Two Great Misconceptions About Christianity: 1-Minute Case

4 min readSep 8, 2024

Is Christianity about working your way to God or about professing magic words?

Lie 1- Christianity is about moral superiority

You cannot work your way to God- we are fallen (Is. 1:5–7, 64:6). Christianity is for the unworthy and broken. Come to Jesus as you are. Jesus died for his enemies and came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). The prodigal son in effect wished his father dead so he could take all his money, yet his father welcomed him back with open arms. We are saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8–9). Saved by grace apart from works of the law (Rom. 3:28). Jesus spoke more highly of a humble tax collector beating his chest before God saying what a sinner he was than a proud Pharisee who thanked God he was not like others (Luke 18:9–14).

Pharisee and Tax Collector

Lie 2- Profess magic words and you’re set

To cheapen sin is to cheapen grace. Our works deserve Jesus’ position on the cross. Despite Jordan Peterson’s false caricature, Christianity is not about professing magic words but also about believing in your heart Jesus is risen (Rom. 10:9–10). Admitting you’re a sinner! We are utterly dependant on Jesus to shape us. Without Him, we can do nothing (John. 15:5). Ask Jesus to shape you. Works are fruits of, not the root cause of, our salvation. We love Jesus because he first loved us (1 John 4:19) and our works express gratitude to Jesus for saving us. Christ’s grace fuels good works for which (Eph. 2:10), not from which, we are saved. We’re called to subsequently work out this salvation with fear and trembling yet, amazingly, God works in us to will and to do (Phil. 2:12–13). Will we fail at times? Absolutely (Rev. 2:20) but we are now at war with sin, not at peace.

Faith vs works contradiction?

Faith without works is dead (James 2:20). Fruit can take time to grow. There is no contradiction between Paul saying we are justified by faith and James claiming a person is justified by works and not faith alone (2:24). The issue is order and timing (cause v product). As scholars Bock and Wallace note, “James is asking about how justification looks by considering its product after time has passed, while Paul is asking what justification involves coming into it at the start.” James even says the testing of faith produces endurance (1:3), a work, implying faith comes first.