I Am a Christian

What do you think when I say I'm a Christian? Do you see me sitting around thinking how much better I am than everyone else. How the world is populated by sinners that are going to burn in hell, but I'm safe because I am one of Jesus' chosen few?

I don't.

Quite the opposite really. It was through my study of Christ's teaching that I realized I'm not better than you. I am just a fallible human being like everyone else. It is not merit that closes the gap between God and humanity. It is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

It is an all too common misconception that Christianity is about living up to a standard or following a list of dos and don’ts. It is humanly impossible to adhere to old testament law or any other list of rules we want to foist upon ourselves. We simply aren't built that way. We will always fall short of the goal. We are human.

Jesus came to give us a new goal. That is to form a close personal relationship with the creator of the universe. One in which we can grow and make mistakes in an environment of love. We are not judged on whether we are virtuous or not. Instead we are invited into the kingdom as sons and daughters. This being true how can we as Christians judge the world harshly?

So what do I think when I look out at the breadth of humanity? I think how sad it is that most of us struggle so much with our day to day lives that we miss the chance to have a close personal relationship with our maker. We miss the chance to be as complete as possible. To be as God designed us.

I think do they know the good news?