CA312

Christian Evidences LESSON 03 of 12

The Nature of Biblical Christianity, Part 2

Victor M. Matthews, STD

Former Professor of Systematic
Theology Grand Rapids
Theological Seminary

This is lecture 3 of the course entitled Christian Evidences. We are

talking in this section of the course about the nature of biblical
Christianity. In lecture 2 we were reminded that Christianity is
or revolves around a person—the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. We
considered the biblical and the doctrinal evidence for that great
biblical theme. Today, I want to talk to you about the truthfulness
of Christianity as to its essence and nature, and my second main
point is that Christianity comes to us as final authority.

The Foundations of Christianity

When we ask about a definition of Christianity, it’s evident when

we open the Scripture that we see that Christianity revolves
around the person of Jesus Christ, the revelation of God. But when
we ask what that means to us, what does Christianity mean, what
is the application of this great theme of the Scripture, then it’s
apparent that Christianity comes to us as final authority. From the
Word of God in 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul gives what may
be called one of the early summary statements of the gospel or
Christianity. In 1 Corinthians 15:1, he states, “Moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel,” so now here we have a definition,
a declaration as to the content of the gospel or Christianity. He
says, “I declare unto you the gospel,” and then in verses 3–4, “I
delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he
was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the
scriptures.”

From passages like this one and many, many others in the Word
of God, we recognize that the authority within Christianity is
found first of all in the person of Jesus Christ and then in His
work and then in His Word. Wherever we turn in the Bible, we
are confronted by a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. We’re also
confronted by His historical work. He has entered into our space
and time. He has revealed Himself to us. He has worked for us
in history as our representative. And then, third, we always are

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Lesson 03 of 12 The Nature of Biblical Christianity, Part 2

confronted with the authority, not only of His person, not only
of His work, but also with the authority of His Word. Christianity,
therefore, is final authority, and the authority now is rooted and
grounded in these three great foundation stones within the Word
of God—the foundation stones of the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the work that He has performed for us in history, and in
His own inspired Word.

It’s important to recognize that these three foundation stones

structure and determine the content of Christianity. Christianity
has not been given to us as a lump of clay so that we can mold it
into any form that we desire. No, Christianity has been given to
us already completely structured, something like tents or steel.
Christianity has been given to us already structured, and we may
not take Christianity and then remake it into something that
would be more suitable to our desire or to our practice.

When I say that Christianity comes to us as final authority, I’m

basing this upon the great truths of the Word of God that God has
revealed Himself to us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and
what He has said to us in Christ through history and what He has
said to us through the Lord Jesus Christ in the inspiration of His
Word, that this stands over against us as our final authority. God
has spoken to us, and we may not live and act and think as though
He has not. He has spoken to us authoritatively. It’s important
to recognize that the three foundation stones of Christianity,
therefore, are not found within ourselves. The foundation of
Christianity is not the church but the One who is the head of
the church. The authority for Christianity is not found in any
manmade group of doctrines or humanitarian propositions but
in the One who is the living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
and what He has done for us in history and what He has said to us
in the Word of God.

To alter the foundation of Christianity, therefore, is to destroy

its very nature. We’re talking in this lecture about the nature of
Christianity. What is it? It is first of all a person. We’ve seen that,
and now we’re talking about the fact the Christianity comes to us
as final authority. The authority’s rooted in the person of Christ
and His historical work and then in His inspired Word, and to
alter this foundation is to destroy, therefore, the very nature of
Christianity itself. We may not deny the deity of the Lord Jesus
Christ and then expect to have genuine Christianity. Nor may we
deny the historical character of the vicarious atonement of the
Lord Jesus Christ and then expect to have genuine Christianity.
Nor may we deny the inspiration and the final authority of the

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Lesson 03 of 12 The Nature of Biblical Christianity, Part 2

Scripture and then expect to have biblical Christianity.

When we alter the foundation of Christianity, this within the

history of Christian thought is what is called theological liberalism
or modernism, and the church in every age, the genuine church
of God, has had to fight against that tendency. It seems that in
every age, and this has been particularly true of the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries, in every age there are people who
carefully attempt to alter the foundation of Christianity, to deny,
for example, the deity of Christ and to deny the character of his
vicarious atonement and to deny the inspiration and the final
authority of the Word of God. When we do this, we destroy biblical
Christianity.

The Authority of Christianity

One important question for the Christian is whether or not he

has accepted the authority of Christianity. The evidence of such
an acceptance would be seen in his personal involvement with
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and with His work and with
His Word. And when we raise a question as to what this means
in practice or how can we test as to whether we have genuinely
accepted the authority of Christianity, then, as we look into the
Scripture, the answer comes back to us: that we can test ourselves
by asking concerning our personal involvement with the Lord
Jesus Christ and then our personal involvement with His work
and then our personal involvement with His Word. If I have as a
Christian accepted Christianity as my final authority, the evidence
of that is that there is in my life a personal involvement with the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Personal Involvement with the Person of Jesus Christ

What does it mean to be personally involved with Him? First of

all, it would mean that in my personal spiritual life there would
be the characteristic of fellowship with God. In 1 Corinthians 1:9
we are reminded that God has called us unto the fellowship of His
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ—fellowship. This is where prayer and
the reading of the Word of God and walking in the Spirit enter
into our life. If we have accepted into our lives the final authority
of Christianity, we are a genuine biblical Christian. Then we will
be characterized in our personal life of fellowship with God, living
in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Lesson 03 of 12 The Nature of Biblical Christianity, Part 2

Secondarily concerning our personal involvement with the Lord

Jesus Christ would be what could well be called our church life, and
that is worshiping with God’s people, worshiping with those who
believe what we believe about the Lord Jesus and His work and His
Word, worshiping with those who have the same doctrinal, biblical
commitment as we. You remember the statement in John 20:28 of
Thomas to the resurrected Lord, when he knelt in His presence
and said, “My LORD and my God.” This statement of Thomas is
and should be the characteristic of every biblical Christian, that
we not only in our personal life know how to fellowship with the
Lord Jesus Christ, but also within our church life to worship Him
and to be united with people of like precious faith to worship the
Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what personal involvement means.

And in what may be called our work life is the expression of our
faith to others. We have read within the Word of God in 1 Peter
3:15 that we are exhorted to be “ready to give an answer to every
man that asketh you a reason of hope that is in you.” This is what
it means to be a witness. In Acts 1:8 the Lord Jesus Christ said,
“Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy [Spirit] is come upon
you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me.” If we have accepted
the authority of Christianity in our lives, it will mean personal
involvement with the Lord Jesus Christ, not only fellowshipping
with Him in our personal life, not only worshiping Him with
people in the church who are alike in precious faith, but also living
a life so that we are a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only
a witness by who we are and how we live—how important that is,
that’s the foundation of it all—but also being able to witness with
word of mouth to be able to explain our faith or, as I quoted in 1
Peter 3:15, to give an apologia, to give a reason for our faith.

So, how can I test now as to whether I have accepted biblical

Christianity as final authority in my life? The answer from the
Scripture comes back, I can test it because all of those who do find
themselves in personal involvement with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Personal Involvement with the Work of Jesus Christ

The second aspect of the test is that there would be personal

involvement with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The second
great foundation stone of biblical Christianity is the vicarious
atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ—His work. That’s why Paul
in 1 Corinthians 15 stated about the gospel, “I delivered unto you
first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins . . . And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third
day”

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Lesson 03 of 12 The Nature of Biblical Christianity, Part 2

[v. 1]. This great work of the Lord Jesus Christ, His vicarious works,
structures genuine Christianity. The authority for Christianity is
found not only in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of
God but also in the work that He has performed for us.

When we think of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ we think

primarily of the crucifixion, the resurrection, the ascension, and
then sending the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. This is the
vicarious atonement. This is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What does it mean to be personally involved with this work?
It means to have in our lives not only the salvation benefits of
what Christ has obtained for us in His great work but also the
sanctification benefits. We realize that in His crucifixion He not
only made a provision for the cleansing from the guilt of our sin,
but also He’s made a provision that we might be cleansed from its
power. He has made a provision, then, not only for salvation, for
forgiveness, for example, but also He’s made a provision for my
daily life or what the Bible would call sanctification. And because
of that, the great commandment of the Scripture comes to me
in Ephesians 4:22, where I am commanded to “put off . . . the old
man.” That term “old man” refers to the old, fallen nature that I
possess. Because of the work, the authoritative work of the Lord
Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, I have been commanded to put off
the old man.

If I have accepted into my life genuine Christianity in the person

of the Lord Jesus Christ as my final authority, if I have that final
authority being lived out in my life in some measure, I ought to
see the cleansing work of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. I ought
to know and must know in some way, some small way at least, the
putting off of the old man.

The second great work of the Lord Jesus Christ is His resurrection.
In the resurrection our Savior not only made a provision
concerning our salvation, and that is, of course, for the new birth,
but also He’s made a provision for our sanctification, and in our
sanctification He has provided a divine enablement to live above
sin. Because of that Paul says in Ephesians 4:24, “Put on the new
man.” Concerning the crucifixion, we are to put off the old, but
because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, He has
provided an enablement for me so that I might live above sin.
That’s why Paul says in Ephesians 4:24, “Put on the new man.”
And the new man, of course, is that provision in the atonement
through the new birth brought into my life by the Holy Spirit so I
might have daily ability to live not with fear in my life. No, that’s
about the old man. But courage stems from the new man. Not

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Lesson 03 of 12 The Nature of Biblical Christianity, Part 2

with all types of lust and desires in my life—that would be out of

the will of God. That’s about the old man. I need to put off the old
man and be cleansed from that, and He’s made a provision that
I might live in purity, might live in such a way that I honor Him.
Instead of having pride in my life, I can put off the old man and
be free from pride because of the work of the crucifixion and the
cleansing that can come into my life. Through the resurrection
and the enablement provided in the new man, I can have humility
of life. So the apostle Paul reminds us, then, to put on the new
man. This is what it means to be involved in the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ.

But His work is not only in the crucifixion and the resurrection;
it’s also in His ascension. The Lord Jesus Christ ascended and was
seated at the right hand of God, and in His ascension He has made
a provision for us not only concerning our salvation, which is the
provision of legal deliverance from Satan, the enemy of our soul,
and the priesthood work of the Lord Jesus Christ, but He’s also
made a provision so that there can be practical deliverance in the
life of the Christian—practical deliverance from Satan. Because
of that, because of the great work of the ascension, the apostle
Paul in Ephesians 4:27 states, “Neither give place [ground] to the
devil.” Oh, how important that is. How important it is for us as
believers to realize that we have an enemy, and it’s important to
recognize that Christ has made a provision for us so that we can
be free, not only legally in our salvation from the enemy of our
soul. But we can be delivered day by day, and because of this we
are told to not to give a place to the devil but to resist him, as
Peter states in 1 Peter 5. So, there is deliverance in the ascension.

The fourth great work of the Lord Jesus Christ was sending the
Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Because the Holy Spirit has
come, there is the new birth; that’s concerning the provision of
salvation. But in sanctification, there is, through the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ in sending the Holy Spirit, the provision of a
daily anointing. Because of this the apostle Paul commands us in
Ephesians 5:18 to be “filled with the Spirit.” There is this grand
anointing. The Holy Spirit indwells the believer. He has quickened
us. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. He has been sent to lead
us into all truth. He has been sent particularly to glorify the Lord
Jesus Christ. And how does He glorify the Lord Jesus? By enabling
us to live a life that glorifies Him, by enabling us to be the right
kind of a witness for Him day by day. Because of the great deed of
God in Pentecost, because of the provision the Lord Jesus Christ
has provided in the Holy Spirit, the provision of an anointing,
Paul commands us in Ephesians 5:18 to “be filled with the Spirit.”

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Lesson 03 of 12 The Nature of Biblical Christianity, Part 2

How do I know that I have accepted biblical Christianity into my

life as my final authority? It’s important that I understand that.
What we have seen here is that it would mean not only personal
involvement with the Lord Jesus Christ in fellowship, worship,
and witness, but also personal involvement with the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ, having the cleansing of the old nature
through His cross, the enablement of the new nature through His
resurrection, the practical deliverance day by day from satanic
activity in my life through His ascension, and the anointing of
the blessed Holy Spirit in my life through the provision of Jesus
Christ in Pentecost. This is what I mean by personal involvement
with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The believer may not live as though Christ did not die, as though
He did not come forth from the grave, as though He did not
ascend, and as though He did not send the Holy Spirit. These are
great facts of history. These are truths, and upon these truths
Christianity is built and founded, and, therefore, there must be
some manifestation of these four great deeds of God in our daily
life. Paul summarizes all of this second point in Ephesians 4:23,
where he states, “be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”

Personal Involvement with the Word of Jesus Christ

The third test to answer the question, How do I know that I have
accepted biblical Christianity into my life as final authority? is
that there must be personal involvement with the Word of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You see, this is the third foundation stone. The
third foundation stone of biblical Christianity is the Word of God,
the inspired and authoritative Word of the Lord Jesus Christ. If
there’s personal involvement in my life with the Word of the Lord
Jesus, the Scripture, then first of all I must submit to it as the
Word of God—submit to it. I cannot live my daily life as though
the Scripture is not authoritative, because it is. It’s interesting
that when the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica,
where he had such a great time of ministry, he reminded them of
something that was a great help to him when he was there, and
he states in 1 Thessalonians 2:13, “For this cause also thank we
God without ceasing, because, when ye received the Word of God
which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as
it is in truth, the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in
you that believe.” What a great thing it was for the apostle Paul
when he was there to realize that when he preached the Word of
God, the people did not accept it as his word but as the very Word
of God itself.

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Lesson 03 of 12 The Nature of Biblical Christianity, Part 2

This is what I mean when I have stated that we are to submit to

it as the Word of God. We cannot pick and choose and believe
anything we want to about the Bible. The Bible is the Word of God.
It comes to us as final authority. If I have accepted the authority
of biblical Christianity, it means that I accept the authority, the
final authority not only of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ as
the Son of God, not only the authority of the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ in history, but also that the Word of God comes to me
as final authority; therefore, I must submit to it as the Word of
God, as the people did at Thessalonica.

The second thing I must do with the Word of God is to seek it, to
desire it, as Peter says in 1 Peter 2:2, where he makes a statement:
“As newborn babes, desire [seek] the . . . Word.” How important
it is that we study, that we learn, that we memorize the Word of
God. There has been nothing in all of my life that has been more
helpful than the habit that was founded many, many years ago in
my life of getting up in the morning, cleaning up, having a bite
of breakfast, and then going to my study and closing the door
and reading the Word of God to fellowship with the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ and to seek an understanding of God through
an understanding of His Word. Nothing has been more helpful in
my daily life that that. Nothing has brought more transformation,
more certainty, more assurance than the seeking of the living
Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, through His written Word. If I’m a
biblical Christian, and if I have accepted the authority of genuine
Christianity into my life, then how will that be manifested in my
life? Surely one of the ways is by submitting to the Word of God
and seeking it day by day.

The third thing I must do to be personally involved with the Word

of the Lord Jesus Christ is to mix it with faith. One of those great
passages in the book of Hebrews that we often overlook is found
in chapter 4. In Hebrews 4, the writer states, “Let us therefore
fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of
you which seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel
preached: as well as unto them” [vv. 1–2]. If the word them refers
to what the writer was talking about in Hebrews 3, that is, the
people who came up from the land of Egypt and who were not
able to enter into the land of Canaan because of unbelief, he said
the gospel preached did not profit them. The reason for it: it was
not mixed with faith in them that heard it.

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Lesson 03 of 12 The Nature of Biblical Christianity, Part 2

This reminds us of our great responsibility. It’s not enough to

submit technically and legally to the authority of the Word. It’s
not enough just to seek the Word of God. We must do more than
that. We must mix the Word of God with faith; that is, we must
make decisions based upon the Word of God, because that’s what
faith is. Faith is a decision to take the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ
and to put it into practice. To mix it with faith. To take the Word
of God and by faith to claim the promise to tremble before the
commandments, and then to take God’s Word and put it right into
practice, to mix it with faith. This is what it means to be involved
with the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Fourth, we’re commanded in the Scripture to obey the Word of the

Lord Jesus Christ—to obey it. It’s interesting that in 1 John 5:3 it
states, “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments:
and his commandments are not grievous.” What does it mean
to be involved with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ? To have
cleansing, enablement, deliverance, and anointing in our lives.
What does it mean to be involved with the Word of the Lord Jesus?
Not only to submit to it and to seek it and to mix it with faith, but
also to obey the Lord Jesus Christ through His Word—to obey the
commandments, to claim the promise, to rest back upon the Word
of God as the explanation of our life.

And then the fifth thought about involvement with the Word of
the Lord Jesus Christ is to recognize that the written Word is the
expression of the living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. So many times
when we come to the Scripture, we have a tendency to distinguish
between the living and the written Word. My Christian friends,
we may not do that. The Word of God is spoken to us by the living
Word, and my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is bounded
by my relationship to the living Word and to the written Word of
God.

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Lesson 03 of 12 The Nature of Biblical Christianity, Part 2

So, when we ask the question, What is biblical Christianity?

biblical Christianity is or revolves around the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and secondarily, biblical Christianity comes to us
as final authority. This authority is not rooted and grounded in
the church but in the One who is the head of the church. It’s not
rooted and grounded in the religious aspirations of man, but
it’s rooted and grounded in the vicarious work of the Lord Jesus
Christ in history and in the inspired, authoritative Word of God.
So, when we talk about biblical Christianity, we’re talking about
a final authority that has to do with the person of Jesus Christ as
God’s Son, the work of Christ in history, and the inspired Word of
God.

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