Rev. Kevin L. Brintnall, Pastor

What is a Christian?

 A Christian is one whose life is centered on Jesus Christ.

 A Christian is one who is part of a great adventure.

A Christian is one who has come to see that in and through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, God the Father has acted decisively to set the world right. In believing this, in the sense of trusting or putting the weight of one’s existence on something, the Christian is related, by the Holy Spirit, to Jesus Christ to begin a new way of life. This way of life is marked by faith, hope and love.

The Christian's supreme concern is to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to glorify God in the sight of all people. A Christian is one who not only acknowledges belief in God but demonstrates a concern for justice and for the poor.

How do I become a Christian?

Through Jesus' life, death, resurrection and ascension, God has reconciled the world to himself. What was the source of the former alienation? Ultimately because humanity had turned its back on a relationship with God (the Bible calls this sin). The consequence of humanity’s dysfunctional relationship with God is that all people are alienated from God.  (1).

This alienation resulted in evil, decay and ultimately death prevailing in the world (2).  But then, because God loved the world so much (3), God reconciled himself to the world through Jesus (4).  It was as if God said, "Lay all the blame on me.  Lay all the consequences of this dysfunctional relationship on me… I will pay the price for this mess."  For on the cross, all sin, all evil and death came upon Jesus and he paid the price, in his blood, to reconcile;     i.e., to restore the world into a harmonious relationship with God that has no evil, suffering and death (5).  However, God did not just pay the price of sin upon the cross, God also defeated the power of sin, evil and even death (6) and therefore made it possible for all things to be made new again (7).

Jesus' death on the cross includes the price for our personal sin. For we all have been in dysfunctional relationship with God. We have turned our backs on God and have done things our own way rather than following Him (8).  But on the cross, God has dealt with sin and therefore has made it possible for people to be forgiven and reconciled into a right relationship with Him. Therefore, on the cross, we see the seriousness of our sin; Jesus had to experience death in order to deal with it (9).  Second, we see how much God loves us; He was prepared to die for us (10).  Even if you were the only person in the world, Jesus would have died for you — that is how much he loves you. Third, we see that God is not aloof and detached from the hurts of the world that are caused by sin, but rather He is intimately involved; He has identified with our hurt and pain.

Consequently, all you have to do to become a Christian is receive God's free offer of forgiveness and enter into a right relationship with him. You can do this by:

   1. Thanking God for his amazing love, that He was prepared to die for you and make it possible to restore the relationship between you and Him.

   2. Placing your complete trust in Jesus; believing that (1) in Him you can find forgiveness and be restored to a right relationship with God, and (2) that following him is the right way to live; the way of truth and eternal life. The Bible calls this faith.

   3. Acknowledging and confessing that you have been in a broken relationship with God; that you have lived life your own way and have not followed God's ways.

   4. Turning from following your own desires and anything evil to following Jesus. The Bible calls this repentance.

   5. Starting the great adventure with God by daily following Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit…

 If you would like to join the adventure and become a Christian, why not pray this prayer now?

 Dear Father God. Thank you for loving me so much that you sent your son to die for me so that I could be forgiven and reconciled into a right relationship with you. Please forgive me for turning my back on you; for doubting you; for doing things my way. And forgive me for the wrong things I have done to other people and you. And forgive me for not doing what is right and good. Please fill me with your Holy Spirit, so that I can understand and experience more of this love that you have for me; so that I can be in a living relationship with you. Help me to trust you more; help me to have more faith. And help me, by your Holy Spirit, to turn away from my old destructive ways and help me to follow Jesus each day; to become more and more like Jesus.  Amen

We recommend reading one of the following books:

     * C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, London: Collins/Fontana, 1953.

    * John Stott, Basic Christianity, Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1958.

    * Tom Wright, Simply Christian, London: SPCK, 2006.

Footnotes:

   1. See Genesis chapter 3.

   2. Romans 6:23 - "For the wages of sin is death..."

   3. John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

   4. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 - "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them."

   5. 2 Corinthians 5:21 - "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

   6. See 1 Corinthians 15:55 and Colossians 2:15.

   7. 2 Corinthians 5:17 - "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

      Revelation 21:5 - "I am making everything new!"

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

   9. Mark 10:45 - "The Son of Man [Jesus] ... came to give his life as a ransom for many."

  10. Romans 5:8 - "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."