:: in.a.mirror.dimly :: A theology and culture blog with the Bible in one tab and a news feed in the other.

Would you believe me if I told you Christianity aims to make God as easy to access as possible?

I have been thinking about this a lot lately, and I believe Christianity works out to be something like this. Christianity makes it incredibly easy to come to God, but once you’ve come to God, you have a lot of hard work to do. Grace is available in abundance, but obedience must follow grace.

I don’t know how exactly to compare Christianity with other religions, but for all the frustration people have with Christians who say their faith is the only way to God, I think this makes a decent case for such a “narrow” view. In other words, God wants to make himself as accessible as possible, so Jesus is sent down to earth. Jesus not only simplifies every command into one: “love,” he also dies and rises from the dead to clear a path to God so that we only need to accept the forgiveness he won by believing it is so. He even leaves the Holy Spirit to help us obey and to guarantee we’ll one day be in heaven.

No pilgrimages necessary.

No special prayers needed.

Meditating is good, but it’s more of a bonus.

Attending religious services will help, but they don’t replace meeting God.

In other words, all of the things we associate with religion are well and good, but Christianity offers a religion where God is reaching out, visiting us, and even dwelling among us. How much easier can God make it? If we start adding other religions to the mix it suddenly becomes more complicated, missing out on the simplicity God has in mind. Believe and love: these two verbs sum up so much of scripture. Why add anything else and muddy the waters?

While we can find many helpful practices along the way to help us believe and love, there is no substitute or mixing of anything else at rock bottom. God has made it simple for us to come and believe, even if we are asked to love one another, even our enemies, not to mention loving God above all else.