Why I'm Still a Christian

TL;DR — the resurrection.

On Saturday night, my husband is loading dishes into the dishwasher and I walk into the kitchen to grab something to prep our kids’ Easter baskets.

“Hey, just FYI,” I say to him, “when I talk to the kids about our faith and remind them that we’re Christians, I tell them that means that we believe in the resurrection of Jesus. There’s a lot of other stuff that’s really important that I want them to know and be able to talk about, but that’s the big deal.”

This is how many of our conversations about faith formation in our family are. In the midst of the everyday as we’re paying attention to the story of Christ around us.

Photo by Tucker Good on Unsplash

There are many things in this faith of mine that push me into questions, doubts and anger. Questions, doubts and anger that have led me down the paths traveled by those have deconstructed and those who have deconverted.

Just to name three. I find suffering of this world overwhelming and paralyzing. I find the Bible equally bewildering and beautiful, life-giving and also uncomfortble. I am troubled by much of what I see in U.S. Christianity and its seeming preoccupation with affluence, comfort and power.¹

But at the end of the day, the thing that tethers me to my faith is not a tidy apologetic about suffering (I’m really tired of those), a fundamentalist view of the Bible, or a church that mirrors what I find commanded in Scripture.

What tethers me to my faith is my belief in resurrected and ascended Jesus.

Samuel D. James writes in his Substack post, “We All Have To Answer For The Resurrection.”

[I see this question asked in Sunday School]: “If you were convinced tomorrow, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Jesus had never come back from the dead, would you still be a Christian?” I am always bothered by how many people I’ve seen answer “yes” to that question.

I certainly would not. If I were really convinced in my soul that Christianity’s main claim was wrong, then to continue in Christian community, committed to its teachings and principles, would be to waste my life.

This year at our church’s women’s Bible study, we studied Acts. And again and again, I was struck by the fact that the reason the apostles and early church suffered and were persecuted was because of their testimony of Jesus’ resurrection.

“We are witnesses to these things,” Peter with the other apostles declares in Acts 5, as they stand trial before the Jewish religious leaders, after their arrest and before their beating. The things they witnessed? The death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, who has the power to forgive sins.

Don’t misunderstand me. The implications of the resurrected Jesus ripple into every area of life. There are the obvious things like how I view death and what I believe about God and life’s purpose. There are the awkward things like how I vote and spend my money, my views on sex, and where my husband and I are choosing to live and raise our family. To riff slightly on Abraham Kuyper, there’s not one square inch of creation where the Lord of all—the risen Jesus—does not cry “Mine!”

But the implications of Jesus’ resurrection are not the foundation of my faith. The Resurrected Jesus who looks at this world and calls it his… He is the foundation, the cornerstone, the Alpha and Omega.

This Easter Monday, I join with the Apostle Paul in saying:

“If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.”

This Easter Monday, I proclaim as the church has through the ages:

Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia.

---

For you… For almost every Easter of our married life, Mike and I have spent Holy Week worshiping at our church in Cincinnati. Fruit of that commitment (and thanks to the leadership of our church musician) is that I have a set of songs that are deeply entwined with Eastertide and are a touchstone for this time of the year. I compiled my favorites from church (and a few personal favorites) into this playlist a few years ago. I’m listening to it today and invite you to join if you need some music for your day.

1. Important note… for as much as I am discouraged by U.S. Christianity at times, I’m equally encouraged by the global church, particularly in the global south.