Are you a Christian?
May 8, 2013
“I think I am.”
But you may be wrong.
“I have my own religion.”
But you ought to know what the Christian faith means.
“I don’t really care.”
But this is the most important question you could be asked.
Here are three straightforward tests of whether or not you are a Christian. You must pass them all. Two is not enough.
Test 1: Convinced
The Bible tells us about the real Jesus Christ. His life was unequalled by anyone else. No-one else can still the raging storm, feed a great crowd with a handful of bread and fish, heal the blind and lame in a moment or raise the dead to life. Only the Son of God can do all this.
Christ was perfect in everything he said and did and thought. Only Christ lived completely without sin. He rose again from the dead and is alive today and that’s a fact. No-one else can make such a claim.
All this proves that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. God said, This is my son, listen to him. Are you convinced about Christ?
This is the first test.
Test 2: Convicted
The life of Christ puts us to shame. He was everything good. He was everything we ought to be, but are not. His life convicts us; it shows us how bad we are. Christ was once asked for the greatest commandment, a commandment that would sum up all the others. He replied that we should love God with all our heart, soul and mind. Only Christ obeyed that commandment.
We don’t. We have broken the greatest commandment. God has given his laws and standards for us to obey. Jesus Christ kept them, but we don’t. This is called sin, and sin brings punishment.
Christ is the measuring line of God’s standards and everyone falls short. He himself told the story of two men standing in church. One man was proud of his own good works and religion and he told God so. The other was sorry for his sin and he prayed, God have mercy on me a sinner. Only the second man became a Christian. He owned up to his sin before God.
Are you convicted by Christ?
This is the second test.
Test 3: Converted
We all know what the word “converted” means. People have their garage “converted” into a spare room; others are “converted” to gas from electricity. The word means a complete change. Everything is different.
Being a Christian is living with Christ at the centre of your life. Your values and plans change. Christ, who once had a small place in your life, if any place at all, becomes the one in charge. He is Lord, and you live to please him and serve him.
Are you converted to Christ?
This is the third test.
Pete Woodcock