ivp
classics
Basic Christianity
s
John Stott
F o r e wo r d
by
R i c k Wa r r e n
O v e r 2 . 5 M i l l i o n C o p i e s so l d
Basic
Christianity
s
JOHN STOTT
FOREWORD BY RICK WARREN
InterVarsity Press
P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426
World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com
E-mail: email@ivpress.com
lnter-Varsity Press, London
First Edition, March 1958
Second Edition, May 1971
Retypeset and Americanized with a new foreword 2006 by Inter-Varsity Press, London
Published in the United States of America by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, with kind
permission of Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission
from Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan.
InterVarsity Press is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA , a
movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools
of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship
of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations
Dept., InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI
53707-7895, or visit the IVCF website at <www.intervarsity.org>.
The Scripture quotations quoted herein are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible,
copyright 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the
Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Design: Cindy Kiple
Images: Abel Leo/iStockphoto
ISBN 978-0-8308-6379-2 (digital)
ISBN 978-0-8308-3403-7 (print)
Contents
7
9
13
27
44
57
77
89
103
123
135
10 Reaching a Decision . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
152
11 Being a Christian. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
164
Foreword
s
Preface
s
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BASIC CHRISTIANITY
wherever he went. And, for another thing, he invariably practiced what he preached.
But was he true?
An appreciable number of people throughout the world are
still brought up in Christian homes in which the truth of Christ
and of Christianity is assumed. But when their critical faculties
develop and they begin to think for themselves, they find it easier to discard the religion of their childhood than make the effort to investigate its credentials.
Very many others do not grow up in a Christian environment. Instead they absorb the teaching of Hinduism, Buddhism
or Islam, or the ethos of secular humanism, communism or existentialism.
Yet both groups, if and when they read about Jesus, find that
he holds for them a fascination they cannot easily escape.
So our starting point is the historical figure of Jesus of Nazareth. He certainly existed. There is no reasonable doubt about
that. His historicity is vouched for by pagan as well as Christian
writers.
He was also very much a human being, whatever else may be
said about him. He was born, he grew, he worked and sweated,
rested and slept, he ate and drank, suffered and died like other
men. He had a real human body and real human emotions.
But can we really believe that he was also in some sense
God? Is not the deity of Jesus a rather picturesque Christian superstition? Is there any evidence for the amazing Christian assertion that the carpenter of Nazareth was the unique Son of God?
This question is fundamental. We cannot dodge it. We must
be honest. If Jesus was not God in human flesh, Christianity is
exploded. We are left with just another religion with some beau-
Preface
11
tiful ideas and noble ethics; its unique distinction has gone.
But there is evidence for the deity of Jesusgood, strong,
historical, cumulative evidence; evidence to which an honest
person can subscribe without committing intellectual suicide.
There are the extravagant claims which Jesus made for himself,
so bold and yet so unassuming. Then there is his incomparable
character. His strength and gentleness, his uncompromising
righteousness and tender compassion, his care for children and
his love for outcasts, his self-mastery and self-sacrifice have won
the admiration of the world. What is more, his cruel death was
not the end of him. It is claimed that he rose again from death,
and the circumstantial evidence for his resurrection is most
compelling.
Supposing Jesus was the Son of God, is basic Christianity
merely an acceptance of this fact? No. Once persuaded of the
deity of his person, we must examine the nature of his work.
What did he come to do? The biblical answer is, he came into
the world to save sinners. Jesus of Nazareth is the heavensent
Savior we sinners need. We need to be forgiven and restored
to fellowship with the all-holy God, from whom our sins have
separated us. We need to be set free from our selfishness and
given strength to live up to our ideals. We need to learn to love
one another, friend and foe alike. This is the meaning of salvation. This is what Christ came to win for us by his death
and resurrection.
Then is basic Christianity the belief that Jesus is the Son of
God who came to be the Savior of the world? No, it is not even
that. To assent to his divine person, to acknowledge mans need
of salvation, and to believe in Christs saving work are not
enough. Christianity is not just a creed; it involves action. Our
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1
The Right Approach
s
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BASIC CHRISTIANITY
him, while man is still lost in darkness and sunk in sin, takes the
initiative, rises from his throne, lays aside his glory, and stoops
to seek until he finds him.
This sovereign, anticipating activity of God is seen in many
ways. He has taken the initiative in creation, bringing the universe and its contents into existence: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. He has taken the initiative in
revelation, making known to mankind both his nature and his
will: In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers
by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a
Son. He has taken the initiative in salvation, coming in Jesus
Christ to set men and women free from their sins: God . . . has
visited and redeemed his people.1
God has created. God has spoken. God has acted. These
statements of Gods initiative in three different spheres form a
summary of the religion of the Bible. It is with the second and
third that we shall be concerned in this book, because basic
Christianity by definition begins with the historical figure of
Jesus Christ. If God has spoken, his last and greatest word to the
world is Jesus Christ. If God has acted, his noblest act is the redemption of the world through Jesus Christ.
God has spoken and acted in Jesus Christ. He has said
something. He has done something. This means that Christianity is not just pious talk. It is neither a collection of religious
ideas nor a catalog of rules. It is a gospel (i.e., good news)
in Pauls words the gospel of God . . . concerning his Son . . .
Jesus Christ our Lord.2 It is not primarily an invitation to man
1
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BASIC CHRISTIANITY
epistle with the claim, That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon and touched with our hands . . . we proclaim also to you.
GOD HAS ACTED
The Christian good news is not confined to a declaration that
God has spoken. It also affirms that God has acted.
God has taken the initiative in both these ways because of the
character of mans need. For we are not only ignorant; we are
sinful. It is not sufficient therefore that God should have revealed himself to us to dispel our ignorance. He must also take
action to save us from our sins. He began in Old Testament days.
He called Abraham from Ur, making of him and his descendants
a nation, delivering them from slavery in Egypt, entering into a
covenant with them at Mount Sinai, leading them across the
desert into the Promised Land, guiding and teaching them as his
special people.
But all this was a preparation for his greater deed of redemption in Christ. Men needed to be delivered, not from slavery in
Egypt or from exile in Babylon, but from the exile and the slavery of sin. It was for this principally that Jesus Christ came. He
came as a Savior.
You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people
from their sins.
The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.
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He was like the shepherd who missed the only sheep which
was lost from the flock and went out to search until he found it.5
Christianity is a religion of salvation, and there is nothing
in the non-Christian religions to compare with this message of
a God who loved, and came after, and died for, a world of lost
sinners.
MANS RESPONSE
God has spoken. God has acted. The record and interpretation of these divine words and deeds is to be found in the Bible.
And there for many people they remain. As far as they are concerned, what God has said and done belongs to past history; it
has not yet come out of history into experience, out of the Bible
into life. God has spoken; but have we listened to his word? God
has acted; but have we benefited from what he has done?
What we must do will be explained in the rest of this book. At
this stage it is necessary to make only one point: we must seek.
God has sought us. He is still seeking us. We must seek him. Indeed, Gods chief quarrel with man is that he does not seek.
The Lord looks down from heaven
upon the children of men,
to see if there are any that act wisely,
that seek after God.
They have all gone astray, they are all alike corrupt;
there is none that does good,
no, not one.6
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Hebrews 11:6.
21
Jeremiah 29:13.
P. Carnegie Simpson, The Fact of Christ, 1930; James Clarke edition, 1952,
pp. 23, 24.
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