Christian words, said clearly.
The Christian faith uses a handful of words that are nowhere else in daily life. None of them are mysterious; they are just specific. Here they are, defined plainly, so that no one need feel left behind by the vocabulary.
The making-right between God and humanity that Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross. He bore the penalty our sin had earned, so we could be received by God as if we had never sinned. The word means “at-one-ment” — the bringing-together of two who had been separated.
Romans 5:11 · 1 John 2:2
A public declaration, by water, that a person now belongs to Jesus Christ. It does not save; it announces salvation. The going-under pictures dying with Christ; the coming-up pictures rising to a new life in Him.
Matthew 28:19 · Romans 6:3-4
A name for the whole Christian Church — every believer of every nation, every century. Christ is the Head; we are the body. The arm cannot say to the foot, “I have no need of thee.”
1 Corinthians 12:12-27 · Ephesians 1:22-23
The meal Jesus gave His followers the night before He died: bread for His body broken, the cup for His blood poured out. Christians have kept it ever since, “in remembrance of Him” and as a proclamation of His death until He comes again.
Luke 22:19-20 · 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
The work of the Holy Spirit that shows a person, plainly and inside, that he is a sinner and that he stands in need of Christ. Conviction is not condemnation; it is the kindness that leads to repentance.
John 16:8 · Romans 2:4
A learner and follower. A disciple of Christ is one who is not only saved by Him, but who is being shaped by Him — word by word, day by day, into His likeness.
Matthew 28:19 · Luke 9:23
Not merely life that goes on forever, but life of a particular quality — the life of God Himself, given to those who trust His Son. It begins the moment a person believes, and never ends.
John 17:3 · 1 John 5:11-12
Trust in what God has said and done. Not a feeling, not a hope-against-the-evidence, but the reasonable confidence that the Lord who raised Jesus from the dead can be trusted with anything else. Saving faith rests upon Christ — not upon how strong our faith is.
Hebrews 11:1 · Ephesians 2:8-9
The shared life of Christians together — in the Word, in prayer, in the breaking of bread, and in the bearing of one another’s burdens. It is more than friendship; it is the common life of those who share the same Lord.
Acts 2:42 · 1 John 1:7
The releasing of a debt that could not be paid. God forgives us in Christ because Christ has paid it. We are then commanded to forgive others, not because they have earned it, but because we have been so freely forgiven ourselves.
Ephesians 4:32 · 1 John 1:9
The word means “good news.” The news is this: Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day; whoever trusts in Him is forgiven and given everlasting life. Everything Christian is the working-out of those few sentences.
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 · Romans 1:16
Unearned favor. God’s kindness given to those who do not deserve it — which is to say, given to everyone, for none of us deserve it. Grace is the heartbeat of the Christian faith. Take it away and there is no good news left.
Ephesians 2:8-9 · Titus 2:11
The place — and more importantly, the presence — of God. For the believer it is the destination after death and the fullness of life with Christ forever. Less a list of pleasures than a Person we will at last see face to face.
John 14:2-3 · Revelation 21:1-4
Separation from God, forever. Christ spoke of it more than any prophet did, and He spoke of it with sorrow. It is not God’s wish that any should go there (2 Peter 3:9); it is the end of a road we may choose to walk if we will not turn.
Matthew 25:46 · Revelation 20:14-15
The third Person of the Trinity — God Himself, indwelling the believer. He convicts, regenerates, teaches, comforts, sanctifies, and gives gifts to the Church. Not an influence, not a force — a Person.
John 14:16-17 · Galatians 5:22-23
The eternal Son of God taking on human flesh: born of a virgin, lived among us, fully God and fully man. The center of Christmas. Without the Incarnation there is no Cross, no Resurrection, and no salvation.
John 1:14 · Philippians 2:6-8
The doctrine that the Bible, in what it teaches, does not err. It is the inspired Word of God, written by men carried along by the Holy Spirit, and it is the final authority for every matter of faith and life.
2 Timothy 3:16 · 2 Peter 1:20-21
To be declared righteous before God. Not made-perfect-yet, but legally cleared — the verdict, “not guilty,” pronounced over those who trust Christ. The basis is His righteousness, credited to us; the means is faith.
Romans 3:24 · Romans 5:1
Not giving what is deserved. Grace gives the gift; mercy withholds the rod. The Lord is rich in both, and the Christian is to be marked by both.
Lamentations 3:22-23 · James 2:13
The inherited condition of every human being since Adam. We are not sinners merely because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. This is why the gospel is good news — the cure goes deeper than the symptom.
Romans 5:12 · Psalm 51:5
The conversation between a child and his Father. It includes adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. The Bible does not measure prayer by length or eloquence — it measures it by who is listening.
Matthew 6:9-13 · 1 Thessalonians 5:17
God’s appointing, before the foundation of the world, of those who would be His. The Bible teaches it plainly. It is a mystery, not a license; a comfort, not a club. No one ever came to Christ and was turned away.
Ephesians 1:4-5 · Romans 8:29-30
The turning-away of just wrath by the offering of a sufficient sacrifice. Christ is our propitiation: at the cross, God’s righteous judgment fell upon Him in our place, so that mercy could be extended to us without compromising justice.
1 John 2:2 · Romans 3:25
To buy back. Christ paid the price — not with silver or gold, but with His own blood — to purchase us out of slavery to sin and into the household of God.
1 Peter 1:18-19 · Galatians 3:13
The Holy Spirit’s work of making a spiritually dead person spiritually alive. Jesus called it being “born again.” It is not self-improvement; it is a new beginning, in a new family, with a new heart.
John 3:3 · Titus 3:5
A change of mind that becomes a change of direction. To turn from sin — not merely to feel sorry about it — and to turn toward God. Repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin: both are gifts of the Spirit, both are commanded of every soul.
Acts 3:19 · 2 Corinthians 7:10
Not the resuscitation of a corpse, but bodily life beyond the reach of death. Christ rose this way on the third day. Those who are in Christ will rise the same way at His coming. The grave is a doorway, not a wall.
1 Corinthians 15:20-22 · John 11:25-26
The lifelong work of becoming, in practice, what we already are in Christ — holy, set apart, conformed to His image. The Spirit does the work; the believer cooperates, day by day, until Christ comes for us or for us comes.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 · 2 Corinthians 3:18
The return of Jesus Christ to this earth, in glory and in power, to judge the living and the dead and to bring history to its appointed end. The Bible mentions it more often than it mentions the cross. We do not know the day; we know the One.
Acts 1:11 · 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
Any thought, word, deed, or omission that falls short of what a holy God requires. Not merely a misstep but a missing of the mark altogether. Every human has sinned; only one sinless Man has ever lived, and He did so to bear our sin away.
Romans 3:23 · 1 John 3:4
One God, eternally existing in three Persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — equal in power and glory, distinct in office. The word is not in the Bible; the doctrine is on every page. No analogy captures it; no Christian denies it.
Matthew 28:19 · 2 Corinthians 13:14
Giving God the honor His worth deserves. It is not confined to a Sunday service or a hymn — though those are part of it — but pours out from every corner of a life that has truly seen Him: in word, in song, in work, in obedience.
John 4:23-24 · Romans 12:1
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