Christianity is about something that happened. something that happened to Jesus of Nazareth. something that happened through Jesus of Nazareth.

Christianity is not about Jesus offering, demonstrating, or even accomplishing a new route by which people can ‘go to heaven when they die.” This is a persistent mistake, based on the medieval notion that the point of all religion–the rule of the game, if you like–was to make sure you ended up at the right side of the stage at the end of the mystery play (that is, in heaven rather than in hell), or on the right side of the painting in the Sistine chapel. Again, that isn’t to deny that our present beliefs and actions have lasting consequences. Rather, it’s to deny both that Jesus made this the focus of his work and that this is the “point” of Christianity.

Christianity is all about the belief that the living God, in fulfillment of his promises and as the climax of the story of Israel, has accomplished all this–the finding, the saving, the giving of new life–in Jesus. He has done it. With Jesus, God’s rescue operation has been put into effect once and for all. A great door has swung open in the cosmos which can never again be shut. It’s the door to the prison where we’ve been kept chained up. We are offered freedom: freedom to experience God’s rescue for ourselves, to go through the open door and explore the new world to which we now have access. In particular, we are all invited–summoned, actually–to discover, through following Jesus, that this new world is indeed a place of justice, spirituality, relationship, and beauty, and that we are not only to enjoy it as such but to work at bringing it to birth on earth as in heaven. In listening to Jesus, we discover whose voice it is that has echoed around the hearts and minds of the human race all along.

Exerpts (Pgs 91-92) from Simply Christian