What Advantages Has the Christian?

Hey! Welcome to this blog post!

It's exhilarating for me on a personal note to welcome you to this blog site. I will be partnering with my friends - Praise Farayola, Tinuoluwa Agboola and Emmanuel Adekuoroye - to henceforth regularly bring to you edifying writing on a wide range of life issues, here.

This is a Christian blog, so you will find all of us writing from this perspective, good doctrine. Everyone on this team has grace by God's Spirit to share life transforming insights through their writing, so I heartily welcome you to the beginning of a beautiful experience.

Over the next many weeks, I will be making effort to take us through several journeys

in the Bible - to see what really represents the plus / benefit of being called out as Christians in this world, what gain there is in being a believer in the birth, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Nazarene.

Indeed, however we identify as humans, it is pertinent for us to seek to understand what value our identity has or holds, what essence or meaning our lives have - what gain there really is to live, holding on to our beliefs, and thus our values, and pursuing our purposes. Life is only truly worth living when we consistently examine this (Socrates). All persons in the world identify variably. We define ourselves based on many factors, including race, nationality, gender, faith, tribe, political ideologies and so on. All these denotations represent or form what we trust, hope in, value and by extension our purposes (pursuits) while we exist.

The above quotation rings true for whatever a man owns/has; more so, if a person does not definitely know whom they are and what essence their identity is about, living is inevitably compromised. Getting the best out of life, where we cannot but simply hold / have defining identities, thus implies/requires that we learn pertinently what is the essence (all the gains, promises, hopes, cost, sacrifices) of our profession, and pursue profiting thereby.

We should ask ourselves what is the advantage of being who I am, and what is the disadvantage too? If we do, we will prove ourselves wise.

There was a king who ruled the nation of Israel believably in ninth century BCE who was renowned for his wisdom. His name was Solomon. The same king sought to live large and get the best out of life. He had pursued knowledge veraciously, explore living in many different ways and considered different people of different identities to make a conclusion of how best to live.

What is dismaying is that he preached:

Vanity of vanities; all is vanity (Ecclesiastes 1 vs 2)

His chief vexations were that many measured pursuits end in vain and nothing was enduringly satisfying, especially in the face of death. In his experiment, it seemed as though it mattered not whomever one identified as or however one lived. He would ask a couple of thought provoking questions:

In these few days of our empty lifetimes, who can say how one's days can be best spent? Who can know what will prove best for the future after he is gone? For who knows the future? (Ecclesiastes 6 vs 12)

In his arguments, his conclusions were quite measured and they hinged on that true value/purpose should be that which has value for eternity. One can so deduce that he proposed: whatever identity one shall hold/have, thus defining one's values and purposes, in this passing shadow called earth, must consider eternity afore.

It is a wonderful thing to be alive! If a person lives to be very old, let him rejoice in every day of life, but let him also remember that eternity is far longer and that everything down here is futile in comparison (Ecclesiastes 11 vs 7-8)

Read his final conclusion:

Fear God and obey his commandments, for this is the entire duty of man. For God will judge us for everything we do, including every hidden thing, good or bad (Ecclesiastes 13 vs 14)

The Yorubas - a tribe predominantly domicile in Southwestern Nigeria, have a saying when they are faced with situations that make them pensive. They literally say that the matter has farted in their mouths and added seasoning. Having read up to this point,  I imagine, It must feel like that now.

The questions that then bug the mind not trailing at following this writing are:

Who is God?

What are God's commandments?

What should we do to satisfy God?

The God whom Solomon found out and refers to in his writing is the God of his Patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The people who identified with this God would later be called Jews, and they are present to this age. The Jews are a group of people originally from Israel (progenies of the man Jacob, already mentioned), whose traditional religion is Judaism (Not all Jews practice Judaism). Individuals who formally converted to Judaism were considered part of the (spiritual) community. The mark of identifying people in this community was that their men underwent circumcision of their penile foreskins, besides that they practiced other tenets of the Judaic religion. This God had appeared to Abraham promising that he would establish an everlasting covenant between Himself, Abraham and the seed of the man after him, to be a God for them - which really did imply that he would identify them as his chosen ones and rule always favorably for them in His supremacy. It did also imply that he would be the ruler over them as a people and they were to follow his order for their lives from that moment thence. This God that appeared to Abraham is reckoned indeed by this tribe to have been the one who created the entire universe in itself. What a stake in a Covenant then! What a deal for this Patriarch of the Jews! He moreover required singly from the man and his descendants after him that: every male be circumcised, including slaves born within their household and those bought from a foreigner not descended from them; and the person who differed was not to be identified with the people as he had broken the covenant.

As many years passed by, this God would have further dealings with descendants of Abraham through select line of leaders including a certain very revered man called Moses. This Moses would lead the deliverance of Israel from a nation named Egypt which had them captives for a period of about 430 years. We read that God had conditionally mentioned this to Abram before time as part of the process of his progenies emerging to become a sovereign wealthy nation. God would appear to this Moses and specify in further detail how he wanted the Israelites or Jews to live their lives as his chosen people. He spelt these out in what is known to the Jews today, as the Laws. The Jews' recourse remained that this sovereign being remained to them as a God - A fearsome one at that, for he destroyed many other nations in conquests for the Jews and wrought many wonderful things which are written in the history books of the Jews, called the Torah. They became a nation very proud of this heritage - a choice people of an awe-amazing God, whom is believed to be the only true God.

Jews for many generations would jealously guard this identity, they would not mix with other group of people nor encourage inter-marriage with nations or people who didn't identify with their God, even while they dwelt amongst other nations. They considered others as Pagans or gentile. They prided themselves in being circumcised, following the commands of this God and they boasted in the advantages!

In fact, a certain Jew lived in the first century named Saul (He later had his name changed to Paul). He was a very intelligent young man who was most profoundly proud of his heritage as a Jew. He grew up learning both Jewish laws and Greek (a predominant pagan group which the Jews lived amongst during his time) outlook to life. He defended the beliefs of the Jews at all times and even went as far of getting orders to kill members of a unique group of people who had emerged from amongst the Jews at that time, of whom he believed were not holding on to the tenets of Judaism. This new group of people believed all that were written in the books of the Jews and claimed that God had fulfilled a profound promise he made in their holy books by the coming / birth of a man named Jesus. They believed he was the Messiah.

Indeed, the books of the Jews had documented in many interesting details, the coming of a Messiah whom God would use to deliver the people of Israel most definitely from their sins. Sin was a term the God of Abraham used to describe offense against Him and it seemed that the people simply could not help but continue making offense against God, no matter how much he stated to them laws and how he desired them to live their lives. So he purposed, understandably premonitorily that he would have a man born who would live such wonderful sinless life but would yet be killed as a price for the sin of the people. He determined afore that this would be a one time sacrifice, after which anyone who Trusted in the man as God's sent and followed his example as the Way, and believed his teachings as Truth, would have Eternal Life.

What!? That's an entirely new one. Eternal Life?!

Do you remember us talking about an ancient King named Solomon who had concluded that whatever was what living for after all, in this cosmos, have Eternal value? The Jews by reading of their books have also come to this profound position. They were (are) keenly looking for this answer. They believe the answer is in their book and the Messiah holds this promise, but many of them struggled and still do, to accept that Jesus was the promised Christ - Messiah. They refute the claims of believers in Jesus Christ that he resurrected from the dead, some not believing at all in the Resurrection of the dead. It is moreover certainly tenable to argument that their Holy books tell of resurrection from the dead. Anyway, I have showed us two group of people who identify differently here based on their beliefs?

The question that arises is what is the advantage of identifying either way - A Jew or as a Christian, following the tenets of either way?

Saul, whom I have already introduced to you had a miraculous encounter that made him turn to accept Christianity - a belief system he had diligently kicked against. He would later write a letter to Christians in Rome (a mixed group of people which included pagan and Jewish converts) after many years in his new way which reflectively asked this same question.

What advantage has the Jew? What is the value of being circumcised? Much in every way! In the first place, the Jews were entrusted with the very words of God. (Romans 3 vs 1)

I will continue to write from here next time. I leave you to ponder: what really is the advantage of identifying as I am? Has this got any value for eternity?