Posted in Faith Builders

On my last post I asked several questions about the Christian life and walk. Today I will begin to try to answer these questions.

My first question was, "What does it mean to be a Christian?"

Well, you might think that this is fairly obvious question, the common answer is that a Christian is one who believes in Jesus. This definition, however, raises some issues. For example, I have communicated with many atheists who believe that Jesus was a real historical figure... does that make them Christians? Of course not! Its not just believing in Jesus the man that makes you a Christian! Its also what you believe ABOUT Jesus. This issue of what makes one a true Christian is essential today because false teachers and false churches abound. Mormon, Jehovah Witness, Branch Davidians... all of these groups call themselves Christians, and all of them believe very different things, including many things that are just not Scriptural. So perhaps we should change our answer and say that a Christian is one who believes that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, savior of mankind, God incarnate, the Son of God.

Surely then, a mental assent to the fact that Jesus was all those things is what makes a person Christian! Are we sure? Lets look at scripture and see what it says...

First look at John Chapter 1, (I urge you to get your Bible and open it up and read the entire chapter before moving on).

Now lets focus for a minute on verse 12 of John 1. "But as many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."


You'll notice that it mentions more than just belief, it says "as many as received him." So receiving Him is necessary, just simple belief is not enough. Lets look at another verse that speaks of simple belief not being enough. Lets look at James chapter 2:19, "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." Certainly we know that devils are not Christians!

So we will recap here, so far we see that:
1. Belief alone is not enough
2. We must receive Christ

So this brings up one very pressing issue, and that is how does one receive Christ?

Lets look again to the Scripture:
First Matthew 9:13, this is Jesus speaking:
"But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

These same words are recorded again in Mark 2:17, and Luke 5:32.

Acts 11:18 records the conversation of the disciples after they found out that God had poured out His Spirit on the Gentiles, notice the words they use:
"When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”


Then again, in Acts 20:20-21, " how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. "


Here are some other verses:
Romans 2:4 "Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?"


2 Corinthians 7:10, " For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. "

Hebrews 6:1, " Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,"


2 Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

I am sure that I am not the only one who notices a common thread here, it seems that in Bible times, the concept of repentance was present in pretty much every discussion of salvation. Now, today we give it a little nod. The sinners prayer that is printed on so many tracts usually has a phrase such as, "Lord, I realize that I am a sinner, and I repent of my sins..."

But how many people outside the church know what is meant by the word "repent"? I haven't taken an official poll, but my experience tells me that many people define the word "repent" as "to be sorry for your sins". But in 105 times that the KJV Bible uses the word "repent" or "repentance" it refers very specifically to someone changing their mind, deciding to do something else.

So I propose that to "repent", one must change their mind about their sins, and decide to do something differently. This doesn't mean that the person will never sin again... but that their attitude and mindset toward sin will have completely changed. No longer will you sin and just brush it off... you will begin to hate the fact that you sin. That is what a repentant person does, they change their entire outlook on sin.

So again, lets recap:
1. Belief alone is not enough
2. To be a Christian, we must receive Christ
3. Part of receiving Christ is to change your outlook on sin.

Now, what else does the Bible say about receiving Christ, or being saved?

John 3:16
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."


Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."


Romans 3:23
"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"


Romans 6:23
"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."


Romans 10:9-11 "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

Romans 10:13
"for Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

2 Corinthians 5:21, "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."


From these verses, I conclude that to be saved according to the Bible there are certain steps that need to take place.

To become God's child we need to.

1. Agree with God that we are sinners, and that as sinners we deserve death, not life.
2. Realize that we cannot earn eternal life through our own efforts.
3. Be truly sorry for our sin, and be willing to change our minds about sin, and determine to do something different, (This can also be phrased, "Be sorry for our sins and turn away from them, or repent.)
4. Believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and that He came to earth to die to pay the penalty for our sin
5. Believe that Jesus was raised up again from the dead.
6. Call on Jesus to save us, and trust Him to do that. (This is putting our faith in Him as our Savior).
7. Declare Jesus as our Lord.

So that is how one begins the Christian life. Some of those steps may come in a different order, sometimes they will run together and happen all at once, so that you would be sure that there is not 7 steps, but 1. But essentially all of those elements are there.

Now I am going to close out this post without addressing the other questions I planned to address, because this one took so long.

My closing thoughts are this, so often, when we try to share the gospel of salvation, we say things like, "All you have to do is accept Jesus as your Savior, invite Him into your heart, and you will be saved." We miss out those key elements of sorrow over ones sin and willingness to turn from, of believing in the resurrection, we even have a tendency to leave out the cross... that it took Christ's BLOOD and DEATH in order for Him to be able to be our savior. Probably, there are some people who already know those things, and so they understand that we really mean all of that. But probably there are many who don't have a church background, who think of saying, "Jesus come into my heart and save me." As being the whole gospel, without ever considering the cross, the awfulness of sin, who Jesus really is, and that He is alive today. Are those people saved? Well, only God knows the state of their heart... its not for me to judge... but wouldn't they have been better served by receiving the ENTIRE gospel?

God calls us all to " Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified." 2 Corinthians 13:5 Note that it does not say, "examine your pastor", or "examine your brothers and sisters in the Lord". It says examine yourself. I can't examine you... you can't examine me... we must each examine our own selves to see if we have truly repented and trusted in Christ for Salvation.

Since the most neglected element of the gospel in America seems to be the necessity of repentance, I challenge everyone to examine whether your relationship to SIN has changed... is it still your welcome companion... or is it an unwelcome presence in your life? Surely you WILL sin, and your salvation is not earned through good behavior, but when you sin now it should be something you loathe doing, and quickly repent of. If that is not the case, perhaps you need to pray about whether you have EVER truly repented and received Christs forgiveness.