<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s quite rare that I remember my friend\u2019s Facebook posts beyond the time it takes to read this sentence, but over the years there have been a few posts that have stuck with me. Several years back, one of them was this: \u201cGoing to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.\u201d While the statement is absolutely true in one sense, it\u2019s absolutely not true in another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, how is it true? Christianity\u2019s big idea is that God doesn\u2019t accept us based upon our moral achievements, but based on what He has achieved for us in Jesus Christ. Jesus came and lived the perfect life that we could not; He suffered and died to take the penalty of sin that would have crushed us. So, acceptance from God is no longer based upon the moral scale system, but upon the completed work of Jesus Christ to perfectly satisfy the justice of a Holy God. We can have this credited to us when we stop hopelessly trusting in ourselves to pay the cost of our sin, and turn to Jesus who paid it for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This makes Christianity unique amongst all the world\u2019s religions. Every\nreligion besides Christianity is based upon a moral scale system; if your good\ndeeds outweigh your bad deeds then God will accept you, give you a blessed and\nhappy life, and take you to heaven to be with your friends and family when you\ndie – But if they don\u2019t, well, then He\u2019ll do the other thing. In this sense,\nChristianity is anti-religious since it has abandoned moralism as the basis for\nGod\u2019s acceptance, and so going to church does not make you a Christian. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Christians must do church. Why though? Because the church isn\u2019t the building, it\u2019s the people who are following Jesus. The building is just the place the church meets, and there is nothing sacred or holy about it at all. God doesn\u2019t dwell in the church building, He dwells in the people who make up the church once they\u2019ve accepted Jesus. Because the church is the collection of people following Jesus, not a sacred or holy building, if we say we don\u2019t need church, then we\u2019re saying we don\u2019t need other followers of Jesus to follow Jesus. This is not true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we want to follow Jesus and not something else, then we must put\nourselves under the regular influence of other Jesus followers. Culturally, we\ntend to think that our choices are based upon our reason, and so it is our\nrational choices that determine who we are as a person. So, we think that we can\nsimply decide to follow Jesus without being in community with Jesus\u2019 church.\nHowever, our rational choices are only one part of what makes us who we are as\na person. Our families, friends, and culture influence our identity far more\nthan we care to admit. But they do, drastically. For the most part, we are who\nwe spend time with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus summed up all of God\u2019s rules into two: Love God completely, and love\nyour neighbor as yourself. In the Bible, the church is often called the body of\nChrist, and like human bodies, it is composed of different parts that are meant\nfor a common good. But, when we isolate ourselves, we withhold our unique\nabilities from one another \u2013 not very loving. Consequently, as Christians, choosing\na church is one of the most crucial decisions we will ever make, and so a better\nexpression might be, \u201cChristians need church as cars need oil.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s quite rare that I remember my friend\u2019s Facebook posts beyond the time it takes to read this sentence, but over the years there have been a few posts that have stuck with me. Several years back, one of them was this: \u201cGoing to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in…
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