What Does It Mean To Follow Christ?
A follower of Jesus Christ, or a Christian, is someone who has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is a relationship where you talk with Him each day, rely on His help and His leading, and depend on Him completely to bring you to Heaven to live with Him for all eternity.
It is important to realize that this relationship is not something you're born with, something you can earn, or something you deserve.
Romans 3:23 (NASB) "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
Romans 6:23 (NASB) "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
None of us are perfect; none of us have batted .1000. We've all blown it. The Bible calls that sin. And sin means to "miss the mark." It means going your own way instead of going God's way. It means following your own whims and desires instead of God's desires and directions. As a result, we are separated from God.
This separation from God is called "death" in Romans 6:23. It is a separation from God for all eternity. And to be separated from God because of the wrong in your life is to miss out on the very best that God has in store for you and wants to give you.
God, however, didn't want this separation to continue. His greatest desire was to have a personal relationship with you; thus, He chose to do something about the sin problem that separated us. To solve the problems of sin and death, and to end the separation and bring us into a personal relationship with Himself, God did something incredible.
Romans 5:8 (NCV) "God shows His great love for us in this way: Christ died for us while we were still sinners."
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (GW) "Christ died to take away our sins as the Scriptures predicted."
1 Peter 3:18 (NLT) "Christ also suffered when He died for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but He died for sinners that He might bring us safely home to God."
All of this was done for you by Jesus Christ. God loved you so much that He didn't want to be separated from you. He paid the ultimate price so you could have a relationship with Him. He willingly endured the suffering and humiliation of the cross and the pain of death to pay the penalty for your sin.
How does a person become a Christian?
In John 1:12 we discover two things a person must do to become a Christian, "But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become the children of God."
Two Things:
You must believe.
You must accept, or receive.
First you must believe. You must believe that Jesus is God. You must believe that He has the power to save you. You must believe that He has the power to forgive your sins and remove the barrier that your sins have created between you and God. You must believe His promise that if you would call on Him He will save you and give you everlasting life. You must trust Jesus with the rest of your life that He will carry you, care for you, guide you, and lead you. The Bible calls Jesus Savior because He saves or delivers us from the penalty for our sins. So, you must believe that He is your Savior...your rescuer.
Second, you must receive. You have to accept, or invite, Jesus into your heart as the boss, the manager, the CEO of your life. You let Him begin calling the shots in your life. He becomes your leader. The Bible term for that is Lord.
These are the only two things that get you into heaven. Believe and receive.
Another way to look at how to become a Christian is to think about establishing a spiritual BASE in your life. Consider the following acrostic on the word BASE:
I must.....
B - Believe Jesus Christ died on the cross for me and showed He was God by coming back to life from the dead.
A - Accept God's free forgiveness for my sin.
S - Switch to God's plan for my life. The Bible word for that is repentance, but it just means to change my mind, to switch to God's plan for my life.
E - Express my desire for Christ to be the director, the boss, the Lord of my life.
When a person is willing to take these four steps, then they simply need to pray and ask Jesus into their life. Here is a simple prayer that a person can pray to invite Christ to become Savior and Lord. There's nothing magical about this prayer. It's just a sample prayer that contains the elements that a person needs to tell God to invite Jesus into his or her life.
"Dear God, I believe you sent Your Son Jesus to die for my sins so I can be forgiven. I'm sorry for my sins and I want to live the rest of my life the way You want me to. Please put Your Spirit in my life to direct me. Amen."
So, how do you know that you're really a Christian?
The apostle John, in his first letter to fellow believers, said this: 1 John 5:13 (NCV) - "I write this letter to you who believe in the Son of God so you will know you have eternal life."
The Bible states very plainly that you can know as a fact that you have eternal life. In fact, the whole book of 1 John talks about evidence that you can look to in your life that you have eternal life.
The key thing is to realize that you must stand on fact and not rely on feelings. There will be times when you won't feel like you have a relationship with Jesus Christ. And if you rely on your feelings you will go through times of uncertainty and doubt, and times of assurance and hope. It will be an up and down emotional roller coaster, one that you really don't have to take.
Again the Bible says you can know as a fact that you have a relationship with Jesus. How can you know? Consider these verses:
John, in his gospel tells us this:
John 3:36 (NLT) - "All who believe in God's Son have eternal life."
And Jesus Himself said:
John 6:47 (CEV) - "I tell you for certain that everyone who has faith in Me has eternal life."
Have you sincerely asked Jesus to come into your life as Savior and Lord? Did you mean that prayer when you invited Him to come in and take control of your life? Jesus promised that if you would invite Him into your life, He would come in and take up residence in your life. He promised to forgive your sins and to permanently remove the penalty for the sins in your life. And, He promised never to leave you or desert you. Those are the facts! Stand on them!