There are many different religions in this world, but world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham for one is proud to be a Christian.
"Something distinguishes Christianity from all the religions of the world," he writes on his website. "Not only does it carry the truth of the redemption, by the death of our Saviour for our sins on the cross, but it carries the fact that Christ rose again."
Other religions follow great leaders who have died, and their gravestones carry the inscription, "Here lies..." However, Graham says Christianity does not have a gravestone to visit because Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again from the dead. In Jesus' tomb, the words "He is not here" is emblazoned instead.
"Christianity has no shrines to visit, no dusty remains to venerate, no tombs at which to worship. Many good men have lived, and still live, in the memory of those who knew them, but there is only one Man who conquered death—Jesus Christ—and He will live forever," says Graham.
In another devotional, Graham says it's true Jesus died on the cross—an instrument used by the Romans for torture and shame. Even though it is a symbol associated with criminals, God gloried in it because His Son Jesus Christ made "the most selfless act ever performed by men."
"He saw—emanating from that rough, unartistic beam upon which the Son of God had been crucified—the radiant hope of the world, the end of the believer's bondage to sin, and the love of God shed abroad in the hearts of men," said Graham.
Because of Jesus' selfless act, man's lost harmony with God was restored and those who are willing to repent of their sins can find hope, peace, and forgiveness in God.
