Why am I a Christian? What does it even mean to be a Christian? When some people think about Christians, all they picture are a bunch of hypocrites who condemn them. Others idea of being a Christian is working hard to follow a list of rules, living in fear of the wrath of an angry God.

But, the Bible says perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

If fear and “working hard to get it right” describe your idea of Christianity, I’d like to present another view.

I'm a Christian because I believe the Gospel is the truth. I believe it is true for a number of reasons, one being it's the only religion I've found that isn't about what I can do. It's not about how holy and good I can be. It's not about Karma - a tally of the good and bad I've done and a scale to see which one's heaviest. I'm not counting on my "niceness" or "helpfulness" to save my soul.

I believe that no one can attain salvation - heaven - by being a good person.

The Pharisees (religious teachers around during the time of Christ) were notoriously 'good' people. They had all sorts of rules and traditions about how things should be done to best serve God. But Jesus told them that they were a bunch of whitewashed tombs. Meaning they looked great on the outside but inside them was a bunch of dead men’s bones.

Shouldn't a bunch of people who are working really hard to do the right thing and be holy be Jesus' favorite people? The Pharisees knew the scriptures; they knew and kept the law. These guys would be the preachers, missionaries and bible scholars of our day. But Jesus continually called them out. He could see their hearts and knew that what was inside them was poison. Hence, calling them a brood of vipers.

If the Pharisees were rejected by Jesus as hypocrites who were missing the point, what does that say about earning our way into God's favor?

It means that if I can fathom all the world’s mysteries and have faith that can move mountains, but don’t have love as my motive, it’s all for nothing. It means that if I give all I possess to the poor and willingly walk through fire in God’s name but don’t have love, I’ve gained nothing.

Humanity’s complete list of dos and don’ts is summed up in a single sentence: Love your neighbor as yourself.

When we try to earn our salvation through anything in ourselves, we have been separated from Christ and have turned away from the message of the gospel – salvation by grace through faith in Jesus’ death for our sins. If holiness could be achieved by human effort, Christ died for nothing.

Human effort results in pride, bitterness, and ultimately discouragement when we can’t live up to perfection.

But God’s spirit working in us produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

I am a Christian because the Gospel is good news: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ…. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”