Basic Christianity by John R. W. Stott

First published: 1958

Edition(s) used:Basic Christianity. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1972

Genre(s): Nonfiction

Subgenre(s): Spiritual treatise

Core issue(s): The cross; Incarnation; Jesus Christ; redemption; sin and sinners

Overview

John Robert Walmsley Stott was born to Sir Arnold and Emily Stott on April 27, 1921. He was educated at Rugby School and Trinity College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, he earned a double first (an extraordinary honor) in French and theology. While a student at Rugby, he had undergone a conversion experience because of the preaching of Eric Nash and determined to devote his life to the Gospel. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1945 and went on to become curate at the Church of All Souls, Langham Place, London, from 1945 to 1950, then rector there from 1950 to 1975, and then rector emeritus beginning in 1975. He was appointed a chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II (1959-1991). One of his major involvements in Christian action was through the 1974 International Congress on World Evangelization held at Lausanne, Switzerland. Stott acted as chair of the drafting committee for the Lausanne Covenant, a significant milestone in the evangelical movement. As chair of the Lausanne Theology and Education Group from 1974 to 1981, he contributed greatly to the growing evangelical understanding of the relation between evangelism and social action. He has also been active in the Tear Fund, an evangelical British charity, for many years. He has written more than forty books, including Basic Christianity and The Cross of Christ (1986), and founded the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity in 1982. He never married. He was awarded the CBE in the New Year’s honors list, 2006.

Basic Christianity is exactly what its title suggests, an exposition of the central themes of Protestant Christianity. “Christianity is a rescue religion,” Stott declares midway through the book, but this is his theme in one form or another throughout. He begins with God’s central activity in creation. The Creation and God’s word given through the prophets and through Christ call for a response from humankind.

The proclamation of God’s word through Christ begins with what Stott calls Jesus’ “self-centered teaching.” He contrasts this to other great religious teachers. They proclaimed truth to be apart from themselves; Jesus called himself “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). His claims for himself were both direct and indirect, both spoken and dramatized. His feeding of the five thousand is an example of a dramatized claim.

Stott then turns to the issue of the character of Jesus as a person. He notes that Jesus believed himself to be in complete harmony with the will of God; that his followers, exemplified in the epistles of Peter and John, viewed him as without sin; and that even his enemies were reduced to petty legalisms to find fault with him. The perfection of his character is clear from both his self-observations as preserved in the Gospels and those made by his contemporaries.

From this, the examination turns to the Resurrection. Stott has four observations here: First, the body of Jesus was gone; second, the burial garments were undisturbed (Stott’s emphasis on this is forensic); third, there are various accounts of his having been seen and spoken to after his death; and fourth, serious changes in personality and behavior could be observed in Jesus’ followers. From these Stott concludes the veracity of the Resurrection.

Stott now turns back to the death of Christ and its meaning. He calls this section “Man’s Need” and begins with a subheading, “The Fact and Nature of Sin.” Sin, Stott notes, is an unpopular subject. People prefer not to hear about it, but it is ever present. There would be no need for door locks were it not for sin, but locks are a universal of human experience, and thus it can be seen that sin is universal as well. Stott spends some time on the Ten Commandments, examining the far reaches of their implications. Stott’s interpretation of the commandment against theft is illustrative: “What the world calls ’scrounging’ God calls stealing. To overwork and underpay one’s staff is to break this commandment.”

Sin has consequences. The death of Christ is interpreted as the intervening factor in the consequences of sin. To explain this, Stott must turn to the centrality of the cross, that is, the death of Jesus, for explanation. While he acknowledges the death of Christ as an example for his followers, Stott makes clear the central evangelical doctrine of substitutionary atonement, that Jesus Christ died as an offering for sin and not for the sins of a few, but for the sins of the whole world. Stott admits that this is a stumbling block in some ways for Western civilization, but he sees it as the sole means of human salvation.

“What must we do, then?” Stott asks. His answer is frank. “We must commit ourselves, hearts and mind, soul and will, home and life, personally and unreservedly to Jesus Christ.” Intellectual consent is not enough: “We have to translate our beliefs into deeds.”

Stott’s vision of Christian belief is one of active self-analysis and active concern—both inner-directed and other-directed. His understanding of Christian belief is focused and substantial, with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth as incontrovertible claims that humanity must either accept or deny. To accept is to acknowledge God’s call to humanity; to refuse is to refuse humanity itself. The choice is essential, and Stott is not one to let his reader off the hook.

Christian Themes

Basic Christianity is precisely what it promises: an overview of the premises of basic Protestant Christianity. It begins with the person of Jesus Christ and his claims and those of his followers. Having established what he feels is certitude regarding the claims of Christ, Stott turns to the question of sin and its profound role in human life. Evangelical theology does not skirt the problem of human wrongdoing, and Stott places sin firmly at the center of the work of Jesus Christ and also at the center of the transformation required of his followers. Because the human condition precludes any possibility of making up for sin on one’s own account, the question of an acceptable offering for sin arises. This leads to the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, the view that the death of Jesus Christ on the cross has fulfilled for all humanity the sacrifice necessary for sin. When the gravity of this self-sacrifice is understood, it will create in the believer a constant sense of gratitude and wonder. From this sense of gratitude and wonder should come a transformation of life, marked by humility, self-sacrifice, and joy. The life of the Church follows on this, as the Church is not only the acceptable sphere for faithful interaction, but also the outward and visible sign of God’s ongoing activity in the world.

Sources for Further Study

Dudley-Smith, Timothy. John Stott: The Making of a Leader—A Biography, The Early Years. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1999. The authorized biography of John Stott’s early years.

Dudley-Smith, Timothy. John Stott: A Biography of the Later Years. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2001. The authorized biography of John Stott’s later years.

Stott, John R. W. The Cross of Christ. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1986. A thoughtful, well-rounded approach to the central Christian dilemma of the death of Jesus Christ.

Stott, John R. W., and David L. Edwards. Evangelical Essentials: A Liberal-Evangelical Dialogue. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1988. An informed, intelligent conversation between Stott and a “liberal” colleague on the essentials of the Christian faith: the authority of Scripture, the cross of Christ, miracles, and evangelism.