by J. Randal Matheny

Invisible molecules move the Internet. Robot crawlers burrow from website to website registering content for the search engines. In the header section of a webpage, a webmaster can list unseen key words to identify a site and provide a description for people who use services like Google to find what they want. Those key words become an important tool in the growing jungle we know as the Internet.

Christians also use a wide group of key words to mark their faith. Unlike the Internet, these words appear often on their lips and mark their lives as different from the world in general. These words are more than mere tags, but denote a profound reality in which they live and move and have their being.

I have listed below a few of those key Christian words that came immediately to my mind.

• GOD. All begins and ends with the creative power, benevolent order, and purposeful action of the almighty God. True religion concerns itself with actions performed "in the sight of our God and Father" (James 1:27, NASB). Man bears his image, and by his blessing male and female become Man (Genesis 6:1,2). Even in flight or rebellion, man is defined in relation to God, for whose fellowship he was made.

• JESUS CHRIST. Of several New Testament summaries of the gospel, perhaps the shortest boils it down to a single phrase: "For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2). In an otherwise excellent book, one writer criticized the concept that everything about Christianity must revolve around Jesus. Men abuse that concept to exclude great doctrines, but we can only rejoice in the truth that every act, thought, motive, and word of the Christian faith centers in Jesus. (See Ephesians 1:3, 19-23.)

• HOLY SPIRIT. Always pointing to Christ, the Spirit of God empowers the word to do its work of conversion and transformation. Christians are marked people, having been given the seal of the promised Holy Spirit. His presence with us today is the guarantee of the eternal inheritance we will shortly receive (Ephesians 1:13,14). He creates and sustains our fellowship with God and one another (2 Corinthians 13:14; Ephesians 4:3).

• LOVE. God is love (1 John 3:16). We should never assume that people understand the nature and character of God. The long history of the Old Testament testifies to his faithful mercy in fulfilling the eternal plan. Its culmination leads us to point to that one place where love made its ultimate sacrifice.

• CROSS. Satan made Golgotha ground zero for his major attack. God made it the beachhead for the final victory. So the Cross is our only boast (Galatians 6:14) and the only hoop through which one must jump to get to God (Galatians 5:11; 1 Corinthians 1:23). For if Jesus was crucified, his followers face the same fate (Luke 9:23).

• OBEDIENCE. We preach the Cross that all "may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood" (1 Peter 1:2). Some depend upon works to prove their goodness; others spout an empty, demonic faith void of action. To obey means to surrender one's own efforts (or lack of them) in order to follow Jesus and do the will of God.

This highly selective list doesn't do justice to the rich vocabulary of faith, nor to the fullness of God's grace at work in his people. It brushes the hem of the garment to remind us of the blessing we carry to enjoy and share.