What is a Christian?

What is a Christian? I am a Christian – I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God.

I just thought I would clarify what that means. I believe He was born on Earth through the virgin Mary, lived a perfect, blameless life and died a harrowing death on the cross, as a sacrifice for all our sins. I believe He was resurrected, rose from the dead – therefore defeating even death. I believe He returned to heaven and that He will come back to Earth. I believe He has given us the Holy Spirit to help guide us. I believe in the bible, that it is Gods words. His story, with His creation.

I’m a Christian – a follower of Christ because I believe Jesus is who He says He is.

What it's not

It’s not because I think I’m special, I’ve been brain washed, I’m good (far from it) or been born into it (I assure you my parents did not provide a Christian upbringing). I do not believe myself better, I simply believe that Jesus is true, that I’m sorry for all my sins, that He has forgiven me for all my sins and paid the price of them on the cross for me and I am so thankful for that forgiveness, that I publicly declare to follow Him.

Publicly declare?

I was baptised as an adult, following Jesus example, declaring publicly that I am His. By baptism, I gave a testimony of how I discovered the truth and I was fully submerged in water - symbolising the cleansing of all sins and starting as a new creation with Christ. For some people, this seems ludicrous possibly offensive and can raise so many more questions, well questions are good - Please ask them! However, I’m not the one with all the answers - Jesus is.

What is sin?

Sin is what Jesus redeemed us from, so it is good to understand what that is and to acknowledge that you have sinned. Sin comes in many different forms - simply put it is evil/wrong doing.

God is pure and Holy and good - He cannot abide any sin, whatever the motive. It is not just behaviour but what is in our hearts and thoughts and also what we are, due to being born human. It is what we are born into but also what we choose to do, consciously and unconsciously. The price of sin is death. There is no human who has not sinned.

Born sinful?

I know - hard to accept just because you're human means you already have sin within you. I'll explain how that happened - Evil entered the world through Adam and Eve (the first humans - the blueprints) when they disobeyed God and ate from the tree of knowledge. Please read the book of Genesis to discover for yourself (if you wish). All children from then on, were born with sin - the knowledge of good and evil - the blueprint, but God made a way to bring us back into relationship with Him.

The Law

God gave his people (the Jews) the 10 commandments to help them, then other laws (over 600) to keep themselves pure before Him but they still could not keep them. His people gave sacrifices in order to cleanse themselves and help to keep the law (death paying the price of sin).

God then came to Earth as His Son, Jesus, to live a blameless life - to be our sacrifice once and for all, for all our sins. He paid the price of sin, not just for the Jews but for all people. The Jews do not believe Jesus is the Son of God, they still await for their saviour and they follow these laws.

As Jesus was both man and God, living a life without sin, He was a perfect, blameless sacrifice able to redeem us. Jesus freed us from the law.

What is a testimony?

Getting to this point, choosing to believe is my testimony, my story and every Christian will have different stories to share. I love how God chooses to speak to us all so differently, unique to each of our personalities and situations. To read my testimony, please click here. I have also done a 1 minute testimony for when time is short, written a song and created a picture of my testimony.

I heard the gospel and I had a choice, to believe or not to believe… I thought I had heard the gospel before but I hadn’t. I had heard the Christmas and Easter story at school but I had no idea that this was a real living God today, not just thousands of years ago, that I could relate to, who I could have a relationship with now. I learnt facts about who He is, asking my doubting questions and about the evils of this world (suffering) and I came to a decision that He is a good God, He is Love and I choose to follow him.

If you have questions, do please feel free to ask me, pray, ask God directly or ask Him to reveal himself to you. I found doing an alpha course, really helpful. Its an informal talk followed by a discussion, your local church will run them. Its not a course to become a Christian. Its an opportunity to learn and debate Christianity.

So how do you become a Christian?

It's really easy and simple - Make a decision - do you believe Jesus is the Son of God? Do you believe He is who He says He is? Do you believe He died on the cross and rose to life 3 days later, to redeem you of your sin?

If you accept this, you accept His gift of salvation. Once this decision has been made, you tell Him in prayer what you believe, that you are sorry for your sin, ask for His forgiveness and redemption then believe you have received it.

Then what?

Share your good news! It is good to share with fellow believers and the church. Today there are many expressions of church, so please do not be put off by thinking it is old stuffy buildings and people. There are many different ways to do church. Church is important - it will help build you up in the faith, it will teach and support you through life. The church is important to Jesus - it is described as the bride of Christ. Find your place, your fit and welcome!

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