As the memorial of Jesus' death and resurrection approaches, a Christian's mind should naturally turn to Jesus Christ. It is a sobering, yet joyful time of year.

Yet an observer comparing the modern-day beliefs and conduct of the average Christian with those of Jesus and His disciples might very well conclude that much of so-called Christianity has lost its way. Mahatma Gandhi once summed up this skeptical view when he said: "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

Let's face it. Many today have a bad impression of Christianity. From their political activism to their political correctness, from those who say the Bible is the literal Word of God to those who seem to hardly believe anything in the Bible at all, those who claim to belong to Jesus Christ have been under a good deal of scrutiny. The results have not all been flattering.

A steady stream of scandals involving the clergy in recent years has not only shaken many of the faithful, but for an increasingly secular Western society, these revelations have given many all the more reason to think Christianity is no longer relevant to them. The message of "Don't do as I do, do as I say" resonates with a skeptical generation, but not in a positive way.

In reality, the public relations problems with modern-day Christianity aren't confined to those in the ministry. Most who call themselves Christian just don't seem to be living up to the example of Jesus Christ. How could this be?

Who did Jesus claim to be?

Just who was Jesus Christ anyway? The recent resurgence of the ancient heresy of gnosticism in popular culture, in books and movies such as The Gnostic Gospels, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures, Dan Brown's best-selling The Da Vinci Code and the so-called Gospel of Judas, only further clouds the issue for a largely biblically illiterate public.

However these writings offer nothing new. The apostle John battled early gnostic influence as well: "By this," wrote John, "you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God" (1 John 4:2).

In the latter part of the first century, the apostle John was confronting the ethereal gnostic belief that Jesus did not have a physical body but appeared only as an illusion—in which case He wasn't physically born nor was He really crucified and resurrected. John's advice for dealing with gnosticism, and heresy in general, was to have nothing to do with it or its proponents (2 John 7-10).

But the philosophical fog of gnosticism is only part of the problem in our lack of understanding Jesus Christ and, ultimately, Christianity.

To understand Christianity, real Christianity, we must first understand its foundation: Jesus Christ. To many—even those who claim to be Christians—Jesus was just a good man or a profound Jewish teacher. Still others see Him as a revolutionary, a nonconformist, a deceiver or a fraud. Yet Jesus' claim, and that of His followers, was straightforward. He was Immanuel—"God with us" (Matthew 1:23), the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:15-17).

Jesus backed up His claim by fulfilling more than 130 messianic prophecies in the Old Testament, by healing the sick, by raising the dead, by forgiving sin. He did not claim to be yet another teacher or merely a good man. Jesus said He was God.

Those who sought and eventually brought about His death understood His claims quite clearly, as we can read: "The Jews answered Him, saying, 'For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God'" (John 10:33).

As C.S. Lewis wrote: "Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to" (Mere Christianity, 1980, p. 52).

Now if you are not a Christian, that claim at least deserves some careful study to see if it is really so. (For some insight into who Jesus really was, download or request our free booklet Jesus Christ: The Real Story.) But if you claim to be a Christian, as a follower of Jesus you need to understand something more than just who Jesus said He was. You need to understand what He did and what He commanded His followers to do.

The power of Christ's example

Is there a difference between the Jesus Christ revealed in the pages of the Bible—who He was, what He said and what He did—and those whom the world sees as Christians today?

Many Christian apologists would argue that any shortcomings on a Christian's part are merely because he or she is "saved" but not yet perfect. Others would point out that the problem with most Christians is that they "come as they are" and stay that way. Indeed, something seems to be missing. As Gandhi said, there is a difference between Christ and Christians—and it is noticeable.

During the last Passover that Jesus spent with His disciples, He set a powerful example. Jesus humbly knelt down to wash His disciples' feet (John 13:1-10). And presenting the wine and unleavened bread of the Passover as symbolic of His shed blood and broken body that were to soon be a reality (Matthew 26:1-30), Jesus moved His followers out of their comfort zone, out of conformity to the society and its customs.

Those customs had only a short time earlier caused many to be repelled by Jesus' teaching on our need to partake of the symbols of His blood and body in the Passover service (John 6:47-66). Quite simply, Jesus' disciples were in the process of being converted. They were shown that the humanly devised teachings and traditions they had grown up with were invalid and needed to be replaced with what Jesus was showing them.

Many claim to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Yet the moment that the Jesus revealed in the Bible becomes meddlesome by calling on them to make changes in how they live, their religious life becomes neatly compartmentalized in a convenient corner. This is not Christianity, it is religious hobbyism.

What Jesus Christ calls on His followers to do involves nothing less than a total transformation of how they think and act. As we read in Romans 12:2: "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

The transformation of which the apostle Paul speaks involves change, real change. But if we are not to conform to society around us, if we are to change the way we have been conducting our lives, what are we to be conformed to?

What did Jesus do?

Today, many extol the slogan "What Would Jesus Do?" It's common on colorful rubber wristbands, T-shirts and bumper stickers. But far too many don't know the answer to that question because they do not know what He did. They are familiar with stories about Christ, but not the example He set as a lifestyle for Christians to follow.

Think for a moment. If you were to become a part of any group or organization, one of the first things you would want to know is what is required of you. What are the rules? For the Christian, whose goal is to be with Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of God, the rules are simple and consistent. When a young man asked Him what good thing he should do to have eternal life, Jesus told him to "keep the commandments" (Matthew 19:17).

Jesus sharpened the focus and deepened the requirements of God's law, setting the bar even higher for His followers. His is a call not to the laissez-faire, "Kumbaya," once-a-week, feel-good Christianity that is so commonplace. Rather, Jesus Christ expects obedience to the same commandments He obeyed.

His close friend and apostle John plainly confirms this in 1 John 5:2-3: "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome."

Will we do as He did?

Whether in having no gods before the one true God, not worshipping graven images, not taking God's name in vain, keeping the Sabbath day holy or any of the other six Commandments, Jesus Christ challenges those who call Him Lord to conform to His likeness, to obey God's instructions in both the letter and spirit of the law, to allow God's law to truly be written in their hearts.

Jesus calls for us to be free from conformity to this society and its values. He does so, even as He challenged those of His generation to understand the difference between God's commandments and traditions devised by the religious leaders of Jewish society of that day (Matthew 15:1-9).

Jesus Christ showed His disciples a perfect example of how to properly worship God. How well do you know that example?

Jesus worshipped on God's Sabbaths (Mark 1:21; Luke 4:16) and claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath, not Sunday (Mark 2:28). He observed the Holy Days of the Bible (Luke 2:41-42; John 7:1-39). He even founded His Church on one of those days, the Feast of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4).

And after Jesus' final Passover, death and resurrection, the apostles continued to worship on the Sabbath and the biblical Holy Days (Acts 17:2; 18:21; 20:6; 1 Corinthians 5:6-8; 16:8).

Perhaps you thought you knew the Jesus of the Bible, but if you want to know more, why not request or download our free booklets Holidays or Holy Days: Does It Matter Which Days We Keep? and God's Holy Day Plan: The Promise of Hope for All Mankind for more information.

Strange as it may sound, Jesus would probably not recognize a lot of things about the religion that now bears His name, from its primary day of worship to the holidays it celebrates.

He never celebrated them. The question is, why should you? If your answer is, "Because it is the tradition of my church," Jesus would have you reassess that position (Mark 7:7).

You see, sadly, the missing ingredient in most Christians' lives is Jesus Christ. They do not know who He really was, or take seriously that He is, in fact, God and has rule over our lives. As our Lord and Master, He calls us out of this society and its customs—even religious traditions we may hold near and dear—if they prove to be in error. As He said, "Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:14).

The vital missing ingredient

If we look at the Christianity so many disdain, what is missing? From all we have seen, the missing ingredient is the example of Jesus Christ Himself.

You see, Christians need to have Jesus Christ dwelling in them (Galatians 2:20; Hebrews 8:10-11). We need His mind to function as Christians and emulate the example He set for us (Philippians 2:5; 1 John 2:6). And the example Jesus set plainly shows that though we may call ourselves Christian, if we are not obeying God's commandments in their broad, spiritual intent and following the same path set out by the Jesus of the Bible, we are kidding ourselves.

In a scathing rebuke of those who do not keep God's law, Jesus told those listening to His famous Sermon on the Mount: "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

"Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'" (Matthew 7:21-23).

As those who claim to be Christian ponder our Savior's death and resurrection at this time of year, let us not forget who Jesus really was and the example He set for us. Jesus' life and instruction set out what He expects of those who would be called by His name:

"For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

"For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:18-20).

Perhaps if we as Christians would actually follow the example set by Jesus Christ, if we too would demonstrate heartfelt obedience to the spiritual intent of God's laws, others who might be watching would notice the difference. Perhaps one day, in another time and place, even Mahatma Gandhi will say: "I like your Christ, and your Christians. Your Christians are so very like your Christ." GN