What is a true follower of Jesus Christ?
It is just about what you believe or much more?
Now, first of all, what does it mean to be a Christian?
Is it a person who is born in a Christian home? No. You cannot inherit Christianity.
Is it a person who does good? Not necessarily.
A Christian is a person in whom Christ dwells. Someone who follows the Buddhist religion can live a high ethical life just as a Christian can. In fact, Buddha had a very high system of ethics. A Christian is more than a person who is living up to a system of ethics. A Christian is a person more than living a good moral life. A Christian is a person in whom Christ dwells. A Christian is a person who has had an encounter with the living Christ.
Three things must have taken place for you to become a Christian.
1) The Choice- you made a choice. You chose to give or trust your life to Christ; to put Christ in the driving seat of your life. You are serving Christ rather than self. Self no longer controls your life, but Christ controls your life. That is a choice which you deliberately made. The Bible states that in order for your life to have this new beginning (or new birth) there has to be a conviction (guilt) about the lack of God in your life (sin) and the times you’ve wronged others (sin). This conviction of sin comes from God, the Holy Spirit of sin. You recognized that you were a sinner. You came to Christ and said, "I am going to trust the Christ who died on the cross for my sins. I am going to trust Him to save me from the mess I’ve made of my life." You make a deliberate choice. You chose Christ instead of the world. You chose light instead of darkness. You chose righteousness instead of sin. You chose Christ instead of self. And Christ, by the Holy Spirit, now lives in your life.
This choice you made could be an unconscious choice, or it might be a dramatic choice such as the apostle Paul made on the road to Damascus [see The Bible, Acts 9:1-18]. Perhaps it was a moment when you woke up in a cold sweat, you recognized that you were a sinner, you got on your knees and called upon God in your room to have mercy upon you. It might have been at a church meeting where you come to Christ. It could have been reading a Christian book. However it happened, to be a Christian means that you made a choice and God was involved through his Spirit.
2) The Change- a change must take place in the way you live. "Old things . . . [pass] away; behold, all things . . . become new" [The Bible, 2 Corinthians 5:17]. When you give your life to Christ, you change your way of living. You cannot live the same old life. You cannot go on being controlled by the lusts and desires of this life. You cannot go on solely living for the pleasure and bodily desire. You cannot go on living for the things people and our culture crave for. You cannot go on letting materialism and secularism control your thinking and your way of living. You now live for Christ. You also now value the community of fellow believers (your brothers and sisters), your local church.
Change means Christ is uppermost in your thinking. You are spending time in prayer. You are making a commitment to regularly read your Bible faithfully. You are also not ashamed of your faith but are able to tell others you now follow Christ in every way you know. You are gracious and courteous and kind and, above all, you love your neighbour as yourself. The Bible tells you this is the fulfillment of the whole law--to love God with all our hearts, and our neighbours as ourselves. [See The Bible, Matthew 22:36-40 and Romans 13:9,10.]
3) The Challenge- you have accepted Christ's challenge. Christ said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, . . . take up his cross, and follow me" [The Bible, Matthew 16:24]. Christ said, "If you are going to follow me, you have to go back to your business, back to your office, back to university or school, back to your home, and take your stand with me no matter what it costs." They may laugh, they may sneer, they may not understand. You may stand out like a sore thumb. But you absolutely refuse to cheat, to lie, to be immoral, even if it costs you your life.
(Based on an extract from a Billy Graham sermon).
