What’s Christianity all about?

David Hasselhoff is concerned that his role in European history is being overlooked. In an interview with journalists ‘the Hoff’ claimed that he helped to bring down the Berlin wall and unite Europe by singing his song ‘Look for freedom’ on the night that the wall was demolished. He said that he found it “a bit sad that there’s no photo of him hanging on the walls of the Berlin Museum”!

Well it seems that David Hasselhoff has a pretty over-inflated opinion of himself. But if ever there was someone that made big claims about himself it was Jesus of Nazareth. A few years ago an artist Mark Wallinger made a life size sculpture of Jesus in Trafalgar square. The surrounding statues dwarfed it and a lot of people seized on the imagery saying that really it signified how little importance Jesus has in today’s world.

However, the historian H G Wells wrote ‘I am an historian, I am not a believer, but this penniless preacher from Galilee is irresistibly the centre of history… I’m far within the mark when I say that all the armies that have ever marched, and all the navies that ever sailed, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon the earth as has that one solitary life”.

Jesus said “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). It’s an enormous claim that the only route of access to God is in a relationship with Jesus Christ. He is saying that there is no other way to God the Father both now and in the life that is after death.

In Sport we’re used to big claims. Chris Eubank once said, “If you look up legend in a dictionary then you’ll find a picture of me!” (His first mistake might have been using a dictionary with pictures in it). But the question we’re bound to ask, is can he back it up?

Jesus Christ didn’t just make big claims but he lived a life that fully endorsed those claims. It was a life of astonishing goodness and love; teaching ‘love your enemies’ and then praying ‘Father forgive them’ as he died on the cross. It was a life displaying the power of the creator over the world: calming a storm, healing diseases with just a word, and even raising the dead. Ultimately it was a life that showed he really is the only way to God the Father, by dying on the cross to take the punishment that separates us from God, and coming back to new life three days later.

Now that’s backing up a claim.

If you want to find out more about Jesus Christ, look into it for yourself by reading through John’s gospel or contact us at Corinthians RFC or Christians in Sport, and someone will get in touch.