'Christianity' does not appear in the Bible

Did you know that the word Christianity does not appear in the Bible and Christian is there just three times? Early on, ‘Christian’ was a nickname applied in a somewhat derogatory manner to a person who was a member of an offshoot of Judaism called ‘The Way’. So who were these ‘Christians’ that, for a number of years, were viewed as a sect?

They were men and women of conviction who had come to believe and trust that the man Jesus was in fact the Christ (Messiah) of God. This Christ, the Jews believed, would bring God’s salvation to his people. When Jesus the Christ did appear, it turned out that their notion of the expected salvation was wide of the mark. Jews were thinking in terms of Israel’s freedom from foreign occupation - both politically and militarily. This was to be followed, they thought, by a stable future under the governance of a king in the line of King David who had ruled in the nation’s Golden Years.

Many Jews, especially the religious leaders, rejected Jesus because he was on a different page altogether. His Kingdom, he said, was not of this world but of a different order. The salvation he brought with him would free men and women from what ruled and bound them on the inside. His purpose was to remove the barrier which existed between them and God by forgiving them the wrongs they’d done to others, which were actually, first and foremost, wrongs being committed against God himself. These sins (to use biblical language), if not addressed, would ultimately bring a guilty verdict in the high court of Heaven.

So, a Christian is a person who will believe that the Jesus presented in the Bible is the promised Christ; that he has the authority to forgive offences committed against God. What’s more, he is willing and able to be King of their hearts and renew their mindset in such a way that they may be described as a new creation, living a new life under God.

What was experienced by those early Christians during the first century is available to us in the 21st. We can make it ours by faith which, in this case, means trust in Jesus.