From Death To Life OR From Life To Death. Christianity teaches that we are dead in our trespasses and sin but made alive through the grace of Jesus Christ. From a biblical perspective, other world religions and non-Christian belief systems are taking people in the wrong direction…toward eternal death. Life without Christ does not offer the hope of everlasting life, but rather, eternal judgment and death.
Some like to argue that all world religions are the same. This is not true. In His book, Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message, Ravi Zacharias states: “Anyone who claims that all religions are the same betrays not only an ignorance of all religions but also a caricatured view of even the best known ones. Every religion at its core is exclusive.”
When comparing biblical Christianity to other religions, it is important to know the non-negotiables of Biblical Christianity. Paul communicates 5 Core Christian Truths in Ephesians 2:1-10.
- 1-3: We are all spiritually dead in our transgressions and sins. (All who are outside of Christ.)
2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
- 4-5: We are made spiritually alive through the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
- 6-7: We are saved by GRACE—God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.
6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
- 8-9. We are not saved by works. (It is “by grace through faith and not by works.”)
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
- 10. We are not saved by good works…but to do good works.
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Martin Luther said, “It is faith alone that saves, but the faith that saves is never alone.”)
Be sure you know what you believe, and why you believe it.