How Can I Tell if I am a Christian?

If someone becomes a Christian they want to be sure – after all it is an important thing – it’s a matter of life or death! The Bible calls being sure assurance and this is something that God wants every true Christian to have (Hebrews 10:22).

If you’ve been given a new phone for your birthday – do you just look at it in the box and admire the design? No, you get it out of the box and put it to the test by using it, you message your friends and downloads the apps you want.  In the same way it is possible to put our lives to the test as we look for reassurance about our faith.

• John 3:3 talks about “being born again” – that tells us that becoming a Christian is a new start.
• 1 Timothy 1:15 tells us that a Christian is someone who believes that they are a sinner and that Jesus has saved them.
• Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that we become a Christian by believing in what Jesus died on the cross to do – to take the punishment our sins deserve. He does this, not because we have done things to deserve to be saved, but because of his love.  No amount of church going, learning memory verses, helping the poor, can get us into heaven, only through the blood of Jesus.
• Acts 2:38 shows us that a Christian is someone who has repented and asked for forgiveness for their sins. Repentance is one of those big Bible words! It means being sorry, but it is more than that.  It means turning in the opposite direction. Imagine being out on a walk and realising that you have come the wrong way. You turn around and go from the North to the South.  So repentance is turning away from our selfish lives where we are “the boss” and going in God’s direction where he is the King of our lives.
• The example of Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10 shows us that when someone believes in Jesus their life starts to change, and other people notice. Zacchaeus went from being a cheat to being someone who wanted to put things right. If you are a Christian other people will notice the changes that take place over time. This is more than a New Year’s resolution – it is changes that last because God’s Holy Spirit is working in us to make us more like Jesus.  It is changes on the outside – maybe you stop swearing, and changes on the inside – you stop having nasty thoughts about your brother. These are just two examples.

On the Day of Pentecost, just after Jesus has gone back to heaven, the Aposlte Peter preached out of doors to thousands of people who were in Jerusalem and thousands became Christians that day.  Immediately these brand new Christians wanted to spend time finding out about Jesus and also meeting  with other Christians. Read Acts 2:42-47 to find out about this. So what was happening? They just couldn’t get enough of God’s word (the apostle’s teaching) – in other words do you want to read the Bible and find out more through Bible studies? To them, other believers were the coolest people to be around (fellowship) and of course they wanted to pray together, not just on their own. Is this you?  They looked after those in need and they met together as often as they could. Do you like being with other Christians? They also “broke bread” which tells us that they met for what we call “communion” – have you done that yet?

I hope that being a Christian will be the most important thing in your life – it really is an adventure following him!