Why Am I a Christian and Not Something Else? (Part 1)

I have been a Christian since 1999. There are many questions that I have had to answer to many of my friends and family. Some thought that I had rejected my whole upbringing, culture, and history. Some thought that I wanted to integrate into the Western culture and mind-set. Others thought that I must have been brainwashed, and so I now bear all the ridicule and the shame from my countrymen, relatives, etc.

Why did I become a Christian? Why did I leave my old, rich, and ancient religion of the Persians? Why did I leave Zoroastrianism? Having been brought up in Iran, under the Islamic teaching, why did I not become a Muslim or something else? Why a Christian?!

I shall be writing on this subject in short sections, giving reasons for my faith in Jesus Christ. I hope that it will help others who desire to know more about the essential truths of the Bible and the Good News that God has brought for the human race through Jesus Christ.

These articles might not be in any specific order, so please bear with me.

Death of Christ

One of the major reasons for my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is because of the nature of His death. That is the major difference between Biblical Christianity and all other sects, religions and beliefs.

First of all the death of Christ was Penal in nature.

Penal

“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:” (1 Pet 3:18)

Some say that the sufferings of Christ were only to confirm His teaching, and to set us an example.  They say that He was a good religious teacher, and suffered and died to leave us an example, like Mahatma Gandhi: but if we take that line of thought, then, why did Jesus have to suffer in that way? Why did He have to be tormented and crucified?  Why did God the Father turn His face from His Son Jesus Christ.  Surely that could have been equally achieved by the sufferings of His Apostles and other disciples and followers.

But His sufferings were penal, that means: they were the punishment of sin, and the wrath of God due to sin, was the bitterest ingredient in His sufferings. You see, we had merited the curse and condemnation of the Law of God: and Jesus, to deliver us from that curse, “being made a curse for us.”(Gal. 3:10, 13) He suffered “for sins”, and though His punishment on our behalf was not precisely the same, both in quality or duration (He suffered the eternal wrath of God in those hours of darkness on the Cross, which we would suffer for eternity in Hell!), as ours would have been, yet it was equivalent to it, and it satisfied the justice of an offended God. This is what I mean by Christ’s sufferings, being penal.

Sin is something that we have to be punished for, because God is a holy God.  And in His holiness, He cannot receive us to heaven who have been unholy in this life.  If He did, He would not be a holy God.  He would be like a corrupt judge, who would pardon the guilty and let them go free.

So when I thought of this in my heart, knowing that I am a sinner, I knew that God in His justice had so punish me for my sins against Him.  So I knew that I must suffer for sins – unless someone else had already suffered.  And praise God, Jesus Christ had suffered for sins of those who believe in Him.  Christ’s Death was a Penal death, which makes it unique from all other systems of religion.  It actually saves from the just punishment due to sin.

This is why I believe in Jesus Christ.  None other can lead to heaven.