What Does It Mean to be a True Christian?
Things that don’t make you a Christian:
- Going to church on Sunday
- Praying
- Reading the Bible
- Praying a prayer of acceptance of Christ
- Being born and raised in a Christian environment/family
- Believing in Jesus
So, alot of you right now are thinking, well I agree with some of that. Definately a person can go to church and not be Christian, or pray or read their Bible and not be Christian. Some of you might even see that being born into a Christian family doesn’t automatically make you a Christian, and that praying a prayer doesn’t make you a Christian, but are hung up on what I mean when I say “Believeing in Jesus doesn’t make you a Christian.” What?! You heard me! Believeing in Jesus, even believing in his death on the cross and His resurrection three days later, even believing He is God, and the Son of God and that He died for the sin of man does not a Christian make. HUH? How can that be you ask?? Well you came to the right spot, I am going to tell you.
First of all,we know that there are many who will die and come to the judgement thinking they are to be entered into Heaven but will not make it:
21Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
There are two things here that keep a man from Heaven, not doing the will of God, and not knowing Him. These two things go hand in hand, for if you know Him and love Him you will keep His commands. (”He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” John 14:21, and ” If ye love me, keep my commandments.” John 14:15)
You can see that prophesying, healing, casting out demons, and using the power of the name of Jesus does not mean you KNOW Him. And does not enter ye into the Heavenly Gate!
I have been ruminating on this recently…. I knew for a long time that there were many in church who were not saved, I also understood that there were many who said they were but were not. But recently this is becoming a burden on my heart. These people are the most decieved. They believe they are in the Book of Life, but they are not. And why not? Because they did not KNOW Him.
When I was a kid the church told me that if I just asked Jesus into my heart He would come. If I would say this certain prayer, He would save me. I thought I knew Him for many years. I called myself a Christian, but anyone could see by my walk that that was not true (my fruit was poison). I was decieved. Finally I realized that no one comes to the Father lest He calls them and gives them the desire to seek His face. That seeking Him and ONLY Him, to know Him personally, and because of this to be offended with your own sin and to cultivate a truly repentant heart (also given as a gift of God) was the only way to really enter into the Kingdom. I know now, that believing in His death and resurrection, believing He has saved me because He loved me, is not enough. I must dilligently seek after Him, losing my life to His authority and will.
If I know Him, and He is knowable as a personable God, if I know Him I will find Him faithful, trustworthy, glorious, worthy of not only my praise, but my very life. Worthy of my total submission, because He is love, not just that He loves me. It will be this knowing that causes me to love Him, to truly love Him. And it is in the loving that I will obey. And so the cycle goes, the more I know Him the more I seek to obey His commands, the more I succeed at obeying (by His power which comes from knowing Him), the more I come to love Him. And round and round it goes.
A true Christian is one who LONGS after the Lord, who thirsts and hungers for Him, not just for His blessings, not for what He can do for you or what he DID for you, but Him and only Him. Personality to personality, Spirit to spirit, Creator to created. When you come to know Him personally, you come to rely on Him as your only portion, your ONLY hope. You give up everything thing else because of the glory of Who He Is. And this is eternal life, “that they might know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent.” (John 17:3) Heaven will be spent knowing Him, deeper and deeper, closer and closer, sharing a relationship with the Eternal Living God and relishing His majesty.
How is it possible to think you are a Christian, and really be heading for Hell? Jeremiah had an explaination “The heart is decietful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9) and the next verse says that only God can know it. Which is why David penned “23Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:24, 25).
So how do we know we are His? There are a few tell tale signs, you have all heard the fruit parable… I am not going to go into that one…however, here is another relevant Scripture:
” 31Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31, 32)
Continue in His Word, which helps us to know Him and to have faith. By continuing in the Word you are evidencing that you are His disciple, a diligent seeker of Him. And by seeking Him ye shall find Him, for to everyone who seeks and seeks with their whole heart they shall find Him, and to all who knock the door shall be opened. And His truth shall make you free.
Furthermore, we shall be known because we love each other. We are able to love each other because He first loved us, and because we know Him. When He is our portion, when He is larger than Us in our life, when He is our only hope and the only One whom we seek to please, then we are free to completely love our neighbor, and our enemy. It will be this true love of others friends and foes that evidences our love of God to the world.
So, pray therefore friends, the way David did…O God, search me and know my heart and see if there is any wicked way in me, bring me to repentance and lead me in the way everylasting. Cause me O God to thirst after you, to long for You and Your life, guide me into the yoke of Your Lordship. I knwo that Your burden is easy and your yoke light, but I ask that You would cause me to carry my cross daily. To give up my life for Yours, that I might find You and be satisfied. That I might know you more O my God.
Mrs. Meg Logan
August 26th, 2006 at 1:14 pm
This post is quite similar in theme to the Paul Washer series I posted not too long ago.
Being a Christians really is about “the whole package”. If one is saved, he/she will believe in Christ, will pray, will seek Scripture, will go to church… but all these things are not the means of salvation, but rather, the results of it.
I find that, when speaking of assurance of salvation, 2 Peter 1:5-10
gives the best picture:
“And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.”
A comforting portion of Scripture, but at the same time, one that causes me to fear and tremble.
Later,
August 28th, 2006 at 10:48 am
Rand,
That is precisesly what I mean.
Mrs. Meg Logan
September 2nd, 2006 at 5:45 pm
“what must i do to be saved” Peter was asked after Pentecost.
His answer was to believe and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. Later in his epistle he says that “Baptism doth save you.” Therefore, becoming a christian, at least in the first century was tied to baptism. Jesus told his disciples to go into all the world baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and holy spirit. Clearly saying a sinner’s prayer is not biblical but being born-again through the waters of baptism is.
To find out what the early church practiced, read the writings of the church fathers and it is unmistakeable, that Baptism is the sacrament by which Christ pours his grace and forgiveness down on us. It would be historically incorrect to assume the early church believed in a sinner’s prayer or any such thing as the formulae. Historically, that concept of asking Jesus into your heart is about 150 years old or less. For over 1500 years, the way to heaven began in Baptism as it did in the Scriptures.
Tertullian said:
“[N]o one can attain salvation without baptism, especially in view of the declaration of the Lord, who says, ‘Unless a man shall be born of water, he shall not have life’” (Baptism 12:1 [A.D. 203]).
Justin Martyr said:
“As many as are persuaded and believe that what we [Christians] teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, and instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting, for the remission of their sins that are past, we pray and fast with them. Then they are brought by us where there is water and are regenerated in the same manner in which we were ourselves regenerated. For, in the name of God, the Father . . . and of our Savior Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit [Matt. 28:19], they then receive the washing with water. For Christ also said, ‘Unless you are born again, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven’ [John 3:3]” (First Apology 61 [A.D. 151])
Note the dates. If these guys werent correct only 100 years after Jesus ascended, than how could we possibly get it right 200 years down stream. The waters (doctrine) is always purest closest to the source (early church.)
God bless Megan
October 9th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
Have you heard a song “Almost Christian” by Steve Camp?
Mail me if you wish to listen to it