What was the difference between christianity and other religions?

How did christianity gain so many followers? We all know what happened after the roman empire embraced it as the official religion, but my question concerns what happened before that.Im certain that it wasn't the only religion, so im curious about how did christianity stand out among all the other religions. ------

Christ was the difference.He preached tolerance and love of your fellow man. Completely different that the previous"will of the gods"that was going on before it. ------

It's the truth. If you have faith that Jesus was who he said he was, and did what they say he did, you start to adhere to the phylosophy that God's compassion for somebody goes way beyond death, and into the next rebirth. Christians absorb the deity of Jesus, do as he did, and experience a spiritual death and rebirth, that frees them from sin and misery. The process is the path to salvation and Heaven. Christians learn how to give their souls to God, and God teaches them how to defeat death through Christ's guidance and compassion.