The Core of Faith II ...

Tuesday, August 2, 2011. What is the core of faith? We have talked about trust yesterday, but also about the many things the bible is talking about. Thinking more about what could be the core, I want to compare and discuss two different viewpoints today.

Is it about an action or a person? …

Jesus is in the center of Christian faith. He is the son of God. He is God himself, being born as a little child 2000 years ago in Bethlehem. Jesus is the key prophet. He is the human who is showing who God is and what God wants. He is the key teacher. He is the master. He is the leader. He is the one who is chosen to be the king. He has died, but has been brought back to life and is the one who has be set above everything.

The whole Christian worldview and Christian life is centered around Jesus. So somehow we could call him the core of faith. And indeed, he is in the core of faith.

But others put his death at the cross into the center of faith. Here, where he dies, we find forgiveness for all our sins. Here, at the cross, mankind is reconciled with God. Here peace is made, at the cross! So this action, these events around the cross, are in the core of faith. “He died for us” is the core of faith.

God's model of life …

Can the core of faith be both the person Jesus and the events around the cross, the cross itself? Is it one or the other?

I think that depending on your personal history, you will probably see either the cross or the person of Jesus as the main attraction points of Christian faith. Both, of course, cannot be separated. Jesus is God's son and messanger, but he was chosen to die at the cross to bring peace for everyone. We cannot separate the mission and the person, both are strongly connected and one without the other would not make any sense!

Jesus is God's model of life. Both his old life, before the resurrection, as well as his new life, after he has been made the first of a new creation, are our model of life. The way he is and the way he acts are given to us to follow him. ... more texts