Christianity

This religion developed at the heart of the Roman Empire during the 1st century and became its official religion by the end of the 4th century. Out of 7.8 billion people, Christianity gathers about 2.6 billion believers, making it the largest religion in the world. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus are two central events in Christianity. These events led to the dispersion of Jesus’ disciples throughout the Roman Empire to spread the message of the good news: Jesus paid the debt we owed to God by dying on the cross in our place. The Gospel (the good news) promises all who come to Jesus that they will no longer have to pay this debt themselves because Jesus settled it for us; and just as He was resurrected, those who have placed their faith in Him will also be resurrected. By paying the debt of our sin (death), Jesus gives every person the opportunity to be reconciled with God. According to witnesses of the crucifixion, Jesus’ last words were: “It is finished.” Why did Jesus say these words before taking His last breath? Because He had completed His mission—in other words, Jesus could have said: “The debt is paid.” This is the principle of penal substitution.

For a more detailed understanding of what Jesus accomplished by dying on the cross and how it relates to each of us, click here: https://www.gotquestions.org/Francais/expiation-vicaire.html

Scriptures

The Bible is the holy scripture of Christians. It tells the story of our earth from its creation to the spread of Christianity in the first century. The Bible, which is a prophetic book, ends with the book of Revelation, which recounts the end of the world and prophesies how this end will come about. The Bible consists of 66 books and is divided into two testaments: the Old Testament, which has between 39 and 43 books depending on the version, and the New Testament, which has 27 books.

The Old Testament covers various subjects: creation, God, mankind, sin, Satan, the exodus, the system of sacrifices, the people God will choose, and from whom the Savior will come. It is important to understand that in this Old Testament, God makes a promise. God promises to destroy death. In the New Testament, He shows us how He did this: the Messiah promised to the people of Israel in the Old Testament becomes the Savior of every person who recognizes Him as such. This Savior will be born through a virgin named Mary. He will mark the ages, be crucified, and rise on the third day. According to the Gospels, Jesus rises because He is without sin. Death has no power over Him because it is sin that brings death; Jesus, having freed Himself from sin, conquers death. By doing this, He fulfills the promise contained in the scriptures: we too will rise again through His blood shed on the cross. This blood, which should have been ours, is shed by Jesus, and through this sacrifice, humanity’s debt is paid once and for all. Specifically, by dying on the cross, Jesus takes upon Himself God’s wrath so that we do not have to suffer it, and so that we can be reconciled with Him.

God

God is ONE. He is one in essence (in nature) and three in person (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit): this is the concept of the Trinity. Many people think Christians believe in three gods, which is false: Christians believe in the existence of only one God, named Yahweh. This God became man by creating a body to save humanity. Jesus accomplished what no human being ever could—living without sin—because He is fully God while also being fully man. Jesus shows many times that He is God, not only through His actions but also through His own words.

For a detailed answer on this topic, see the Q&A section titled “Jesus never claimed to be God.”
In summary: the Father in heaven is God, Jesus is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; the Father is not Jesus, Jesus is not the Father, and the Holy Spirit is neither Jesus nor the Father: these are three distinct persons.
https://www.gotquestions.org/Francais/le-Saint-Esprit-est-il-Dieu.html

The concept of the Trinity certainly reveals a complex reality and God, but this complexity does not invalidate the principle of the Trinity—quite the opposite. For how could God, an eternal, all-powerful being and creator of the universe, not embody a complex reality?

Creation

According to the Bible, the world was created in 7 days (note that the concept of “days” here is not necessarily the same as human days, since at this point the rising and setting of the sun had not yet been created by God). Life emerged in the water. Genesis 1:21 says, “God said, ‘Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that have life, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.’”
Man was created by God, who commanded him to take possession of the earth, to keep it and preserve it. God created a companion for Adam, named Eve. The Bible clearly distinguishes the creation from the Creator, unlike pantheistic religions that teach “everything is God, and God is everything.”

Man

Man is eternal: this eternity concerns his innermost being, in other words, his soul. This soul has only one life on earth, and the choices made during this life will determine the final destination of that soul.

Sin

Christianity teaches that human beings are sinners by nature: they are rebellious toward their Creator. Through Adam, sin entered the world. His disobedience brought a curse upon the entire earth, and there is only one being who can deliver humanity from the eternal consequences of this fault; God becomes man and lives the life of a man in order to pay the price of that disobedience (sin) Himself. Jesus came to repair the fault of the first man, Adam.
“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22)

Salvation

How does Christianity differ from the message of other religious systems?
In many belief systems (all but one), good deeds can redeem bad ones. But in Christianity, salvation does not depend on our actions but rather on our response to Jesus’ call. Jesus came to earth because no human is good enough to earn heaven. A single fault makes us guilty, and no righteous action can erase that « one fault. »

Here’s a bit of explanation: In the Old Testament, God requires an animal sacrifice or a libation to pay the price for each sin (each act that broke His rules)—a life for a life. But why does the God of the Bible demand this? Because the price of sin is death; the sin of every human requires their death, as the Holy God of the Bible cannot tolerate any sin. However, in His grace, God established a system in which man would shed the blood of an animal (cf. the Old Testament) to spare his own death.

God would eventually put an end to this imperfect system by becoming the ultimate Lamb Himself (this is the perfect system God had planned from the beginning, part of the new covenant revealed in the New Testament). No more animals would die, and no human would have to pay with their life (their soul) the price of their sin, provided they accept God’s gift to humanity: to believe in and follow Jesus, who takes upon Himself our fault.

So in Christianity, salvation is obtained by Faith, not by works. The Bible also says that “faith without works is dead”: it is because a tree is known by its fruit. In other words, whoever loves God obeys His commandments. Our works show that we truly belong to Jesus and testify that we are in Him, and He is in us, but they do not contribute to our salvation. It is God’s grace that saves a human being, and if a human truly receives God’s gift (faith), then they will perform works consistent with God’s nature.

Heaven and hell

Since God made humans beings with free will, He gives them the full choice to accept or reject His sacrifice. In any case, the Bible teaches that sin will be punished: either through our death (the second death leading to hell) or through Jesus’ death. Simply put, the Bible teaches that you have two choices: either you let Jesus carry your sins, or you choose to carry them yourself. But the Scriptures are very clear on this: Jesus came because without Him and His sacrifice, we are lost.

God’s desire is expressed in one of the most well-known passages of Scripture, John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

That is why Jesus became man—so that every human being has the possibility to enter heaven instead of hell, which, without accepting Jesus’ sacrifice, is the default destination for every person.