What's So Special About Christianity?
Philip Yancey, in What’s So Amazing About Grace?, recounts the story of a bunch of professors at Oxford University who were sitting around one day arguing about the primary differences between various religions. Of course, the conversation turned to Christianity and the thing that makes it unique among the world’s religions. At this point in the conversation, CS Lewis walked in and asked, “What’s all the rumpus?”. When the question was posed to him, he immediately replied, “That’s easy. It’s grace.”
It's easy, if we get too caught up in the details and the legends and the ancient belief systems, to draw connections between the different world religions and assume they are teaching the same thing in different languages. Ancient Near Eastern religions have Flood stories, similarly named gods, Creation myths, and chosen people. World Religions have liturgies and moral codes that often look very similar to each another. The Code of Hammurabi has tons of similarities to the Mosaic Law, and the Koran has similar wisdom Proverbs to the Old Testament. There are even stories of resurrection and miraculous conception from Egypt to Assyria to Northern Europe, of afterlife and eternal existence.
Why in the world would we be so arrogant as to assume that Christianity has anything unique or different to offer? It seems unkind and un-empathetic to consider someone else’s belief system that they came to through honest inquiry or cultural heritage to be less true than our own. Is there a place for exclusive religious claims in a pluralistic society?
There are indeed many similarities between Christianity and the various world religions. But reducing religion to the statement “God is Love and wants us to Love each other,” while true, misses the point.
The unique story of Christianity is that, when faced with the problem of sin and the brokenness of humanity, YHWH took it upon himself to initiate and follow through on the entire solution. Instead of a list of requirements and rituals to live in harmony with the created order, appease the gods, reach enlightenment or oneness with the universe, or unquestioningly obey, a sacrifice was made as a covering for sin to restore the relationship between humans and their Creator.
This is grace.
The person and work of Christ pays the penalty for the sin of the world, with no requirement for Eternal Life but simple faith in this fact.
As the U2 song goes, “Grace, it takes the blame, removes the stain, it could be her name… Grace, it's the name for a girl. It's also a thought that changed the world… She travels outside of karma… She carries a pearl in perfect condition. What once was hurt, what once was friction, what left a mark no longer stings. Because Grace makes beauty out of ugly things.”
A drowning person in the middle of the ocean has no possibility of self-salvation. A broken and sin-covered person cannot pay the penalty for another broken and sin-covered person.
Our sin and brokenness require someone from outside our situation to reach in and offer the solution.
Back to CS Lewis:
“But what does it all mean?” asked Susan when they were somewhat calmer. “It means,” said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.”
-CS Lewis, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
It's easy, if we get too caught up in the details and the legends and the ancient belief systems, to draw connections between the different world religions and assume they are teaching the same thing in different languages. Ancient Near Eastern religions have Flood stories, similarly named gods, Creation myths, and chosen people. World Religions have liturgies and moral codes that often look very similar to each another. The Code of Hammurabi has tons of similarities to the Mosaic Law, and the Koran has similar wisdom Proverbs to the Old Testament. There are even stories of resurrection and miraculous conception from Egypt to Assyria to Northern Europe, of afterlife and eternal existence.
Why in the world would we be so arrogant as to assume that Christianity has anything unique or different to offer? It seems unkind and un-empathetic to consider someone else’s belief system that they came to through honest inquiry or cultural heritage to be less true than our own. Is there a place for exclusive religious claims in a pluralistic society?
There are indeed many similarities between Christianity and the various world religions. But reducing religion to the statement “God is Love and wants us to Love each other,” while true, misses the point.
The unique story of Christianity is that, when faced with the problem of sin and the brokenness of humanity, YHWH took it upon himself to initiate and follow through on the entire solution. Instead of a list of requirements and rituals to live in harmony with the created order, appease the gods, reach enlightenment or oneness with the universe, or unquestioningly obey, a sacrifice was made as a covering for sin to restore the relationship between humans and their Creator.
This is grace.
The person and work of Christ pays the penalty for the sin of the world, with no requirement for Eternal Life but simple faith in this fact.
As the U2 song goes, “Grace, it takes the blame, removes the stain, it could be her name… Grace, it's the name for a girl. It's also a thought that changed the world… She travels outside of karma… She carries a pearl in perfect condition. What once was hurt, what once was friction, what left a mark no longer stings. Because Grace makes beauty out of ugly things.”
A drowning person in the middle of the ocean has no possibility of self-salvation. A broken and sin-covered person cannot pay the penalty for another broken and sin-covered person.
Our sin and brokenness require someone from outside our situation to reach in and offer the solution.
Back to CS Lewis:
“But what does it all mean?” asked Susan when they were somewhat calmer. “It means,” said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.”
-CS Lewis, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
Posted in Student Parents
Recent
Archive
2023
2022
February
April
November
December
2021
February
April
September
October
No Comments