gospel” (Romans 16:25 - II Timothy 2:8) Paul received from the risen glorified Christ by revelation. It was Christ’s message and program.

Christ on earth was under the law, and while here He did not end the time of reformation mentioned in Hebrews 9:10, that brought an end to the Judaism therein described. (Read Galatians 4:4 - Acts 13:23 - Romans 15:8 - Matthew 8:4 - 23:1 to 3 and the religious program of the Jews in Hebrews 9:10).

Christ on earth did not interfere with that part of Israel’s religious program that was given by Jehovah, not even with their feasts, sacrifices and offerings. Christ said that His mission on earth was to Israel (Matthew 15:24 - Matthew 10:5); and not to destroy the law. (Matthew 5:17). Later something happened. (Colossians 2:13 to 16).

Judaism, according to Acts 15:1 to 19, and the Epistle to the Galatians, was quite different from Christianity, as revealed to Paul by Christ.

In Romans 14:17 we have one good definition of Christianity when we realize that the Lord Jesus Christ is the believer’s righteousness and peace: “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Then again the very heart of Christianity is II Timothy 1:10: “But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, Who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel.”

Read what the law of life does according to Romans 8:2 and 4. It frees from sin and death and enables the believer to walk in the Spirit and demonstrate Christianity. In Titus 2:11 to 14 we read how Christians are saved, how they should live and what is their hope. A Christian has been turned to God to serve God and to wait for His Son from heaven. (I Thessalonians 1:9 and 10). God’s order is salvation, separation and service.

Christ has brought life, with the guarantee of incorruptibility to light in the gospel and Paul says, “for me to live is Christ, to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21). “And the greatest of these is love.” (I Corinthians 13:13). Read II Corinthians 5:17 and Galatians 2:20 and Colossians 1:27.

So that we may well say that Christianity is life, love and heaven. But we must explain what we mean when we define Christianity as “the religion of Jesus Christ.” Jesus Christ, as Jesus of Nazareth, was a man in the midst of Israel; made under the law, a Minister of the circumcision. (Acts 2:22 - Galatians 4:4 - Matthew 15:24 - Romans 15:8). Sinners do not need the religion of the Jews, but a new creation in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 6:15 - Ephesians 2:10 - II Corinthians 5:17). They need life and Christ is that life.

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Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
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