God’s Beloved

Christian beliefs.
God’s unconditional love for us is at their centre.
In return we are expected to love God
and care for our fellow humans.

–—————————–

1.    INTRODUCTION

Christianity is a standout, as a religion, due to its basis of love: God’s unconditional love for us, plus our love for God and other humans that he would like in return!

Indeed, Christian life is about: living and loving; giving and forgiving.

The aim of this about-i-am website is to help readers build sound Christian faith and apply it to their lives, by engaging with God there. In effect, this is how we do come to believe in God! The intro article to the website, “How to believe in God?” tells how all this stuff does fit together. Trust me on this one: IF you are ready to believe, THEN you can!

The article, “What does faith offer us?” explains what we get in return for that faith-based relationship with God. 

(I am from a senior auditing background and the majority of my advisory team are Christian clergy. To glimpse the ‘who’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ of this website please click here.)

But yes, we must FIRSTLY understand ‘a bit about’ our God, AND what God expects of us in life, BEFORE trying to believe in him.

This particular article, the first in this “Christianity explained” section of the website, offers an overview of Christian beliefs. The other articles in the section are listed below. Just “click the links” for access to them:

As explained above, this article offers explanations of ‘basic Christian beliefs’. Please read on to get that basic understanding.

2.    ESSENTIAL CHRISTIAN BELIEFS

So, a brief overview follows:

2.1    God’s grace and love for us

Let me begin by writing that it was the Christian concept of “grace” that firstly drew me in. It literally convinced me, as the auditor that I was at the time, to investigate the religion’s basis: its ‘authenticity’. THEN to investigate the ‘reality’ of the God that was documented within the Bible.

I read somewhere that the concept of grace is ‘so far out there’, that NO human being could have ‘dreamt it up’. I certainly came to agree with that statement! And look, for example, this Christian concept offers a major shift from the holy books of Judaism and Islam. I explain about that stuff later.

Essentially, “grace” is all about God’s unconditional love for us.

Through his outpouring of grace, God makes it very clear that he REALLY wants a loving personal relationship with each one of us. Indeed, our God intends that ‘relationship’ with him should never end, even after our physical death (and more about that later).

The contents under subheading 2.3 below briefly explains just how far God was willing to go … with his grace! There is also a complete article in this website section that further discusses, “God’s grace“.

2.2    The Holy Trinity

The vast majority of Christians also hold the ‘Holy Trinity‘, the concept of a triune God, as a central belief of their religion. Christians accept that Jesus is an essential identity within the ‘Trinity’. The Trinity consists of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit – three ‘persons’ in one God. So, despite the concept of the Trinity, all Christians accept that there is ONLY ONE GOD.

The concept, AND God’s genuine reason for it, is not as complicated as first imagined either. Again please see the article, “The Holy Trinity”. The Trinity, as explained there, began with God’s need to place his loving presence in human form on Earth whilst still sustaining the existence of ‘all that is and ever shall be’.

2.3    Jesus and the “Cross”

Following on then, most Christians accept that Jesus, whilst alive amongst us as a fellow human being over 2,000 years ago, was ‘God incarnate‘. Jesus WAS, and STILL IS for that matter, God.

Through Jesus, God poured out his grace upon all of us human beings who are ready to enter into a faithful relationship with him. AND as a result of that relationship we CAN receive eternal life.

So, from God the Father’s actions, who gave physical life to his Son Jesus, we read in the Bible:

For God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life.
[John 3:16]

The price that Jesus paid for us

Because of God’s unconditional love for us (i.e. through his “grace“) Jesus offered himself as a living sacrifice, the ‘Lamb of God‘, in order to pay for humankind’s wrongdoings (sins).

Jesus felt the pain of pre-execution torture and humiliation at the hands of his captors. And then he experienced physical exhaustion when forced to carry his cross much of the way to the place of his execution. He then felt the nails go through his flesh, as he was nailed to that cross, before it was raised to a verticle position.

Once up on the cross, he gradually felt the agony of losing his ability to breathe freely. In effect he experienced the slow and tormented death that he had known awaited him.

What the cross means for us

Through his own death by crucifixion on the cross, Jesus thereby ‘paid for‘ our sins. In other words, “He redeemed them”. As a result, faithful Christians can be assured of eternal life through the ‘grace‘ of God. (Note this explanation makes use of the essential Bible ‘jargon’ that has been in place for over two thousand years.)

In ‘simple English’, the average Christian ACCEPTS that Jesus died for them. His physical death on the cross paid for any sins they have or might yet commit. Essentially, the cost of all our sins committed throughout our lives, i.e. which would normally mean a punishment of ‘permanent death’ from God, is brushed aside as a result of Jesus’ sacrifice for us.

It is also believed that the ‘resurrection’ to new life, several days after Jesus’ death ‘on the cross’, and then ‘ascension’ into heaven by him demonstrates most positively the victory over death that is ‘offered to us’.

AGAIN, the Christian religion’s view of “Jesus as God” is essential to understanding the depth of God’s unconditional love for us, and his “grace”. That is God became human so that he COULD physically sacrifice himself for us. (Please see the articles, “Jesus as God” and “Evidence of Jesus” for a better understanding.)

For Christians then, the common symbol of the ‘cross‘ signifies: God’s love for us (his grace), our forgiveness and victory over death.

2.4    Jesus as “Our Lord and Saviour”

Although some small issues of disagreement exist between theologians on the subject, we are each ‘saved‘ from our sins so as to receive eternal life, as such, if we:

  1. Admit to our past wrongdoing (sins) and ‘try’ to turn our backs on our old ‘it’s all about me’ way of life.
  2. Commit ourselves through ‘faith’ to “Jesus as our Lord and Saviour“.

A great proportion of Christians do formally accept these commitments. Indeed a commitment of acceptance by individual Christians occurs within Baptism services arranged by their church of choice.

And I explain, in detail below, what those words under points 1 and 2 above truly mean!

Now firstly, the words “Jesus as our Lord and Saviour” is an IMPORTANT term and therefore deserves a sound explanation here. That is, even though it is revisiting some of the ‘beliefs’ already explained.

Let’s get to it then …

Our Lord

The ‘Lord’ aspect of the above term firstly requires an explanation. It refers to ‘Jesus being God himself‘. That is, as well as being Jesus, he is also the God of the Old Testament (the pre-Jesus Books of the Bible); the great “I AM”. As I have already indicated above, the Father and the Son are two persons of the Holy Trinity. Both declared themselves to be “I AM” within the Bible. The Father did so in the Old Testament (Exodus 3:14), possibly 500 to 600 years before Jesus was born, and then the Son did so as documented in John 8:58. The two related verses are quoted in full on the “About this website” article of the website.

The ‘Lord’ aspect therefore relates to Jesus (as God) being ‘the Boss’ to us humans, who are at least trying to obey him in life; to follow his guidance. That is, living as the Bible instructs us. Yes, we should try to be ‘faithful’ to him!

Clearly, we have a ‘Boss’ who dearly loves us all. And he deals with each and every one of us, and humanity as a whole, in an all-knowing pragmatic manner.

Our Saviour

The ‘Saviour’ aspect of the statement, as explained under the previous sub section, is straightforward. Again, please read the quotation from John 3:16 above under subheading 2.3.

We must accept, through faith, that Jesus laid down his physical life in a very painful way to pay for our wrongdoings; our sins, so as to enable us Christians to have eternal life.

Jesus, through his sacrifice on the cross, ‘saved‘ each of us Christians from permanent death, i.e. after our physical lives end. As a result of being saved through faith, Christians are freed to just concentrate on a loving and faithful relationship with God. In essence, that is what God desires above all else. Simply speaking, that is why we have individually been created.

Further discussion on what it ‘takes’ to be saved, as mentioned above, is included in the supporting articles, “Christian rules, laws and commandments” and “Heaven and hell”. The ‘moral dilemma’ of wrongdoing (sin), and its impact on our lives now, is also expanded under the Heading 4 below.

3.    THE TIME WAS RIGHT

‘Love’ is at the heart of Christianity – God’s love for us, our love for God AND his other children. Christianity’s ‘new direction’ that began 2,000 years ago was a positive SHIFT AWAY from the obsessive compliance with rules that the Jewish religion had been drifting towards. Jewish synagogues were at that time also becoming money-making businesses. All at the expense, I must add, of reducing the need for a close ‘personal relationship’ with God!

So our Christian religion ‘came to pass’ at the point of history that God KNEW would come. It was time to relax on rules, laws and commandments. The time was also right for seriously committing to loving and meaningful relationships with our God.

A better explanation of that ‘timing’ is available in the previously mentioned article, “Jesus as God“.

4.    JESUS’ TWO COMMANDMENTS OF ‘LOVE’

The three great monotheist religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) agree that every one of us can enter into a personal relationship with God. That is a God who: listens to each of us, tries to speak to each of us, offers guidance/ support to each of us, offers each of us eternal life after physical death. All three religions believe that God wants each of us to enter into that relationship with him. Actually, he attempts through the means available to him to draw us into it – encouraging us to respond to him.

Christians, like Jews and Muslims, accept that God HAS laid down rules to be followed in life. BUT unlike Judaism and Islam, Christianity views its rules in a DIFFERENT way.

4.1    Jesus’ answer

I have clearly mentioned in this article why I chose Christianity over the other two monotheist religions: Judaism the oldest of the three, Islam the youngest. Simply put, it was Christianity’s principle of ‘love’. That is God’s love of us, contained within his ‘grace‘ that is given freely to us; and our love for him and our fellow human beings. The rules of Christianity, or “Commandments” as they are called, are of course also based on ‘love’ itself.

Two new commandments

AND when it comes to actual ‘laws and rules’ for guidance in our lives, Jesus provided clear advice.

Firstly bear in mind that the human Jesus was born into the Jewish religion. And all the Old Testament (OT) of the Bible was written prior to his birth. The Bible’s New Testament (NT) was all written after Jesus’ death. All Jews, including Jesus’ followers at the time, tried to follow the guidance of the OT’s so-called Ten Commandments (provided by God, of course, long before Jesus’ birth).

When asked, in the form of a ‘challenging’ question, which of the Ten Commandments was the most important, Jesus offered a powerful answer. It was, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.” Then continuing, Jesus added, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” [Luke 10:27]

What they mean for us

So, love of God and our fellow humans underpins Christian ‘law’. Also, Jesus himself added further standards of ‘loving kindness’ in particular for us to follow, and these are also documented in the New Testament. Again, please see the article, “Christian rules, laws and commandments” to better understand how rules and laws DO affect Christians.

And, God will definitely try to ‘guide us‘ into what is appropriate in our actions, if there is any doubt about what is ‘right or wrong’ within our lives. This in effect provides us with an element of proof of God’s existence. That is his recognisable presence in our lives.

4.2    Love of God

Now it is no surprise that IF God did love us enough to become human and then die for us in agony, THEN he would expect love from us in return. And Jesus highlighted the extent of that love of God that is expected of us, in his answer detailed under the subheading “Two new commandments” above.

Note too that Jesus provided us with the ideal example of a human being to follow – himself! The Gospels (New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) contain the words and actions of Jesus. The concept of Jesus’ revealing nature is ‘built into’ one of his alternative titles, “The Word”. With regards to actually loving God (in his case the ‘Father’) the HUMAN JESUS clearly demonstrated that he did so. He really did love his dad, and vice versa!

From God’s point of view, it is a case of the more ‘Christ-like’ we can become with his assisting ‘grace‘, the closer our loving relationship with him becomes. As the Word, in this context, Jesus is our ‘guiding light’, and I write a bit more on that later.

Ultimately, our contentedness with life improves as growth towards ‘Christ-likeness’ takes place, and our love of God increases. And hey, do not worry, if that all seems a bit too much. Simply … it just happens! Slowly but surely, as our ‘faith becomes sound‘.

4.3    Love of our Neighbours

With regards to our neighbours (i.e. our fellow human beings), it basically comes down to ‘love’ again. Each one of us is a loved child of God, and he wants us all to deeply care about his other children. The article following this one is titled, “Christian behaviour“. It further explains how we should act towards our fellow humans etc.

Meeting his expectations

Again, when we grasp that understanding of how to ‘love’ our fellow humans, we can see that the old Ten Commandments, i.e. those ones that relate to our fellow human beings, should not need to be stated. For example, everybody should understand that it is wrong to steal from people we love (i.e. people that we ‘care about’ as much as we ‘care about’ ourselves)! Similarly, we would not covert (lust after) or enter into adultery with the life partner of someone we should deeply care about etc.

In other words, Jesus’ new ‘love-based’ law again contains the essence of all those older laws, and indeed goes beyond them! And yet again, please read the article, “Christian rules, laws and commandments” for a better understanding about that one.

We should be ‘guiding lights’

I suppose we can look to the twentieth century example of Mother Theresa of Calcutta for the ‘personification’ of love towards our neighbour. This way of life (loving and self sacrificing care for others) offers so much in return to us. All Christians are called to it. And, there is no better medicine for the ‘human psyche’ than assisting others in their time of need. It has the ability to lift us from the ‘mire’ of self-centredness. And in turn, lead us away from our all too common self destructive tendency to dwell on our own problems and wish-lists. Yes, again have a quick look at the article, “Christian behaviour“.

4.4    If we are saved anyway, why obey the rules?

Now, most Christians accept that obedience to rules and laws (the ‘two rules of love’ or for that matter complying with the Ten Commandments etc) is important. But however, it is not critical for the soul or its ‘salvation‘, i.e. going to Heaven and not Hell after death. Christianity essentially places ‘faith’ in Jesus as Lord and Saviour above all else as a pathway to eternal life. (But again it does not just ignore ‘obligations’ that we should meet.)

This is the big difference between Christianity and the other major monotheist religions of Judaism and Islam. Those religions place ‘obeying religious rules/ laws’ at the same level of importance as ‘belief in God’.

We must try hard to be faithful

The best summary in the Bible of how the law itself (rules, commandments etc), God’s saving grace, and following those laws, all fit together is provided by St Paul. Please read Romans 3:19-26.

As Christians, we should want to do his ‘bidding’ because we don’t want to disappoint our loving God – not because we are afraid of losing our souls at the time of physical death. Of course, God expects us to ‘run the best race’ that we can, with the help of his loving assistance. And when we do wrong (commit sin) we should admit it to God and try hard to not do it again. We love him, as we should love our human parents, and as with them, we don’t want to disappoint him.

The cost of being completely unfaithful

BUT a  further issue surrounding ‘SERIOUS’ wrongdoing/ sin, is that it CAN grow to a stage where the wrongdoing itself becomes more important to us than our actual relationship with God. Not good! Those sorts of ‘bad life choices‘, can pretty well ‘dis-engage’ us from our relationship with God. Tear it apart! He may no longer be our God as a result. Indeed our ‘bad life choices’ CAN literally become our God instead.

Bear in mind, this line that ‘we should not cross’ will normally become very obvious to us before we do actually cross it. No, it won’t be some little innnocent error on our part! Mind you, our loving God will be there awaiting our plea for help, once we recognise our failing. He can for example give us the strength to beat it, if we just ask for it.

But yes, faithfulness to God should be a major aim in any Christian’s life.

Again … this principle, based on love and faith, rather than rules and faith, obviously offers a shift from the Jewish and Islamic concentration on laws/ rules or ‘legalism’. Importantly, it is not primarily about the rules. No, it is about having that deep personal, loving relationship with God that we are called to.

5.    CONCLUSION

We have to be open to God; begin that relationship with him, and then see just how Jesus CAN transform our lives. Yes, engage with God. And importantly, ALSO join a church that will help guide and support each of us on our journeys! More on that one later …

As suggested in the intro, if you need guidance on how to develop your belief in God, then please read the article, “How to believe in God?”. You will see there how to involve our loving God in your life; to ‘walk the walk’. Yes, how to engage with him in the Church, your life and the Bible.

I am confident, just like so many other Christians, that anyone can prove to themselves – ‘well beyond reasonable doubt’ – that God IS real by simply putting faith to work in life. And remember it is the ‘auditor‘ here writing this stuff. Look, just read the article, “Too good to be true” to see how the obsessive atheist, that I once was, became a ‘rock-solid’ believer.

Let God love you freely, and aim to love him back. He has an awesome presence once ‘faith becomes sound‘. After recognising this, ‘life need never be the same again‘.

There is no denying that deeper knowledge of the Bible MUST come later. This is due to the incredible depth of wisdom and guidance that is contained within it. It is not difficult to see God’s purpose for Christianity (and yourself) through the Bible’s key themes – which I have tried hard to summarise in this article. The article, “Our amazing Bible” gives assistance on how to interpret its contents. 

Exposure to Christianity, through ‘church attendances‘, also offers us the chance to experience this essence at work. That is to feel it! Further evidence of God’s presence (sometimes solid evidence) can be witnessed there as well. It is also there within the Church that we are provided with the opportunity, when ready, to ‘genuinely’ commit ourselves to Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. We do NEED to become baptised Christians!

Again, ‘Love’ is at the heart of Christianity – God’s love for us, our love for God and his other children. Initially, it demands little of us as individuals, other than developing a relationship with the God who became human and then painfully sacrificed his mortal life for each of us.