Curious Christian

This morning I was reading the Acts of the Apostles, reflecting on what it had to say about the good news and the practice of evangelism.

In the course of the book, the author recalls, “Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.”

Think about that. Stripped to its simplest form, the good news is nothing more and nothing less than the announcement that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is the Messiah. Whenever we call Jesus “Christ”, whenever we call Jesus “Lord”, we’re evangelising.

This brings into very sharp focus the anti-Christian nature of any attempt to drive a wedge between Jesus and Christ. Whenever a distinction is drawn between the “Jesus of history” and the “Christ of faith” by secular historians, or between “Jesus of Nazareth” and the “Cosmic Christ” by Hindu gurus, therein lies another gospel, a counter Christian gospel.

Too often it is assumed this is too obvious. I wonder how that would affect our practice if most Christians were more deeply conscious of how less than obvious it is for many.