The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29

“Do I have to believe in Jesus to be a Christian?” asked a young man whose Russian Jewish background had never exposed him to the Gospel.  Having been raised in a home in the former Soviet Union where God was seldom if ever discussed, he had heard about Jesus but didn’t really know how He would fit into Christianity.  He wanted to know. How would you answer that question?  There are millions of people whose backgrounds are nominally Christian who still don’t understand the relationship between Jesus Christ and Christianity.

“Are you a Christian?” I once asked a man.  He thought for a moment and then replied, “Well, I suppose so since I’m not a Muslim or a Jew.”  For millions of people around the world, the term broadly defines ethnic and, to a degree, religious roots.  We think of countries such as the Philippines in Asia, the United States in the Americas and North Ireland in Europe as “Christian” nations. But painting nations with such a broad, sweeping brush is a generalization which allows a lot of space between the brush marks.

Let’s go back to the question of the young man who wanted to know, “What does Jesus Christ have to do with Christianity?”  Would it be more valid to turn the question around and ask, “What does Christianity have to do with Jesus Christ?”

Do you happen to remember the first use of the term, “Christian” or “Christians?”  In Jesus’ day, those who followed Him were never identified as Christians.  Disciples?  Yes, they would have acknowledged that.  Peter, Andrew, James and John would have been quite proud to be identified as disciples of Jesus.  All great leaders had followers who were known as disciples.  But ethnically, they were Jews and proud of their heritage.

It was about 15 years after the church was established before disciples were called Christians, and when that happened, the term was one of derision and scorn.  Luke tells us about it, saying that when Barnabas found Saul—later known as the Apostle Paul, “he brought him to Antioch. So, for a whole year,” writes Luke, “Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people.”  Then he adds, “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch” (Acts 11:26).

One of the major reasons why the term Christianity should never be used as a term defining a religion is that Christianity really involves a relationship, not simply a lifestyle or a system of beliefs.  The creed of the early church stressed who Jesus was and what He did—not what people must say or believe to belong to a church.

One of the earliest statements of belief held by the infant church was Paul’s brief creed found in his first letter to the Corinthians. He put it like this: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

When the young man asked, “Do I have to believe in Jesus to be a Christian?” and he got the answer, “Yes.  That’s what it is all about.” He responded, “I’m not yet ready,” but he got involved in a Bible study and began to read the New Testament, something he had never done seriously before.

A few weeks later, he was ready, and confessed Jesus Christ as His personal Savior. Today, he not only has joined a church which he attends regularly, but he participates actively in sharing His faith with others.

The acid proof of discipleship, taught Jesus, does not involve your belief system—it involves your relationship with Christ, then with others.

Resource reading: John 15:5-17.