What is Christianity and what do Christians believe?

Christianity is not a set of abstractions — a number of dogmas — a system of doctrines. It is preeminently a religion of living facts, of divine realities — a religion which finds its centre in a divine Person, the Man Christ Jesus. He is the foundation of all Christian doctrine. From His divine and glorious Person all truth radiates. He is the living fountain from which all the streams issue forth in fullness, power and blessing.

How great the difference between submitting ourselves to a complex of rules, and casting ourselves upon a beating heart; between accepting a system, and cleaving to a person! Our blessedness (and let us not miss it) is this — that our treasures are treasured in a Person, Who is not, for one generation, a present Teacher and a living Lord, and then for all succeeding generations a past and a dead One, but Who is present and living for all.

To be a true Christian it is a vital necessity that you should believe that Jesus is God, that as man He wrought atonement on the cross, that God has proved His satisfaction in that work by raising Him from the dead, and that the Scriptures are the Word of God. Further, you must put your personal faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour. Only thus can you be a Christian.

Certain truths are at the foundation of Christianity itself as a whole… Thus, for instance, we find at the very root of Christianity the existence of one God, the Trinity, the divinity of Jesus, His humanity, and such like doctrines. Just as the existence of one God was the fundamental truth of Judaism, and the truth does not alter, so likewise the revelation of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and, in connection with that, the revelation of the Person of Jesus, distinguish Christianity essentially.

What is Christianity? It is the result of the activity of God's love in a world of sinners, towards those who are hopelessly lost and ruined in themselves… when Christ came, the Messiah of the Jews, and a light to lighten the Gentiles, Jews and Gentiles conspired to put Him to death… This being the world's condition, condemned, under judgment, for rejecting and crucifying the Son of God, why was not judgment executed at once? Ah! there were depths of compassion and grace which God had in store.

Christianity is founded on Christ dead, risen, and glorified by God's will, as it sheds on the believer the light of heavenly grace and glory in Christ, and puts the soul into living relationship with God the Father on the ground of redemption, according to the efficacy of Christ's blood which shall remain for ever.

Christianity does not consist in the reception of a certain creed or peculiar truths. It is a life imparted, everlasting in its duration, active in its character, divine in its origin, having for its aim the glory of God and the welfare of immortal souls.

Christianity is a throbbing, living, vital thing. It is characterized by power, joy, blessing, and knowledge that moves the soul and mightily affects those who possess it. It is no dry system of theology to know that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is our God and Father; and that His own joy He imparts to us, His peace He leaves with us, and His glory He has given us.

Awakened to my awful condition, do I cry out like one of old, "What must I do to be saved?" The answer is beautifully simple: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31). When am I saved? The moment I believe on the Lord Jesus. It is a very wonderful thing that such a simple word as "Believe" at the beginning of the text should be followed by such a wonderful word as "Saved" at the end of it, but we can understand it when the name of "The Lord Jesus Christ" lies midway between the two words.