- but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, --1 Peter 3:15
The end of the thread of the conversation went like this:
"Become a Christian? What do you mean by becoming a Christian? I thought that you were sort of born that way. Like in America--you are born here-- so you are automatically a Christian right?"
Whoa. How does one respond to one who obviously has no understanding of Christianity without resorting to "Christianese" terms like "repentance", "born again", etc., that the person won't understand?
Well here goes nothing I thought as I took a deep breath, said a quick prayer and attempted to answer.
"Being born in America", I began, "no more makes you a Christian, than being born in a car factory makes you a car. "
"Christianity is different from every other religion in the world. All other religions are DO religions. The focus is on what the person can do to make himself a "good" person and therefore acceptable to God."
"Christianity is a DONE religion. Christians realize that there is nothing that they can do on their own to make themselves acceptable to God, but the good news is that everything that would make them acceptable has already been done by Christ. He has done for us what we could never do for ourselves, which is live a perfect, sinless life and die in our place to pay the penalty that God's perfect justice demands for our rebellion against Him."
"To become a Christian means we realize who God is, how holy He is, and that we have wronged him. We ask His forgiveness and accept the fact that Jesus paid a debt that we owe. Then we make Jesus the boss of our lives, quit living for ourselves and live a life that would please Him. Not to earn brownie points, but because we love Him more than anything else."
It will be interesting to see how this turns out.
