Why be a Christian? What is the point of becoming a follower of Jesus Christ? These are questions that are of paramount importance for Christians in the west today, a west in which we see a massive decline not only in religion itself but in Christianity.
In the past, the answer to those questions was pretty simple. Most people lived very short lives, and often those lives were hard, often plagued by illness and by the oppression of somebody else. Coupled with that, in the ancient world most people believed in some kind of existence after death, they almost had to because as life was short and often brutal, there had to be something better. Christianity had an answer to those questions about life and death.
‘Is there life after death?’
‘Yes’.
‘How does one make sure that it’s pleasant rather than unpleasant?
The answer Christianity gave was that we could be saved from an unpleasant fate after death by putting our faith in Jesus Christ. I did not personally acquire my faith in this way or for these reasons; Christian was something that was given to me by my parents and indeed many of those around me in the adult world and faith is from God. Only later did I come across a theology, a way of thinking about life, death and God similar to the one I’ve outlined above. I even believed in it for a while, so in answer to the question, “Are you saved? “My response would be ‘yes’, asked ‘why?’, ‘because I have put my faith in Jesus Christ’.
I suppose this approach to faith and religion is what one could call a carrot and stick approach, the carrot is heaven and the stick is hell. The way to get the carrot, is to believe in Jesus. If that sounds like crude caricature of a particular presentation of Christian faith, I can only witness to my own experience, I can remember being presented with exactly that when I was younger, and taking it very seriously, seriously enough to want to make sure my family and friends were also saved. And this did not come from some sect this came from within the Church of England.
However much one might reject that theology, Christianity is very definitely about salvation. The question “am I saved?” is still a question that the Christian asks. But if not from hellfire, then saved from what? When we think of about salvation or redemption it might be useful to think about God leading the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.
Modernity is a form of salvation, a freedom from those who would dictate the lives of others, whether in the religious or secular realm.
‘Modern people increasingly demand autonomy, the power of legislation for oneself. They are no longer satisfied with lives that are almost wholly determined by external limitations, powers and authorities’. This is the promised land of modernity, it is the freedom of people ‘to live their own lives, thinking for themselves, freely expressing themselves and choosing their own destiny’.[i]
Moreover in the west lives are generally much longer than they ever were, and healthcare that is free at the point of need has meant a freedom from the illnesses that commonly afflicted people in the past. If in general we suffer at all, it is because we have indulged in too much of the good things that are now available. We have not eradicated suffering in the west, people still die before their time, but their rarity has perhaps led us to take a good life for granted. So after a long and healthy life perhaps oblivion is not such a cause of anxiety as it once as was, after all, one hardly is likely to experience that oblivion since if that is our fate there will no mind to experience it.
So is that job done for religion in general and Christianity in particular? The first thing to say is as already noted, whilst a lot of the above is the case, it is not universally the case even in the west, and it is certainly not the case elsewhere in the world. I would also argue that although we have great freedom, it is not a redeemed freedom. The libertarian freedom of the west is almost always about the freedom of individual.
In the first book of the Bible we read the story of how Cain murdered his brother Abel. God of course knows what has happened and we read the following exchange between God and Cain.
“Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”[ii]
The answer to the question “Am I my brother’s keeper?” is an emphatic ‘Yes’. And it still is. A redeemed freedom has limits, self imposed limits maybe, but limits nonetheless, and yet for some in the world not even the sky is the limit. St Paul wrote about us being ‘slaves to sin’[iii]. If the word ‘sin’ is an unhelpful word in the present day, perhaps we can talk about being freed from slavery to self.
Whatever happens in the hereafter, and we have no way of knowing, redemption is for the here and now. If Jesus frees us from anything, he frees us from a slavery to self. That freedom from the slavery of self frees us to be servants of love, and compassion and justice/righteousness.
“The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves”.[iv]
This is the radical Gospel freedom of the one who chooses to love and serve.
“Lord, you are the light of the minds who know you, the life of those who love you, and the strength of those who serve you. Help us to know you that we may truly love you, so to love you that we may fully serve
You, whose service is perfect freedom. Through Christ our Lord. Amen”[v].
[i] Taking leave of God –Don Cupitt
[ii] Genesis 4:9
[iii] Romans 6
[iv] Luke 22:25-27
[v] St Augustine
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