01.21. Chapter 1 New beginning
Chapter 1 New beginning What Christians are
Present-day usage of the word ‘Christian’ is so broad that it can lead to misunderstanding, particularly in relation to the teaching of the Bible. Strictly speaking, Christians are Christ’s people. They are Christians because they personally belong to Christ, not because they have been brought up in families or countries that follow Christian traditions. The Bible most commonly refers to Christians as those who believe. They are believers not in the sense that they hold certain religious beliefs, but in the sense that they believe in, have faith in, and rely on Jesus Christ for their salvation. To have salvation (or to be saved) means to be forgiven their sins, saved from sin’s penalty, and given that new and eternal life which is the life of the kingdom of God. This salvation is solely God’s work, and he does it lovingly for believers even though they do not deserve it. They receive their salvation by faith, and in so doing are born anew by the work of the Spirit of God.
Besides exercising faith, believers exhibit repentance – a turning away from sin. Faith without repentance is not a faith that will save. There can be no forgiveness for those who will not turn from their sin. There must be a change, a conversion. Believers are now disciples or followers of Jesus, their new master, teacher and Lord. They live to please him, not themselves. In summary, ‘when anyone is joined to Christ, he is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). The Christian is a new person. A basis for confidence A common misunderstanding is that people cannot be certain of their salvation. Yet repeatedly the Bible shows that God wants them to be certain. John is typical of the Bible writers when he says, ‘I am writing this to you so that you may know that you have eternal life – you who believe in the Son of God’ (1 John 5:13). Jesus emphasized the assurance believers can have, with such statements as ‘I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish’ (John 10:28). The promises of eternal security come from God himself, and his promises can be trusted.
Believers must remember always that their salvation depends not on anything they have done, but solely on what God has done for them through Christ. Only through Christ’s death and resurrection are believers forgiven their sins and given new life. God welcomes them as he welcomes the victorious, risen Christ, and gives them the Holy Spirit as his mark of permanent owner- ship. Nothing can separate God’s people from the love that God has shown to them through Jesus Christ.
Although God wants believers to be sure about their salvation, he does not want them to be cocksure. He does not want them to feel smug and self-satisfied. Perhaps that is why the Bible contains statements that sometimes make Christians feel uneasy. Christianity is more than intellectual belief. If faith does not produce a change in people’s behaviour, it is not true faith. If people think their salvation is guaranteed and therefore they can do as they like, they deceive themselves.
Noticeable changes
People may or may not feel different when they first accept Christ, but if they are true believers they will soon become aware that their lives have been changed. They will want to please God, and will feel his rebukes when they are guilty of wrong attitudes or behaviour. Their values will begin to change as increasingly they love what is good and hate what is not.
Knowing that God is now their Father, believers will want to talk to him through prayer and listen to what he says through the Bible. They will also want to meet others in God’s family and worship with them. They may find that they have less in common with former friends, while at the same time they develop a love and concern for them (and even for their enemies) that they did not have before. All this is part of the growth that occurs in people’s lives when they come into a relationship with the living Christ. Their character changes as it becomes pro-gressively like the character of Christ. Not only will believers themselves be aware of the change within them, but others also will notice the difference. People cannot be followers of Christ secretly. In New Testament times, when people said they believed in Jesus, they were promptly baptized to demonstrate the fact publicly. Baptism does not make people Christians; nevertheless, it is an essential part of their declaration that they are Christians.
Although the Bible speaks of people going into the water to be baptized, it gives no detailed description of the act of baptism. The original meaning of the word ‘baptize’ was or ‘immerse’ or ‘dip’, suggesting that believers were immersed in water. The ceremony was a public witness that they believed in Jesus, repented of their sins and received God’s cleansing. It was their ceremonial introduction into Christianity. The New Testament writers used the picture of baptism to teach aspects of Christian truth. Paul in particular developed the meaning of baptism in relation to the practical results of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. He showed that baptism pictured believers’ union with Christ in dying to sin and rising with Christ to a new life of victory. Since Christ by his death paid the full penalty of sin for believers, sin can make no further demands on them. They are free from sin’s power, and must live confidently in the power of the living Christ within them.
New and old natures Being free from sin’s power does not mean that when people become Christians they never sin again. Although the Holy Spirit now lives within them, the natural human tendency to do wrong is still there. Certainly, they have been born anew and been given new life, but they still have the old sinful nature they were born with. The Bible calls this old nature ‘the flesh’. It still wants to do wrong and so fights against the new nature. Christians there- fore live with a constant conflict between these two natures. This is no cause for despair. God has given the Holy Spirit to Christians to make Christ’s living presence real to them. Jesus Christ, by his death and resurrection, conquered sin to free people from its power. Believers need no longer be slaves to the old sinful nature; but if they give way to it, it will bring them under its power again and rule them like a cruel tyrant.
Christians may at times wish that by some supernatural act the old sinful nature could be instantly eliminated. Or they may wish that the Holy Spirit within them could work like a magic charm and produce automatic victory over sin. God gives no such easy solutions to the problem of sin in the world. The Holy Spirit does not excuse Christians from self-discipline, but rather helps them develop it. Hard work is necessary in battling sin, and each victory strengthens character.
Having been saved by faith, Christians live by faith. If, in their desire to conquer sin, they make a set of rules for them-selves or others to follow, they may find themselves no longer trusting in Christ, but caught in a new kind of bondage. Christ has set them free from all spiritual bondage, so that in union with him they may live the life of true freedom that Christ lived. This freedom does not mean they are free from obedience to God and his Word. It means they are free to produce the quality of character that legal obedience can never produce. God has given commands and he requires obedience, but it is an obedience based on a relationship, not on laws. God is head of a family where love rules, and he wants his children to obey him because they want to, not because they are forced to.
Dealing with sin
Inevitably, Christians will at times fail. They must not think, however, that through their failure they lose their salvation and have to start their Christian lives all over again. On being born anew they become God’s children, and nothing can change that relationship. When children do wrong they may make their parents sad, but they do not cease to be their children. When Christians sin they make God sad, but they are still his children. God does not disown them, though he may discipline them. ‘The Lord corrects those he loves, and punishes those he accepts as his children’ (Hebrews 12:6).
Although wrongdoing cannot break the family relationship between parents and children, it can break the friendship. In a similar way the wrongdoing of Christians spoils their fellowship with God. All Christians sin sometimes, and if they deny this they deceive themselves. But if they are living to please God, they have his assurance of forgiveness for those sins that they themselves may not be aware of. If they are aware of sin, they should deal with it quickly and so maintain good fellowship with God. Again they have a sure promise: ‘If we confess our sins to God, he will forgive our sins and purify us from all wrongdoing’ (1 John 1:9).