But above everything else, Christianity is entirely beyond understanding. “What meaneth this?” they asked. Of course they did. If you can understand your religion, that is proof it is not Christianity. If you are in control of your religion, it is not Christianity. If you can take it up in a bag on Sunday morning when you go to church and then put it down again, that is not Christianity. Christianity is a miracle. It is a marvel. It astonishes people.
When Blaise Pascal, the French thinker, had a great experience of God, he said, “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.” Then, negatively, “not the god of the philosophers and seers and thinkers.” That is the contrast. The God of the Bible is the God who reveals Himself in all the glory and wonder of His miraculous, eternal power. Thank God for such a message, such a Gospel. It made the church. This is what she preached, and on the day of Pentecost 3,000 men and women were added to the church.
But finally, because all this is true, Christianity is a message for all people. “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21). You will need to be very clever to understand the modern books about God, but thank God, you do not need to be clever to be a Christian. “The common people heard him gladly,” wrote Mark (12:37). “Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called,” says the apostle Paul (1 Cor. 1:26). Rather, “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty …and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are” (vv. 27-28). There is a hope for all who realize their need and cry out to Him.
Is that your idea of Christianity? Do you know this living God, this true God, this active God, this God who intervenes and comes? Have you ever met Him in any shape or form, as Moses met Him in the burning bush, as Jacob met Him at Peniel, as Elijah met Him on Mount Carmel? Have you ever felt the touch of God upon your soul? Are you aware that you have been dealt with, that God has entered into your life and has done something that you could not do? Do you know that you are what you are by the grace of God? Do you say, “I can’t explain it—all I know is that God has done something to me in Christ”? If you can say that, you are a Christian. But if all you have is what you do and what you think, I am afraid you are not a Christian. God’s coming to you need not be the rushing, mighty wind, but it is always the power of God. It is always the hand of God. It always brings the knowledge that God has had pity upon you and has come down in the person of His Son to enter into your life, to save you and set you free. Oh, that men and women might know the living God and His power unto salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord!
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Authentic Christianity, 31-32
just umm a request: whenever you say that God has done this or that, or you are this or that, the words at times seems familiar and can be traceable in the scriptures. what i mean is, well, you base your content upon the Bible, so can you put where to find these bases, these verses and scriptures beside these umm inferences? you know, like a parantheses”-sed” sentence,a dn found in the parenthesis is 1 Cor *:** or something. thanks :))