How Important is Jesus Christ?

Whether you call Him Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, Yeshua, or simply Christ, Jesus' importance to Christianity cannot be understated.

Just think about how much of our Faith revolves around Jesus:

• The word "Christian" came about as a way to refer to people who followed the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth instead of the more popular gods of the day. This literally makes Him the namesake of our religion!
• Our Scriptures contain no less than four accounts of His life.
• Many Bible scholars believe that there are references to Jesus Christ throughout both the Old and New Testament - it's as if the Bible was always about Jesus!
• One of the core tenants of Christianity is that Jesus willingly died on the cross and rose again three days later. This is so important that there are passages in Scripture explicitly saying that our Faith is worthless if this event did not happen (1 Corinthians 15:14-19).
• We call upon Jesus' name as part of the baptismal formula.

I could go on, but this is enough to make the point clear: Christianity could not exist without Jesus Christ.

And yet, there are still Christians who say that Jesus wasn't that important, or view Him as a side character in the overall story. How is this possible?

The reasons for this vary.

Some people claim that Jesus was only a wise man, a mythical figure meant to teach lessons, or one of God's prophets. Others say that Jesus is some sort of lesser god or perhaps an angel, neither of which makes Him worthy of worship. Still others deny that His death and resurrection was enough to save mankind, so they focus on their method of salvation.

There are probably an endless number of ways that people dismiss Jesus' role in Christianity. But whatever the reason, something is very wrong when a Christian or Christian church doesn't care about Christ.

After all, if being Christian means to follow Christ, then how can anyone be Christian without Him?