WHY I AM A CHRISTIAN
I am a Christian not because I was born into a Christian culture, nor because I find comfort in religious tradition, nor because the Christian faith offers me an emotional refuge from the harshness of life. I am a Christian because Jesus Christ has confronted me with Himself—and I have found Him impossible to ignore.
Christianity begins, not with an idea, but with a person. The New Testament does not ask us first to admire a system, but to reckon with a man who lived in history, spoke with unmatched authority, loved with unexampled compassion, and died a death He plainly did not deserve.
Jesus of Nazareth does not fit neatly into the categories we prefer. He will not allow us to regard Him merely as a moral teacher, for His claims are too immense. He spoke of God as His Father in a unique sense; He forgave sins as though they were His to forgive; He accepted worship without hesitation. As He Himself asked, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15).
I am a Christian because the claims of Christ demand a response. Neutrality is not an option. Either He was deluded, deceptive, or He is who He claimed to be—the Son of God, the Savior of the world. The evidence of His life presses us toward the last conclusion.
His teaching possesses a moral beauty and coherence that rings true to the conscience. His character exhibits a purity without pride and a humility without weakness. And His resurrection—attested by eyewitnesses, proclaimed at great personal cost, and never convincingly refuted—stands as God’s vindication of all He said and did (1 Corinthians 15:3–8).
I am a Christian because I take sin seriously. Modern people often minimize sin, redefining it as weakness or excusing it as environment. Yet the Bible insists that sin is rebellion against God—a refusal to live under His loving rule. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
This diagnosis is painfully accurate. I know it not only by observing the world, but by examining my own heart. The moral law I admire is the very law I have broken. The goodness I applaud is the goodness I have failed to live.
But I am also a Christian because I take grace seriously. Christianity does not merely expose the problem; it announces the remedy. At the center of the faith stands the cross—an event of history with eternal significance. There, God acted in love to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). The cross is not an accident of politics nor merely an example of sacrifice; it is the place where justice and mercy meet, where sin is judged and sinners are forgiven.
I am a Christian because the gospel humbles me and lifts me up at the same time. It humbles me by telling me that my sin required nothing less than the death of God’s Son. It lifts me up by telling me that I am loved enough for Him to die in my place.
No other worldview explains the human condition with such realism or offers hope with such costliness. In Christ, forgiveness is not earned; it is received. Salvation is not a reward for the righteous, but a gift for the repentant (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Finally, I am a Christian because Christ is alive and present. Christianity is not merely about what Jesus did long ago, but about what He continues to do now. He calls us to follow Him—not into escapism, but into costly obedience; not away from the world, but into loving service within it. He promises forgiveness for the past, power for the present, and hope for the future. “Because I live, you will live also” (John 14:19).
This, then, is why I am a Christian—not because it is easy, but because it is true; not because it flatters me, but because it saves me; not because it answers every question, but because it answers the deepest one.
Jesus Christ stands at the center of history and at the door of every human heart. To encounter Him is to be summoned to decision. And having considered His claims, His cross, and His call, I can only say that to whom else shall we go? He has the words of eternal life (John 6:68).
BDD
