Overview of Christianity
I’ve recently put together a resource page for “New to Faith?” on my site, to which I will add this post. I sometimes fancy myself a curator of resources, and I wanted a landing place for people who might need a jumping off point as they start (or restart) their walk with God. As I meet new friends, I’m finding that there is also a need for some very basic biblical literacy information for those who are unfamiliar with Christianity and/or the Bible. Thus, the reason for this post. It’s a very, very abbreviated overview of Christianity (with an even more abbreviated video at the end of this post).
My hope and prayer is that this will serve as a helpful resource for those wishing to learn more as well as a resource for others to save and/or share.
Christianity: One true God, our separation from him, and a way back to him
In Christianity, we believe in only one true God, and that He exists as a Trinity: God the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. We believe that God is the author and creator of all things and is all-powerful, all-knowing, completely loving, and eternal.
We believe that we are eternal beings and that our time on earth is only temporary. After death we will still exist eternally—either with God or forever separated from God. Sin separates us from God, yet none of us are without sin (Romans 3:23). We have ALL sinned. Sin is really just following our own path and doing things our own way instead of God’s way. It’s defining right and wrong on our own instead of relying on God’s definition.
So how then can we reconcile this sin that will eternally separate us from God? There is absolutely nothing that we can do in our own effort to earn this reconciliation or to make up for our sins because we are imperfect and will always mess up. In Christianity we believe that all humans are sinners in need of a Savior. The foundation and story of Christianity is just that…a world in need of rescue, and that rescue comes in the form of a savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is the only way to be reconciled back to God (John 14:6).
We can see this story of our faith throughout the pages of scripture. We believe that the Bible is true and that it is God’s Word, inspired directly by him, written by holy men (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The Bible is our guide to know about God and to live a life that is pleasing to him. In the Bible you can find the foundational truths of our faith.
The Story
The Bible Project: Biblical Story
Creation
In the beginning God created EVERYTHING, including humans. Everything God made was good (Genesis 1:31). In fact he made humans in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). The first humans were Adam and Eve. God then put humans in charge of the earth, or gave them “dominion”. However, he gave humans (Adam & Eve) some parameters: Eat from ANYTHING you want…EXCEPT this tree, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Notice that they had more freedoms than limits.
There was perfect harmony with God, with creation, and with each other. Perfection and peace didn’t last though.
Enter Satan
Then the enemy, also known as Satan or the devil, came as a serpent and tempted humans (Adam & Eve). Okay, let’s back up for some context. Satan was originally one of the archangels in heaven, known first as Lucifer, which means “Morning Star” (Isaiah 14:12). However, he willingly sinned and was cast out of heaven down to earth, where he became known as Satan, which means “adversary”. Theologian, Dr. Ron Rhodes described Satan’s fall perfectly: “Lucifer apparently became so impressed with his own beauty, intelligence, power, and position that he began to desire for himself the honor and glory that belonged to God alone.”[1]
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!” Isaiah 14:12 (NKJV)
“Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.” Ezekiel 28:17 (NIV)
“Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning!” Luke 10:18 (NLT)
*Read more about Lucifer’s (Satan’s) fall and the other angels who fell with him: Isaiah 14:12–17, Ezekiel 28:11–19, 1 Timothy 3:6, 2 Peter 2:4, Jude 1:6, Revelation 12:3-4, 9.
So now that Satan is on the earth, his mission is to steal, kill, and destroy everything that God made, humans included.
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10 (ESV)
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8 (ESV)
Sin entered the world
Now, keeping in mind Satan’s purpose (steal, kill, destroy), go back to the story in the Garden of Eden. The serpent tempts Eve, and subsequently Adam, with the fruit God forbade them to eat (Genesis 3), and he causes them to question the goodness of God (notice that Satan still does that today). They succumb to the temptation, as each and every human being has ever since…except one, but more on him in a minute (Romans 5:19).
The nature of sin is to break and mess up everything. Consequently when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and sinned, it broke their relationship with God and the perfection on earth. Death entered in…death of all kinds: physical, spiritual, emotional, relational, etc. It’s why we see the ALL of the problems we have in the world today. It’s all because of sin. The Bible says that the consequence, or wages, of sin is death. But God didn’t leave humanity there to face death and eternal separation from God. He had a plan.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23 (NLT)
God’s plan to rescue us
The same love that drove God to create us also drove him to rescue us from sin and death. He had a plan to save us, and that plan was to send someone to rescue us. All of scripture points to this person and this plan of salvation and rescue.
SPOILER ALERT: The person who will rescue humanity will be God’s own son, Jesus. However, he doesn’t physically show up in scripture until the New Testament, thousands of years later.
We can see God’s plan of salvation being laid out throughout the Old Testament scriptures though. After Adam and Even sinned, God later chose a man, within whose lineage, the Savior (or Messiah) would later be born. This man was Abraham.
God makes a pact, or a covenant, with Abraham promising him a family that will eventually turn into a nation of people that will be given a chance to make the right choice by following, trusting and obeying God. Much of the Old Testament follows and tells the story of this family/nation and their subsequent choices, both good and bad with ups and downs. Throughout the stories we see God’s heart and desire for humanity…that they would be his people and that he would be their God, a mutual loving relationship.
Then came Jesus
Now fast-forward to the New Testament. The gospels, or first four books of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) give accounts of Jesus’ life on earth. God sent his own son, Jesus, to be born into this earth as a human. In Christianity we call this the incarnation of Jesus, meaning that God came to earth as a human, being both fully God and fully man. Jesus was born through a miraculous virgin birth, fulfilling multiple prophecies outlined in the Old Testament scriptures of the Bible.
Here’s a great analogy of Jesus becoming human:
Jesus lived a perfect life, tempted just as we all are, yet free of sin. He never sinned and always obeyed God. As an adult he went around teaching about God and performing miracles. He preaches the “good news” or the “gospel” and summarizes how the entirety of scriptures (all of the Old Testament thus far) has now come to fulfillment with him. Jesus shows how the promise of God to rescue and restore humanity back to partnership with God is now being achieved through him.
The Bible Project: The Gospel
Jesus became our substitute
Throughout his teaching, Jesus gained many followers which angered the religious elite. They concocted a plan to murder him and were even assisted by one of Jesus’ own disciples, Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus. Jesus was then wrongly accused and condemned to death by crucifixion. Little did the instigators know that this was God’s plan all along. Jesus was God’s plan of rescue for humanity. He would become our substitute and take our consequences for us.
Because of love, Jesus willingly went to the cross on our behalf as a sacrifice for our sins. He took the sins of the world upon him paying sin’s wages of death so that we might have forgiveness and life. Jesus was an innocent person that took our place and was punished in our stead in order to defeat sin. In doing so, God freed us from the penalty of our sins.
“Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit.” 1 Peter 3:18 (NLT)
“Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all.” Isaiah 53:4-6 (NLT)
“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.” Romans 3:23-26 (NLT)
“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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17 (NIV)
Dead but now alive, he rose from the grave
God’s plan didn’t end with Jesus’ death though. After his death on the cross, Jesus was buried in a tomb, guarded by soldiers. On the third day (i.e. crucified on a Friday, resurrected on Sunday) God resurrected Jesus. Jesus defeated death that day, and he rose from the grave.
“He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying.” Matthew 28:6 (NLT)
“He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.” 1 Corinthians 15:4 (NLT)
“And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News.” 2 Timothy 1:10 (NLT)
Jesus defeated sin by dying on the cross, and he defeated death by rising from the dead. In doing these two things, he reconciled humanity back to God and made salvation available to all who would receive him.
“Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:19 (NLT)
“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” John 1:12 (NIV)
Free gift of salvation, but it’s a choice
Now this free gift of salvation, an eternal relationship with God, has been made available to us (Romans 6:23). Restoration and freedom and finding true joy and purpose are now a possibility. We can have endless freedom from suffering, guilt, and sin and the gift of eternal life with God.
However, this is a choice offered to us, not a mandate that we are made to obey. It’s a free gift we can either receive or decline. God is a gentleman and will not force himself upon us, but his will is that not any human being should be separated from him but instead come to repentance. Jesus will stand at the door and knock, waiting for an invitation into your life. He will not enter without permission.
“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 (NIV)
“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” Revelation 3:20 (NLT)
Accepting his invitation
If choose to accept God’s invitation into salvation, you just need to believe and acknowledge that you are in fact a sinner in need of a savior and that the only person capable of saving you is Jesus Christ who is God’s Son that came and died for your sins in your place and rose from the dead. In Christianity this acknowledgement leads to your salvation, what’s often called being “born again” because you have a spiritual rebirth, a new clean spirit (John 3:1-21). Then Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to come live inside of you in your new spirit to guide you and lead you in your walk with God becoming more and more like Jesus.
“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10 (NIV)
“And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart and I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.” Ezekiel 36:26-27 (NLT)
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:16 (ESV)
“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)
Benefits of a life with God
One day we will spend the rest of eternity with God, free from any effects of death and sin. There will be no more pain, sadness, or suffering (Revelation 21:4). However, God’s salvation plan isn’t just for our eternity. God wants to save us from the effects of sin right now during our lives on earth. By trusting and obeying him, we can see God’s resurrection power in our current lives.
Psalm 27:13 says that we can “see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living”. A good and blessed life is not postponed until after physical death. God wants us to experience the kind of good things that overcome the other intangible “deaths” caused by sin. Jesus came so we could experience an abundant, rich and satisfying life that we can live to the full (John 10:10).
This is not a life free of suffering or trouble (on this side of heaven/eternity), but we are promised that God is with us and will help us through the trouble (John 16:33). In fact, God can even bring us out better on the other side of trouble (Romans 8:28). These are things you will learn and grow in throughout your relationship with God. These are some things I teach and discuss here on this site! As a Christian you have a support system to walk with you and help you grow throughout the process.
What is Christianity? Explained in 2 Minutes
Good News in 90 seconds
Take Some Practical Steps With This Overview Of Christianity:
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If you are new to faith, follow up this post by visiting and checking out the resources on this page: New to Faith?
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Additionally, if you are new to faith, I highly recommend this “New Believers Bible” with first steps for new Christians:
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If this is nothing new to you and you are already familiar with the basics of Christianity, save this post as a resource to share with others. You never know when it may come in handy!
Do you have other questions about the basics of Christianity? Feel free to ask them here by leaving a comment below.
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- Rhodes, Ron. “How Did Lucifer Fall and Become Satan?” Christianity.com, Salem Web Network, 22 Oct. 2007, www.christianity.com/theology/theological-faq/how-did-lucifer-fall-and-become-satan-11557519.html. ↑
