Becoming a Christian

One of the questions and issues that I have talked alot about this week and will do much more this next week is what the Bible says a person must do to become a Christian!

So let me ask you, "Does a person become a Christian by confessing their sins to God, choosing to follow Christ, giving their life to Christ, being water baptized or some other way?"

The answer is clear in Scripture—foundationally and primarily becoming a Christian is by another way, namely by being united with Jesus Christ. To be united with Jesus Christ sinners must repent of their sinfulness and sins and trust Jesus Christ alone to save them from God’s righteous judgment against their sins BECAUSE Jesus died for all their sins and rose again proving that His death did in fact pay for all their sins. Being united with Jesus Christ is an act of the Holy Spirit in the life of a sinner who repents of sin and trusts Jesus Christ.

Trusting Jesus Christ to save you, believing that He died for all your sins and rose again from the dead is what makes a person a Christian. To truly trust Christ to save you, you must repent, which means you must stop trusting in yourself and agree with God that you are a sinner who deserves God’s righteous judgment. Repenting turns your hope and trust away from yourself to Jesus Christ--so that you receive and embrace Jesus Christ. This is the way to become a Christian.

Once you become a Christian, God commands you to confess your sins that you daily commit to Him as you sin (1 John 1:7-10). Those who genuinely trust Christ to save them will also want to follow Christ, ‘give their lives to Christ’ and publicly confess their faith in Christ through water baptism. If a professing Christian doesn't want to follow Christ or submit to Him or be water baptized then his professed faith in Christ is suspect. These things are done by true believers in response to experiencing God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.