Core Christianity

  1. Embracing the truth of who Jesus is. The thief recognised Jesus's utter purity and his status as God's appointed King of Heaven who death would not hold.

  2. Love for Jesus and trust in his kindness and goodness. The thief showed his love forJesus when he defended him to the other thief, and he showed his trust when he made the humble request "Remember me when you come into your Kingdom."

  3. Acknowledgement of his own sinfulness and unworthiness. The thief admitted that he himself had done wrong things and deserved nothing more than punishment and death.

  4. A willingness to serve Jesus. The thief spoke out to defend Jesus against the mockery of the other thief. This service carried a risk of nastiness being redirected towards him, but he did it anyway.

  5. Openess to the Holy Spirit. The thief on the cross would most likely not have been able to explain how he was able to see and understand the truth about Jesus and about himself, but we know that it is the Holy Spirit who reveals these things to us, leading us into truth.

grayscale photo of cross under cloudy sky
grayscale photo of cross under cloudy sky

Today, as back then, these elements remain the core and the starting point of Christian faith. Baptism, knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, re-enacting of the Last Supper in memory of Jesus, engaging in fellowship with other believers, listening to the teaching of Christian leaders, giving time and money to Christian work, singing songs of worship - all these things are important too, but the core of our faith is a simple relationship with Jesus, the Son of God, the King of heaven, and our Saviour, who alone can bring us to God's perfect kingdom when our life here is over.

These core truths are what we aim to focus on at Seeds for Jesus. Different denominations have different ideas about the other elements, but all of them agree on the core basics which Jesus himself considered adequate for salvation.

To understand the absoute essentials of the Christian faith, we can look at the interaction between Jesus and the 'good' thief who hung on the cross beside him, found in Luke 23: 39-43. Jesus specifically promised salvation to this man: "This day you wlll be with me in paradise." Clearly the thief had everything needed for salvation. So what are those things?