Defining Christianity (Part 2)

by W. Robert Smith, Th.D.

Christianity is a body of facts, it is the interpretation of
those facts, but more than that, it is a way of life. Christianity says
something about how a man treats his wife and his child; it says something
about whether a man is honest in his work, about how he pays his taxes, how he
spends his time, about his attitudes of life, whether he is kind and loving,
generous and patient, whether he is jealous or has a self-centered ambition. It
says something about his aspirations and the purity of his thoughts, about his
relationship to the church of Jesus Christ, about how he loves his fellow men,
about how he spends his money and makes his money, about how much he charges
for his services. Christianity deals with government, politics, medicine,
philosophy. Christianity is a way of life which is supposed to dominate every
aspect of a person’s being:

“Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk
in love as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering
and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. But fornication, and all
uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh
saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not
convenient; but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no
whore-monger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolator, hath
any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you
with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the
children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were
sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:1-8; note also Galatians 5:19-26).

Those of us who work in the Gospel ministry are deeply
troubled about some strange ideas of what Christianity is. One such idea among
certain evangelical circles today is that all a person needs to do is to
believe in a certain set of propositions and in a certain creed and then he is
“saved.” This is not the New Testament teaching at all. You could believe all
the facts of the Gospel, the virgin birth, the resurrection of Jesus Christ and
His glorious return, you may have a faith that is absolutely circumspect, you
may have studied theology for fifty years of your life and know all the answers,
but if that’s all you have, you are not a true follower of Jesus Christ. Did
you ever read in Scriptures that even the devils believe and tremble? (James
2:19) As far as knowledge is concerned, there isn’t any man who is as orthodox
as the Devil. Satan knows that the cross of Jesus Christ is the method of atonement. That is the reason he tried to stop
Jesus from going to the cross. You remember that he even put it into the mouth
of Christ’s dear friend. When Peter heard Jesus foretell the crucifixion, he
said, “Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.” Jesus answered,
“Get thee behind me, Satan” (Matthew 16:21-23).

Satan knows that the Bible is the word of God. That is why he tries to get students so
concerned about bacteriology and parasitology and all the rest of the “ologies”
that they never have time to read the Bible. That is why he tries to interest
students to read everything Mr. Aristotle says, and Hume, Spinoza, Leibnitz,
Locke, Hegel, Shelley, Fichte, and all the rest of the philosophers, and never
read anything that the Lord God says in His record. No wonder so many students
have languishing faith!

The Bible does not say that just men believe by faith, it
says the just live by faith
(Galatians 3:11). Faith in the Bible invariably is linked with action. By faith
Abraham obeyed to go out of Ur of the Chaldees; by faith Moses led the children
of Israel; by faith men lived and worked: they stopped the mouths of lions,
they quenched the power of the sword, they wrought righteousness. Faith is
revealed by life.

A college student came to me one day and said, “I have a
roommate who professes to be a Christian but I don’t think he is.”

“Why is that?” I asked.

“Oh,” he said, “when I’ve talked to him about Jesus Christ,
he says, ‘I know all that. I’ve accepted that. I believe the Bible from cover
to cover.’”

“What about his life?”

“Well, that’s the point. He’s not changed. He’s a
fornicator, he drinks, he gambles, he never reads the Scriptures, he never
worships. He’s smutty in his speech. He lives a vile life. But whenever I talk
to him about Jesus Christ, he says, ‘Oh, that’s all right. When I was seventeen
years old I raised my hand and went forward. I believe all the doctrines. I
know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died for my sins. My sins
are under the blood. I can do anything I want because I’m saved.’ What do you
think about that, Doc?”

I said, “Son, that is a perversion of the eternal gospel. Christ
never saved a man to be an adulterer, did He?”

Christianity, uniquely and finally, is a living relationship
with Jesus Christ Himself. When Jesus Christ takes possession of a man, that
man begins to demonstrate by the way he lives that Christ is in him.

A bishop who was speaking in a cathedral in England said,
“Dear people, some of you have been attending church for many years, but do you
really know Jesus Christ? Maybe you have been a vestryman, or a clergyman, or a
high church official, but if you do not know the Savior, you are not a
Christian. Perhaps you have been preaching the eternal Gospel, but unless you
know Jesus Christ in the living experience of being transformed and regenerated
by His Holy Spirit, you are not a child of God.” A few days later the bishop
received a letter from the dean of the cathedral. It read: “My dear bishop, as
you spoke in our cathedral, my heart was touched. I recognized for the first
time that I really needed a person to save me and that that person was Jesus
Christ. It was a new idea. After the service, I went to my quarters and prayed,
‘Lord Jesus, will you take over my life and make my shabby soul a tabernacle
for Thy holy presence?’ Jesus Christ took possession of my life, and now I am a
child of the King!”

You see, “head knowledge” alone is not enough to make a man
a Christian.

J. B. Phillips says in the preface of his book Letters to Young Churches: “The great
difference between present-day Christianity and that of which we read in these
letters (New Testament epistles) is that to us it is primarily performance; to
them it was a real experience. We are apt to reduce the Christian religion to a
code, or at best, to a rule of heart and life. To these men it was quite
plainly the invasion of their lives by a new quality of life altogether. They
do not hesitate to describe this as Christ living in them. Mere moral
reformation will hardly explain the transformation and the exuberant quality of
these men’s lives even if we could prove a motive for such a reformation. Certainly
the world around offered little encouragement to the early Christians. We are
practically driven to accept their own explanation, which is that their little
human lives through Christ had been linked up with the very life of God.”   

Christianity is not belief in an idea; it is not connected
to an institution; it is love and commitment to a person. To be a Christian, an
individual gives everything that he knows of himself to everything that he
knows of Jesus Christ. “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to
become the sons of God” (John 1:12). This is the great definition of
Christianity: Christ in you the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).

This talk was given at a meeting of the Christian Medical
Society in 1956. W. Robert Smith taught Philosophy and Logic at Bethel College
in St. Paul, Minnesota for many years. He went to be with the Lord in September
1997.