Over the past months as I went from non-believer to salvation to baptism, I often asked myself "What does it mean to be a Christian"? "What do I do?".
In order to help others, I have found many places across the internet that helps explain this and thought I would share this with you.
Peace in Christ,
Gerry
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Part 1
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A CHRISTIAN?
There is much confusion among the general public, as well as the religious community, concerning what it means to be a "Christian."
Does it mean assenting to a particular belief-system?
Does it mean consenting to a prescribed morality pattern?
Does it mean changing and improving one's behavior?
Does it mean joining a church organization?
Does it mean practicing regular rituals of worship?
Even those who call themselves "Christians" seem to have much difficulty articulating and verbalizing what it means to be a Christian. Their ambiguous explanations often convey an amalgamated "mish-mash" of affirming the above-mentioned activities.
What is needed is a clear Biblical restatement of the basic spiritual reality of being a Christian. That will be our objective in this study.
In order to do so, we will divide the study by differentiating what is involved in becoming a Christian initially, and what is subsequently involved in being the Christian one has become. Thus we can consider both the commencement and the continuance of what it means to be a Christian.
Becoming a Christian
We are not referring to "getting religious," or "joining a church," or "believing and reciting correct creedal doctrines." The issue we address is "becoming a Christian."
What must one do to become a Christian?
In one sense, there is nothing anyone can DO to become a Christian. Everything necessary to become and be a Christian has been done by Jesus Christ, which is why He exclaimed "It is finished!" (John 19:30). It is only by the grace-activity of God in Jesus Christ that the opportunity of becoming and being a Christian is afforded to mankind. "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast" (Eph. 2:8,9). There is no human performance or effort that can effect the spiritual reality of becoming a Christian.
Becoming a Christian is not a matter of external physical attachment to a social organization called a "church." Nor is becoming a Christian effected by mental assent to historical or theological tenets of belief. Behavior modification and ritualistic repetition are not the essence of becoming a Christian.
Becoming a Christian is a spiritual reality that transpires in the spiritual core of our being. Our "spirit and soul and body is to be preserved complete" (I Thess. 5:23) in Jesus Christ. The most basic need of man is not physical rejuvenation, or psychological adjustment, or social improvement, but spiritual exchange and regeneration. Because all of mankind begin their physical lives spiritually "dead in their trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1,5), the primary need of man is to be made alive spiritually.
The figurative expression that the Bible uses to illustrate spiritual enlivening is the concept of being "born again" (I Peter 1:3,23) or being "born from above" (John 3:3,7). When Jesus told Nicodemus, the religious ruler of the Jews, that he needed to be "born again, from above" (John 3:1-7), he reverted to the literalism of physical obstetrics. As a "natural man," though extremely religious, he failed to understand spiritual things (I Cor. 2:14).
Man's primary need is not more knowledge and education, nor is it self-realization and self-improvement. The need of man is to be re-lifed with the very life of God in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God gives life (II Cor. 3:6) to our spirit, causing our spirit to be alive (Rom. 8:10) with "newness of life" (Rom. 6:4). One who thus becomes a Christian "passes out of spiritual death into spiritual life" (I John 3:14).
The spiritual life that the Christian receives is the divine life of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). "He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life" (I John 5:12). This "eternal life that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 6:23) is the spiritual life that Jesus came to bring (John 10:10) to restore man to God's intent for humanity. Eternal life is not a commodity or state of existence that we receive after we die physically, but is the life of Jesus Christ in the Christian presently with an eternal continuum of perpetuity.
Spiritual re-lifing, or regeneration, occurs in the spirit of man. "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6). "The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Rom. 8:16). A spiritual union is effected whereby "one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him" (I Cor. 6:17).
The singular reality that constitutes becoming a Christian is the presence of the Spirit of Christ in the spirit of an individual who receives Him by faith. "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him" (Rom. 8:9), i.e. he is not a Christian!
This indwelling of the Spirit of Christ in the spirit of an individual is the life and presence of the Person and Being of the risen Lord Jesus. Paul encouraged the Corinthians to evaluate whether they were really Christians, by asking, "Do you recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?" (II Cor. 13:5). The spiritual mystery of the gospel is "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27); the basis on which Paul declares, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me..." (Gal. 2:20).
When a person is "in Christ" and Christ is "in them," they become a "new creature" (II Cor. 5:17), a "new man" (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10), raised to "newness of life" (Rom. 6:4) by the presence of Christ's life in their spirit. They have a new spiritual identity as a "child of God" (Jn. 1:12; I Jn. 3:1,2,10), "sons of God" (Gal. 3:26), Christ-ones or Christians.
How does this spiritual reality transpire? How is it enacted or facilitated? There is no physical or psychological procedure or formula that one must follow precisely in order to become a Christian. It is not effected by the physical procedures of walking down an aisle in response to an invitation, or holding up one's hand, or repeating a pre-worded "confession of faith," or being baptized with water, though those may be engaged in to indicate or accompany one's response to Jesus Christ. Neither do the psychological responses of mental assent to historical and theological tenets, or the subjective experiences of human emotions constitute the means and manner of responding to Christ.
Becoming a Christian is personally appropriated by coming unto God in faith. Faith is not believing the accuracy of certain data about Jesus Christ, nor is it having an existential experience of ecstasy. Rather, faith is a volitional choice of receptivity to the activity of Jesus Christ, willing to receive the redemptive efficacy of Christ's death on our behalf, and willing to receive Christ's life into our spirit. "As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born...of God" (John 1:12,13). "Having believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise" (Eph. 1:13).
Every person who receives Jesus Christ and becomes a Christian is assured of Christ's spiritual presence and empowering. "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matt. 28:20), Jesus declared. "Christ, the power of God" (I Cor. 1:24) "works within us" (Eph. 3:20).