Christianity means different things to different people. A survey of a cross-section of the population will indicate that a person’s concept of Christianity usually falls within one of the following categories:

And the list could go on. Even in “Christian” (the term is used loosely in this context) circles the focus varies. Many spotlight the moral and ethical “lessons” of the Bible while allegorizing all history, spiritual doctrine and prophecy contained within it. Others see only the “beauty” of ceremony and harmonious tradition. Then there are those who are engulfed in pride and pharisaical behavior, consumed in establishing rules of behavior for those within their local congregation while they are inordinately concerned with appearance. But even more insidious are those who focus only on God to the exclusion of everyone and everything else.

All of the above miss the truth of Christianity. Even though it represents a force that has changed the course of mankind, its calendar, its direction and its behavior; it is to this day largely kept in a shroud of darkness and misunderstanding. Countless thousands claim to be “Christian.” Many of them wear a cross around their neck, never knowing what this symbol stands for; or they attend a local church “religiously” and practice all sorts of deeds and actions designed to achieve the approbation (approval) of God, meanwhile the truth and doctrine of the Bible—God’s Holy Word—is foreign to them.

Religion is the antithesis of Christianity. They are true adversaries. One precludes the other. As in water and oil, they do not mix. To indulge in one is to relinquish the other. They completely contradict each other. You ask, “Why is this so?” It is because religion is man seeking God, but Christianity is God seeking man. Whereas religion is man attempting to do for God, Christianity is God doing for man what man cannot do for himself or God. Whereas religion is man attempting to appease and seek the approbation of God, Christianity is a union or relationship with a Person, Jesus Christ. And therein is the crucial difference between religion and Christianity. All who miss this are in and will remain in the dark!

Jesus Christ, the Son of God and truly God, is the Pinnacle of Christianity. Without Him and what He accomplished for mankind, all the rules, all the platitudes and all the beauty contained in the Bible is worthless as far as man and his destiny is concerned. If a person is ignorant of Jesus and what He did, then there is little hope for him here or in eternity.

The Bible, God’s Word, is a compilation of 66 books written under holy inspiration by some 40 human authors from vastly different backgrounds over a period of several thousand years, yet it maintains one coherent and central theme, one integrated and consistent message. The Bible focuses through fact and typology on one historical event and its significance, the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (God in human form) who is the Creator and Center of the universe and whatever else there may be. A serious and genuine study of the Bible will reveal with all certainty that Jesus Christ is the Pinnacle of Christianity for the following reasons:

This is a cardinal tenant of Christianity. He is the second Person of the triune Godhead (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). Most religions throughout the world deny this completely. There are even some “Christian” denominations that minimize this fact even though the doctrine may be embedded within their statement of faith. Make no mistake about it, the Bible clearly proclaims Jesus Christ as God. And being God, Jesus Christ has all the attributes of Deity—eternity, immutability, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, holiness and more.

Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, “God with us.” (Matthew 1:23)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1, 14)

Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. (John 5:18)

Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” (And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”) [John 8:58 (Exodus 4:14)]

I and My Father are one. (John 10:30)

. . . . Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. (Romans 9:5)

Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.

(Philippians 2:6)

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn [a term of position signifying priority and sovereignty] over all creation. (Colossians 1:15)

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. (Colossians 2:9)

Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. (Titus 2:13)

Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His Person . . . . (Hebrews 1:3)

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. (1 John 5:20)

Jesus Christ was and is the one Person of the Trinity who not only participated in but was primarily responsible, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, for the “hands-on” creation of the universe and all within it.

Only through Jesus Christ and His completed sacrifice on the cross of Calvary can anyone be saved from eternal separation from God during and after physical life and be granted an eternal union and fellowship with God. Due to man’s fall (disobedience) within the Garden of Eden and the subsequent inheritance of the “sin nature” by every human being born from the sperm of man since then, all mankind has sinned and face eternal death (Romans 3:9, 23; 5:12; 6:23; Galatians 3:22).

Man is incapable of doing anything that will satisfy God’s holiness or appease God’s wrath toward sin. Every form of human good is unacceptable to God (Isaiah 64:6; Ephesians 2:8, 9). Nothing man can do will pay the penalty-price for sin. Man left to himself is totally helpless in so far as his salvation is concerned.

Yet God so loved mankind (John 3:16) that He sent His only begotten Son into the world, born of a virgin, for the primary purpose of being delivered to the cross so that He might take upon Himself the sin of all mankind, in fact becoming that sin (Isaiah 53:6; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24), in order to pay the penalty-price (spiritual death) for that sin so that man would not have to do it. By His death Jesus Christ has accomplished the following for every human being:

Because man has sinned and the penalty-price for sin is spiritual death, all mankind is subject to pay this price. On the cross of Calvary Jesus Christ, by dying in man’s place, paid this penalty price in total, for all time, for all mankind.
Matthew 20:28; Galatians 3:13; Ephesians 1:7; Titus 2:14; Hebrews 9:12; 1 Peter 1:18, 19

This happens at the moment of salvation and is permanent. Upon receiving Christ as personal Savior, the believer receives the “Spirit of Adoption” and thereby inherits all the riches and benefits of being a genuine child of God. The Greek word, huiothesia, translated “adoption,” from huios, “a son,” and thesis, “a placing,” signifies to place as a son with someone to whom he does not naturally belong. Hence huiothesia is never affirmed of Christ—for He alone is the natural Son of God. But as with Roman law, this term applies to every “born again” child of God—meaning that a son so adopted had in its entirety the position of a child by birth, with all the rights, privileges and obligations pertaining to such a birth. The believer’s relationship to God as a “son of God” is based on the grace of God, a right secured by the payment Christ Jesus made on the cross of Calvary some 2,000 plus years ago. Because of this, the Holy Spirit who lives within each child of God bears witness with the believer’s spirit enabling the believer to claim God as Father. This is a relationship with a beginning but with never an ending.
Romans 8:15-18; Galatians 4:4-7

This is the act of charging something that is on one’s account to the account of another. It explains how Christ was able to pay (redeem) for man’s sin. God imputed all of man’s sin to Christ’s account. Therefore, because Christ once and for all paid the penalty-price for this sin, God is free to impute His righteousness to man at the moment he by faith receives Christ and His completed work on Calvary.
2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 3:22

This is the removal of the barrier of separation, which is due to sin, between God and man. The sin-barrier is permanently removed upon faith alone in Jesus Christ and His finished work.
Romans 5:10; 2 Corinthians 5:18; Ephesians 2:16; Colossians 1:20, 21

Since man is spiritually dead, in order to have eternal life he must be reborn or made spiritually alive. This was the message to the Pharisee Nicodemus by Jesus Christ in John 3. Whereas “justification” removes the verdict of guilt from the individual at salvation, “regeneration” removes the spiritual atrophy (state of death) from him by means of spiritual rebirth.
John 3:3; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:5; Colossians 2:13; Titus 3:5

This means that God’s offended holiness (His justice and righteousness), due to man’s sin, is satisfied by the payment Jesus Christ made on the cross of Calvary. Because He has been satisfied, He no longer needs to display His wrath toward man.
Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2; 4:10

This is a legal term that indicates that because the payment for sin has been paid and God is now satisfied, man is vindicated and/or acquitted. Man’s sentence of condemnation is forever changed to one of righteousness because of Christ and His sacrifice.
Acts 13:39; Romans 3:24; 5:17-19; 2 Corinthians 5:21

This refers to the fact that man is now “set apart” for God because of the work on Calvary by Jesus Christ. It is a work that is both finished, on-going and will be finalized. Anyone who accepts Christ by faith is in Christ permanently. This is positional sanctification. The believer remains on earth until death or the Rapture and progresses toward holiness. This is experiential sanctification. Eventually the believer will pass on to Christ through death or the Rapture. This will then be final sanctification, which may also be known as his glorification.

Forgiveness of Sin               Colossians 1:14; 2:13; Ephesians 1:7; 4:32

Abolishment of the Law          Colossians 2:14; Ephesians 2:15

Jesus Christ died, both spiritually (penalty-price for sin) and physically (He relinquished His own physical life) on the cross, He was buried, but on the third day He arose alive and ascended to the right hand of God the Father, where He presently makes intercession for believers. Because of His substitutional death, any person may be saved from eternal death. You ask, “How does one accept this marvelous “gift of salvation?”

Salvation can only be accepted by a faith-based decision. Once a person understands what Christ has done for him on the cross of Calvary, he has but two courses of action to take. He may reject the work of Christ and remain eternally damned. Or, he may trust in (totally rely upon) what Christ has done for him (and in absolutely nothing of what he can do) for his personal salvation. This is best expressed in the phrase, by faith alone in Christ alone. It simply means that he makes a genuine decision to accept by faith alone Jesus Christ and His sacrifice as all that is necessary for his eternal salvation. Once he makes this decision, he is instantly saved. After his decision of faith he should make a public profession of his faith in Christ, volunteer for believer’s baptism, align himself with a Bible-believing local church and earnestly take steps to study Bible doctrine and grow in the Lord.

The Church, the Body of Christ, composed of all who have accepted God’s gift of salvation by faith alone in Christ alone, has but one Head. It is not the Pope in Rome or any other world or spiritual leader. It is not an organization. The Head of the Church is Jesus Christ. This truth, along with other facts presented in this commentary, should make a believer very wary of any local church or organization that promotes or places a priority on anything other than Jesus Christ. Jesus explicitly said, “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:13-15)

The way a believer may know that a local assembly is in sync with God’s Word is by evaluating its priorities. If its primary focus is on one or more of the “spiritual gifts” and/or emotional displays of devotion toward God, rather than on the work of Jesus Christ (death, burial and resurrection) and loving and reaching others with the Gospel, then beware! Jesus clearly emphasized two aspects of His ministry, Himself and love toward others. The above verse unequivocally states that when the Holy Spirit comes, He will glorify Jesus Christ. The focus of any assembly must always be on Jesus Christ; otherwise it is not in accordance with God’s Word and plan.

Just as Jesus Christ, when faith-accepted by a person, saves that person, He also supplies to that person sufficient power for living the Christian life. He accomplishes this through the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Upon salvation, a believer is permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit as he is baptized (immersed or united) by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ. This allows the believer to tap into the power of God for daily living, which is implemented in the same manner, by faith, in which he was saved. This is referred to in Scripture as being filled with the Holy Spirit, a phrase indicating that the believer is in submission to the Spirit’s control and the Holy Spirit is indeed influencing his actions to God’s glory. In the Bible this is often referred to as “walking in Christ,” “in Christ,” “Christ in you,” and other similar phrases. The wonder of it all is that once Jesus saves a person, He never leaves that person. Although it is always the choice of the believer to either utilize or disassociate himself from God’s power for holy living, it is always available to him. To obtain it is a personal transaction between the believer and Jesus Christ. No clergy, church or ceremony has any say-so in it. The two primary keys to walking in Jesus Christ are (1) confessing, which is acknowledging, naming or “owning up” to known sin—1 John 1:9; and (2) trusting or relying upon Jesus Christ to provide the power to do it—Colossians 2:6.

Jesus Christ will return in his present physical form to execute the resurrection of the Church, the Body of Christ. This is often termed the Rapture. Then, after a period of great tribulation upon earth, He will execute His Second Coming to earth to defeat the forces of evil and set up His thousand-year (Millennium) reign upon the earth. After this he will cast Satan and all who have rejected Him into the Lake of Fire, which is the second death. But for those who have faith-accepted Him and His sacrifice on Calvary’s cross there will be the new heaven and the new earth and the new Jerusalem and all eternity with Jesus Christ to enjoy. (John 14:1-3; 1 Corinthians 15:50-55; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18; Revelation 20:1-15)