Last weekend I had a conversation with a fellow who is an ex evangelical. After high school he got very involved in the Open Bible Church movement. After a few years though he became disillusioned and left the church. Today he doubts that Jesus even existed.

I must admit I was a little taken aback when he denied there ever was such a person as Jesus.  His explanation for the existence of Christianity is that it is a self generated religion. In essence, what I heard from him was that Christians simply made it all up.

It seemed to me that much faith is required to deny the Historicity of Jesus and even more faith to think Christianity is self generated.

A number of non Christians historians from the first & second centuries do make passing references to Christians.

Had these pagan observers read the New Testament, though, they would have been amazed at the claims Christians made about themselves. According to the four gospels, Christians saw themselves as the principle agents by which the God who created the whole cosmos, heaven and earth, was at work in the world. In fact, according to one of their leaders, God intended to bring the whole world together under the authority and leadership of their founder, Jesus. (Ephesians 1:10). According to the New Testament, God had a future for the world and it was to come about through Christianity.

From the outside this claim would seem preposterous, even megalomaniacal. Christians would be considered delusional concerning their own power and importance. Upon what basis would reasonable or rational people develop such incredible ideas? Reading the New Testament one cannot help but think that the authors of these books are intelligent people. How then could they make such claims?

Their claims were not fanciful notions, as atheists assert, but were based upon certain experiences that the early Christians presently enjoyed. They believed they were no longer subject to the cosmic authorities that dominated their world, in particular, they were not subject to the Emperor or the worship of that Emperor. This is one of the complaints that turns up in the writings of Pliny the Younger, who tests the faithfulness of Christ followers by having them burn incense to the Emperor. (See The Letters of Pliny the Younger).

Not only were they not subject to ruling imperial authorities, they believed they were not even subject to ruling ontological authorities, in particular, the authority of death. They believed in and had as their current experience, the idea of salvation. Salvation was not something that happened to them a long way into the future, but it was a current reality. In it they found freedom, boldness, faith, hope and love.

These concepts generated very odd behaviors. Instead of weeping at funerals, they celebrated. (1 Thess. 4:13). Instead of succumbing to despair at persecution they submitted to trials with joy. (James 1:2). Rather than resentment in relationships they preferred one another over their own interests. (Phil. 2:1-3).

Further, the experience that generated these grandiose ideas of changing the world was something that came from outside of themselves. As Luke Timothy Johnson puts it in his book, The Writings of The New Testament,

If we try to cut deeper beneath the symbolization, we see that the Christian experience had to do with power: the Christians said they had been touched by an awesome force that in turn empowered them—a particularly paradoxical claim given their circumstances.

The terms for this power are various. It can be called

Ø     an authority (exousia; see John 1:12; 1 Cor. 8:9; 9:4; 2 Cor. 10:8; 13:10; 2 Thess. 3:9),

Ø     an energy (energeia; see 1 Cor. 12:6, 11; Gal. 3:5; 5:6; Eph. 3:20–21; Col. 1:29; 1 Thess. 2:13; Phlm. 6; Heb. 4:12), or

Ø     a power (dynamis; see Rom. 1:16; 15:13, 19; 1 Cor. 1:18; 6:14; 2 Cor. 6:7; 13:4; Gal. 3:5; Eph. 3:20; Col. 1:29; 1 Thess. 1:5; 2 Thess. 1:11; 2 Tim. 1:7; Heb. 2:4; 2 Pet. 1:16).

This power manifested itself outwardly in certain “signs and wonders” (Acts 4:30; 5:12; 14:3; Rom. 15:19; 2 Cor. 12:12; Heb. 2:4) such as healings, prophecies, and spiritual utterances, but above all in the proclamation of the “good news” (Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 1:18; 2:4; 2 Cor. 4:7; 1 Thess. 1:5; 2 Tim. 1:8; James 1:21).

It also manifested itself inwardly by the spiritual transformation of those who received it (Rom. 12:2; 1 Cor. 2:16; 2 Cor. 3:18; Gal. 3:5; Eph. 4:23; Col. 3:10; 1 Pet. 1:22).

This power, finally, was not of their own doing, but was transmitted to them from another to whom it properly belonged (Rom. 1:4; 16:25; 1 Cor. 1:24; 5:4; 12:3; 2 Cor. 1:4; 6:7; 12:9; 13:4; Eph. 3:16, 20; Phil. 3:10, 20–21; 2 Tim. 1:7; Heb. 5:7; James 4:12; 1 Pet. 1:5; 2 Pet. 1:16; Jude 24). None of the elements listed here is found in the NT as a goal for which one is to strive; rather, each appears as a dimension of one’s present life. The relationships, states, dispositions, and transformations are experienced, not just desired. The case is succinctly stated by Paul: “The Kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power” (1 Cor. 4:20).

Because of this new empowerment, Christians believed they represented something entirely new in the world. They shared in a new covenant with God (1 Cor. 11:25; 2 Cor. 3:7–18; Heb. 9:15) and were given new life (Rom. 6:4; Eph. 4:24). Indeed, they were part of an entirely new creation: “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God . . .” (2 Cor. 5:17–18).

And this was the key point: their experience, they said, was not self-generated, but came from God, who always created anew (Rom. 4:17; 1 Cor. 1:28–30; 2 Cor. 4:6). The Christian experience anticipated the completion of God’s renewal of the world: “According to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13). Or, as the seer John says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had vanished, and there was no longer any sea . . . then He who sat upon the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new’ ” (Rev. 21:1, 5). The note of newness is distinctive. The Christians meant by it not mere novelty, but a fundamental transformation. In an atmosphere in which antiquity was so prized, this stress on newness is all the more striking. (Underline Emphasis mine)^[1]

In the book of Acts, the angel that set Peter free from prison sums up the Christian experience with the words, "Go, stand in the temple courts," he said, "and tell the people the full message of this new life." (Acts 5:20 NIV).

In today's experience, one would have thought the angel was promoting a new type of spirituality. We think "new life" refers to an interior spiritual experience we can have now with the hope that one day we will escape this world for heavenly bliss in the hereafter.

However, Peter's message was more about who is in charge of the exterior world than it was about an interior spirituality. He is not referring simply to a new spiritual experience. He is referring to a new world order.

When challenged by the chief priests concerning what they were teaching the people, Peter replied, "The God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him." (Acts 5:29-32).

The primary message that Peter was to deliver in obedience to the angel's command was that Jesus is risen from the dead! This is what is meant by "this new life."

As N T Wright states in a message on the Resurrection.

"Resurrection does not mean escaping from the world. It is inauguration of God's mission to the world. For the gospel writers resurrection is an event in our world and therefore MUST have implications for other events that must follow. If resurrection was simply a spiritual event involving Jesus being alive in some heavenly realm or involving a new sense of faith and hope in our lives the only events that would follow would be various forms of private spirituality both then and now. The resurrection MEANS that Jesus is ENTHRONED as LORD of heaven AND earth. His kingdom has been established over earth which is part of the creation humans currently occupy. This kingdom is to be put into practice as his followers  summoning ALL nations to obedient allegiance AND MARKING THEM OUT IN BAPTISM so closing lines of the gospel (of Matthew) sums up the major themes of that gospel: the Immanuel the God with us is now Jesus with us. "I am with you always" Until the final end of the old age, the time when the new age which has been inaugurated in the resurrection has completed its transforming work in the world. Matthew does not tell the story of Easter in any sense as people escaping the created order and going off somewhere else but as the moment when the created order was renewed once and for all and claimed by God in Sovereign love and victory in and through Jesus the messiah."[2] (Emphasis mine)

Because Jesus was risen from the dead, the early Christians were not only different from the culture around them in terms of their spiritual experience, they demonstrated that experience with real world displays of power. This power was not for themselves alone, it was for the transformation of their world. It was the beginning of God's renewal of creation. As signs of this reality, people were healed and demons were cast out. (Acts 5:16). No wonder the Christian movement grew from obscurity to become the dominant power in the world. (See Rodney Stark's book, The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal, Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries).  

As long as I discuss the question of "this new life" from a historical perspective, I am speaking in the abstract as much as I'd like to underline just how concrete "this new life" experience was to the first century church, for many people today, it is simply another story from the Bible. And yet, there have been times in my experience of faith where I have seen the power of God at work today.

In 1984, when Sue and I traveled to Zaire for 8 weeks to visit an indigenous black African church. There we saw the Holy Spirit fall on a group of new believers with power. Some received spiritual languages, others manifested demons, others simply wept.

In 1988, when we arrived at New Life Church in Kelowna, we saw men and women filled with the Holy Spirit prophesying words of encouragement and strength to others. We heard prophetic songs spontaneously released during worship. We saw people's infirmities named and then healed.

At New Life, there was a dance between the prophetic, intercessory prayer and worship that brought it all together and that empowered and facilitated the presence of God in our midst. For more on this experience you can read Welcoming a Visitation of the Holy Spirit by Wesley Campbell. It was from that visitation of God that New Life was empowered to mission to the nations.

For my wife and I, these experiences generated in us freedom, boldness, faith, hope and love just as it did in the early church. It was as a result of these experiences that we took the momentous step of going to Africa to care for the poor in Zambia and to share the gospel there.

The power that generated our Christian experience at New Life church was not for us alone. It was most certainly not for us to hold onto. It was not something we were to seek after either. The principle reason, I believe, we experienced the power of the Holy Spirit at New Life was for mission. (See If Mission is What the Local Church is There For, New Life Church Kelowna Serves as a Model).

In summary, there is a reality to Jesus and to the Christian faith that cannot be denied no matter how strongly one would wish it to be otherwise. This reality is rooted in the historical New Testament Church experience of power and manifested today wherever the Holy Spirit is at work. It is the reality that brought the early Christians from an obscure Jewish sect to the dominant religious influence in the known world by AD 400.

It is referred to as "this new life." It is a "new life" that is not simply a new interior spiritual experience. It is a completely new order of the way the world exists. Before the death and resurrection of Jesus, there was no hope for the world. After the death and resurrection of Jesus, there was hope for the world, hope for new creation, hope for "new life."

This is not a hope for Christians to keep to themselves. It is for the world. It is the beginning of God's new order of things. It is a demonstration to this world that no matter how broken and corrupted the world is, God will not abandon his good creation to decay. There is a future and a hope for humanity and it is found in "this new life."  

For more on the Christian Hope please see my article When Heaven Invades Earth Twenty Four Seven! Grounding the Charismatic Hope in the Resurrection.

For more on the Cross and the Power of God see my article There is Power in the Pain – How Authority is Earned Through the Cross.