Throughout centuries, the infinite world stands upon the rules, regulations created by humans, and, most importantly, religion. The latter offered the medieval man an opportunity to reconsider life and its purpose. At its core, faith illuminates being with light and hope. Among diverse directions of faith, Christianity constitutes one of the most important ones, giving rise to the world’s religions. Christianity that offers people forgiveness of sins, prosperity, and spiritual immortality, conquered people’s hearts. While there are debuts on the truthfulness of the teaching, there is also solid evidence that Christ existed and left us exceptional teaching of truth, love, hope, and salvation. In this work, the notion of salvation, Christ’s work, and contribution to the readers’ minds of the book “Basic Christianity” will be considered.
The concept of sin has been questioned for many years. Still, the discussions amount to the simple concept, the precondition of sin, selfishness. In search of pleasure, people lean towards aggression, lust, greed, deception, and if they do not receive the satisfaction, they fall in anguish. The propensity for alcoholism, adultery, anguish as an excuse to avoid work, drug consumption as a manner to escape life – those are among the most dangerous sins of modern society. Human sin is undeniable, which is the reason they need salvation. Whereas God is sinless, which is the reason He is Savior. If human needs salvation, they should first seek for selfishness. The author states, “If we do not seek, we shall never find,” and “God desires to be found, but only by those who seek him.” At the moment, when it is challenging to resist sin, the only form to avoid sin is to strive for purity, in other words, seek for God.
As it was stated before, Christ is sinless due to his selfishness. Despite his self-centered claims of being connected to God, or being God himself, he did what God does, the author states. When Christ accused men of being sinners, they ‘slipped away,’ but when he invited them to accuse him, no one moved or said anything to do so – he had no sins committed. Therefore, Christ is to be considered a Savior, the one who is able to forgive sins. There is scarcely a person who does not or never has drunk alcohol, there are fewer of those who committed adultery or robbery, but still, there are some. Anguish or greed could be called invisible sins, yet they do exist. Human is sinful, but God can purify human being if only the latter seek for salvation.
Christ is on ceaseless duty despite the world crises and numerous human predicaments. The author says, Christ made four indirect claims he is God. Due to those claims, Christ performs, one could say, four principal duties which are forgiveness of sins, bestowing life, teaching the truth, and judging the world. It is recorded, Christ once met a woman living an immoral life, and having “washed his feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair, and kissed them,” he declared her sins forgiven (Stott, 1958). Likewise, God is the one who can bestow life to humans. The author writes, Christ offered a Samaritan woman ‘living water’, gifting her with further life. God is, thus, able of two essential powers as sins forgiveness and bestowing life to human beings.
There is scarcely a person who could affirm Christ to have no control over himself, which is the only possibility to have a sinless live life he was recognized to have lived. Accordingly, he possesses such abilities and the right to teach the truth and judge the world. The author of “Basic Christianity” writes that Christ mentioned he would return at the end of the world and would judge humankind according their faith. Then, self-centered claims he made, urged people to follow his teaching and to believe in him, as they would believe in God. Having encouraged people to follow him, he also declared his right to teach the truth and judge the world.
The book “Basic Christianity” encourages the reader to explore deeper Christ’s life and his teaching. The biography pieces the author describes in his book encourages to think through his teaching statements and reconsider one’s daily life activities. The book indicates that sin is sometimes slightly visible, and one could not consider an activity as a sin, yet it will be one. The author concisely and clearly describes Christ’s teaching essential items. He also cites the Bible and provides clear examples to make the reader feel the teaching. One becomes involved in reading without noticing that the book has begun to change their opinion on the issue.
Currently, it is challenging time to resist sin since it is everywhere around us – alcohol is simple to reach, infidelity is no longer considered a sin, but a choice, it is easy to lose oneself. When the rules and regulations are of no importance, it is crucial to have guidance. Faith is one of the possible choices one could make to obtain a point of reference. The book “Basic Christianity” offers a trustworthy and straightforward guideline on the most influential teacher of all times. The author encourages the reader to revaluate daily activities and to rethink one’s whole life.
Reference List
Stott, J., Warren, R., & Wright, C. J. H. (2019). Basic Christianity (The IVP Signature Collection). IVP Books.