How is Christianity Different from Every Other Religion?

Grace as the Difference Between Christianity and Other Religions

What separates Christianity from every other religion in the world? The answer is grace. By grace you are saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.

If you ask a Muslim where will you go when you die? He might say paradise. I read the Quran. I pay alms. I pray five times a day. I've made the pilgrimage. I am a righteous man. If you ask a Jew, he might say, we really do not know where we will go when we die, But if there is a life after this one, and a reward for what we do, then surely it will be dependent upon the kind of life we have lived.

A Buddhist might say he hopes to achieve nirvana by following the eightfold path, or being a good person. A Hindu strives to break the cycle of reincarnation and attain moksha by being a good person. Even an atheist thinks he can be a good person.

The Christian Answer to Death and Judgment

But ask a Christian where will you go when you die? He will say heaven. How does he know? He will say I was born in sin. The intention of my heart has been evil from my youth. I have rebelled against a holy God, and for this I deserve death.

Wait, all these other guys say they will be rewarded for their good. How can the Christian say he will get to heaven when he says he is not good? Because he knows no one gets to heaven on their own merit, but on the merit of Jesus Christ the righteous.

Justification by Grace Through Faith in Christ

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace, as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus to be received by faith when we understand the text.