Why I am a Christian

The following threefold answer is often given to the question ‘Why are you a Christian?’ ‘You were born in a Christian country; your parents were Christians; and as a child you were regularly taken to church.’ However, although these three characteristics were indeed true of me, I believe there comes a time in any person’s life, whatever their background, when they need to make for themselves an informed decision to be a follower of Jesus Christ. I would therefore add three more factors which are crucial for me and which explain why, since childhood, I have been a Christian throughout my life.

1. The person of Jesus. As an example to follow, he stands head and shoulders above all other well-known world leaders. He displayed unique moral and ethical uprightness in his personal lifestyle. When ordinary people flocked to see and hear him, he displayed unique kindness and lack of prejudice in his dealings with the needy, the under-privileged and the rejected. He displayed unique courage in the way he faced opposition and ultimately when he was tried and died on a Roman cross.

2. The teaching of Jesus. The longest and clearest summary of the teaching of Jesus is found in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-8), which has been accurately described as totally ‘counter-cultural’, that is, whereas society, as a whole, values and promotes wealth, fame and power, Jesus advocates generosity, humility and service. He therefore challenges traditional aspirations with radical alternatives, which, by no means easy to put into practice, provide achievable approaches to life which can rectify the behaviours which have always afflicted and damaged human beings throughout history.

3. The transforming power of Jesus. Conversion does not make a person perfect, but it can and does transform a bad person into a good person. When I was training for the Christian ministry, one of my fellow students was a young man, Vic Jacopson, who had been a burglar but who had been converted while he was in Winchester Prison. Not only was he soundly converted, but his work subsequently as a Baptist minister included significant relief work in Ukraine. Similarly, the politician Jonathan Aitken was also transformed while serving a sentence for perjury in Belmarsh Prison, and became ordained in the Church of England.

These three factors have provided a solid basis for my faith and my work as a minister of the gospel, and I thank God for them and for those Christians who have reminded me of them over the years.

Howard Gordon