Christianity: The Foundation and First Principles

From The Christian Post.com.

‘Part One’ starts here. For ‘Part Two’ go here.

Recently I have been mentoring a young minister here in the Nashville area. He is a very earnest young man in his early 20s who has a great burden not only for the lost but also for those who have already come to know Jesus as their Savior and Lord. In other words, God is developing in him a true pastor’s heart for the growth and well-being of those believers entrusted to his pastoral watch care.

During our most recent time together, this young man asked me, “What is the most important thing I can tell someone?” I immediately thought, “What a great question!” To answer that question you have to immediately go back to basics or first principles.

The most important truth you can tell anyone is that God, the Creator of the universe, loves each one of them and has a wonderful plan for each of their lives.

Every human being is on a search for meaning and significance in this life. What more important thing can you tell anyone than the fact that God never created a nobody; that everybody is a somebody to God?

In Psalm 139 God revealed to David,

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Psalm 139:13-16, ESV

And God tells His great prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew and approved of you [as My chosen instrument] and before you were born I separated and set you apart, consecrating you, and I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jer. 1:5, Amplified Bible).

And in the New Testament God tells us that “the very hairs of your head are all numbered…you are far more valuable than many sparrows.” (Luke 12:7, Amplified Bible)

In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church, Paul tells the born-again followers of Jesus in Ephesus, “For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us, (taking paths which He prepared ahead of time) that we should walk in them—living the good life (which He prepared ahead of time)that we should walk in them—living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live” (Eph. 2:10, Amplified Bible).

The Christmas season is an excellent time to focus on the first principles of the Christian faith, which begin by declaring that each human being is created by God (you may have been a surprise to your parents, but you were not a surprise to God). Every human being is someone God deemed worthy to have His only Son come and die a cross kind of death to redeem them for the life and destiny God planned for them (Jn. 3:16).

How do we connect with God’s plan and purpose for our individual lives? First, we must accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Then, indwelt by the Holy Spirit (as believers, our bodies are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.):

“ Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?”

1 Corinthians 6:19 ESV

Having received the Holy Spirit at conversion each believer can discover God’s unique will for his or her life by making the decision to present their lives as a “living sacrifice” (Rom. 12:1). When you do this, you discover by the “renewing of your mind” that “God’s will is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2).

And it all commenced with that first Christmas when God sent His Son to deliver us from the captivity of our sins.

As the Apostle Paul explains in the incomparable language of the second chapter of his epistle to the church at Philippi:

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:1-13 ESV

As we celebrate the birth of our Savior, let us always remember that the shadow of the cross always loomed over the manger. Our Savior came to sacrifice Himself voluntarily in order to rescue each one of us from our sinful selves “and to thus allow each of us to fulfill our divinely appointed destiny and purpose.”

Part Two begins now.

God’s revelation of Himself in Holy Scripture declares that everyone is a somebody to God. God has a plan and a purpose for every human life and God is knitting us and embroidering us together in our mother’s womb (Ps. 139:13-16).

First and foremost, Christianity is a “first-person, singular” religious faith. While it is a corporate, group faith in the sense of Christians joining one another in worship, fellowship, and ministry, such activity must be preceded by a conversion to faith in Christ, accepting Jesus as your personal Savior and Lord. Acknowledging Jesus as the Savior is not sufficient. One must accept Jesus as your personal Savior and Lord.

God’s will for each human life is personalized as well, with a different life path for each person (Eph. 2:10).

The transformative truth of the Gospel is that God loved each one of us enough to send Jesus to die a cross kind of death to purchase salvation for each of us.

As the Apostle Paul says to the Corinthian church members,

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

I Cor. 6:19-20, ESV

The phrase, “You were bought for a price” was a well-known phrase at the time for “purchasing a slave out of the slave market.” This is a great and important truth that everyone needs to heed.

The great C.S. Lewis observed, “There are only two kinds of people, those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done’ and those to whom God says, ‘All right then, have it your own way’.”

It doesn’t happen often, but in this instance Lewis is incorrect. The devil wants each of us to think the choice is between what we want to do and what God wants us to do and we are free to choose for ourselves.

The Prince of Darkness understands the lust for being our own God (after all, that was his fatal undoing).

In reality, the choice is between doing what God wants us to do or doing what the devil wants us to do. Given our inherent fallen nature that we inherit from our first parents, we will not be able to resist the Evil One on our own (How many New Year’s resolutions do you keep successfully every year?) Apart from being strengthened and empowered by God’s Holy Spirit dwelling within us after conversion, we will fail.

So, as individual Christians, we are enabled to resist successfully the devil’s wiles through the Holy Spirit dwelling within us as Jesus won the victory for good over evil for each of us through His sacrifice on the Cross and His subsequent Resurrection. That journey to the cross began with His Incarnation celebrated as the first Christmas, the anniversary of which we celebrate this coming Sunday. The manger without the cross and the resurrection would be an unfinished story and the greatest tragedy in human history rather than the greatest redemptive victory.

Once a person has accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, he or she is empowered to begin to fulfill God’s plan for his or her life.

God not only has a plan for our lives that is individually tailored for each one of us. God through His Holy Spirit empowers us to fulfill that plan!

Whenever I explain this to people, inevitably some of them say, “That’s wonderful news for young people, but what about those of us who got off the straight and narrow fifteen or twenty years ago?”

My response is, “Do you think God is surprised at where you are in your earthly pilgrimage? Of course not! He may be disappointed, but He is not surprised.”

I immediately add, “God has a plan for the rest of your life commencing from this moment forward.”

This is true for every one of us. What a truth to embrace as we begin a new calendar year.

And on top of that, each of us as a born-again Christian can claim this wondrous truth:

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

I Jn. 1:9, ESV

Imagine! This was written to Christians. As Christians, if we confess our sins, we can enter the New Year with a clear conscience, cleansed of past sins. What a glorious promise and what a wondrous heritage our Savior has purchased for those who have embraced Him as Savior and Lord.

As one of my very favorite Christmas hymns proclaims,

Hark the herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled!
Joyful all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies;
With the angelic host proclaim
‘Christ is born in Bethlehem’

Christ by highest heaven adored
Christ the everlasting Lord
Late in time behold him come,
Offspring of the virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail, the incarnate deity,
Pleased as man with men to dwell Jesus, our Emmanuel!

Hail, the heaven-born Prince of peace!
Hail the Son of righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
Risen with healing in his wings.
Mild he lays his glory by,
Born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of the earth,
Born to give them second birth.

May each of you have a joyous Christmas and a happy and victorious New Year!