Hi, my name is Justin Hawks, one of the writers for RUnderground. I graduated from Radford in May with a degree in Secondary Mathematics Education, and continue to be actively involved with Radford's Chi Alpha Campus Ministry. First and foremost, I'm a Christian, and I want everyone to know the joy of knowing Jesus! So every Wednesday I will have a Christian themed article posted here on RUndergound. I do have other interests, particularly movies and video games, so periodically I'll write about other random topics. I had posted three articles when this site first started (a response to Erskine's famous "Life of Proud, Blatant Sin" editorial, an article on the new HD-DVD players, and some random thoughts on TomKat's newborn), so I'm ready to get back in the swing of things! Now, introductions aside...

This article is a challenge to fellow born-again Christians, though non-believers are welcome to observe. Too often, I'm afraid, we don't know why we believe what we believe. We just take our beliefs for granted, and aren't prepared to respond to the "tough" questions put our way (or as 1 Peter 3:15 says, to have a ready defense for the hope that is in us). That's okay for us, because we have God's Spirit of Truth living in us, so we know Jesus and His Word to be true no matter what's thrown at us. For others, it's simple enough to tell them to take that "step of faith" and ask Jesus into their hearts, after which they too will have the Spirit of Truth (the Holy Spirit) living in them. Others, however, need to be more "intellectually" convinced that Jesus and the Bible are true before they take that step of faith, and that's where we as Christians too often fail. In the coming weeks I'll address some of the historical evidences that show, for instance, that Jesus did in fact die on the cross and rise again, that the Bible is historically accurate, inerrant and infallible, among many other things (including a "DaVinci Code" expose around the DVD release). Next week I'll write about the nature of truth in general. As a side note, I don't always have the answers when faced with the tough questions either. So this isn't Justin pretending to be better than you and having all the answers and knowing everything there is to know about Christianity. Rather, this is a journey we're taking together under the guidance of God's Spirit (coincidentally a theme of today's article), so always feel free to ask me anything or challenge me (you can reply to my articles below or e-mail me directly, jhawks@radford.edu).

But for now, I want to pose this scenario to you: A student on campus, unsaved, overheard a discussion you had with another Christian, so he/she approaches you and asks why you think it's wrong to cheat, or lie, or steal, or kill, or lust, or have premarital sex, or whatever the case may be? What do you tell them?

I'd be willing to bet the vast majority of Christians would reply with something to the effect of "because it's in the Ten Commandments" or "because the Bible says so." But guess what? That's not the right answer, nor will it lead an unbeliever to the truth!

Think about what it implies to say that we do things just because the Bible says to. Doesn't it imply that we're just a bunch a rule-followers trying to earn our favor with God? How does that make you any better than, say, a radical Muslim who uses scripture from the Koran to justify the September 11 terrorist attacks? It doesn't, and bottom line, the unbeliever is left with no reason to want to accept Jesus as his/her Lord and Savior. In Christianity we actually have a term for following a bunch of rules to find favor with God, and it's "legalism." Or, put another way, it's religion, and the Christian faith is different from all other faiths in that it's not "religiosity" at all. So again, to say that you believe something just because the Bible says so doesn't exactly point an unbeliever to the truth; contrarily it makes us no better than any other religion.

Here's how to correctly respond when faced with the questions of "Why is lying wrong?" or "Why is cheating wrong?" or any of the aforementioned questions: Because God is just. God is holy. God is truth. It's God's very nature! And through a relationship with Jesus, we attain those characteristics. As Christians we don't lie or cheat or steal b/c the Bible says not to; we do it because through a relationship with Jesus Christ, His Holy Spirit transforms us and changes our hearts not to do those things! God does in fact use the reading of His Word to change our hearts, but it's only through the Holy Spirit's power that this happens (after all the Bible is the inerrant, infallible reflection of God's nature). The only reason we are able to understand or grasp anything in Scripture is because the Holy Spirit guides us and makes us to understand, not because we have the ability ourselves. So in short, we are made Holy in His sight, by God's grace and through faith in Him, not by anything we can do.

Christians must never lose sight of the fact that, despite a popular belief that being a "good enough person" can get you into heaven, just one sin rightfully keeps a person out. So any attempt to live a "good enough" life on your own and "earn" God's favor is futile. Jesus was the only true standard of "good," being that he was infinitely perfect; hence only His awesome sacrifice was sufficient to pay the price for our sins and give us access to the Father. Do you see now how simply saying "because the Bible says so" isn't a sufficient answer to draw people to the truth? We need to point them to the source of the truth instead!

I know this article doesn't quite cover some of the other questions that an unbeliever might also have, such as how we can be certain Jesus died and rose again or that the Bible is reliable or any of the many, many other things a skeptic might ask about. Again, we'll explore some of these in the coming weeks, but in the meantime author and speaker Josh McDowell has numerous resources, including the book New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, that you can check out (which is where I'll be drawing a lot of my info). Until then, be blessed (and feel free to reply or contact me)!

(Photo Credit: Google Images)