How to Become A Christian

This lesson is created to help the world know how to be a part of the body of Christ, not just to become religious. You can easily sum up what many people consider to be Christianity today to religion and legalism. After reading this article, you will be able to determine whether you’re a Christian or just a religious person. This article answers the question: How do I become a Christians? In order to know how to become a Christian, you need to first know who is a Christian and what it means to be a Christian.

Many people, including some preachers, have come up with different definitions for what it means to be a Christian. Some believe you’re a Christian because you practice holiness. Some think they are Christians because they joined a local Church or even get actively involved. Some believe they are Christians because they were born Christian homes.

For some, it was when they had a problem and ran to a Church where their problems were supposedly solved. They ended up joining the Church, that was how they became Christians. Some Churches claim that they can minister deliverance to people. I have seen it done many times. You can be there for 3 or more days without hearing the gospel preached once. It is nothing but ministration to the flesh. You don’t get saved by going through a ritual like that.

To others, it is based upon how they dress, or speak, or whether they eat breakfast on Sunday. Someone once told me that he is a Christian because he is obeying the 10 Commandments. Although some of the above may be good for Christians, none of them can make you a Christian.

The Problem of Sin

A Christian, is not a person who has repeated a prayer or walked down an aisle or have accomplished any of the above. A religious person is not necessarily a Christian. Salvation is what makes you a Christian! But it begins with the reason why we need salvation in the first place. So, why do we need salvation?

The reason we need salvation is not because we weren’t doing the above works. It was because we have sinned. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Our sins make us enemies of God and put us under the wrath of God (Ephesians 2:3). This is bad news. But it gets even worse, we cannot do anything to save ourselves. No one can!

The Solution to the Problem of Sin

So, salvation is having your sins forgiven. We are saved from the punishment of sin, that is, hell or the lake of fire. But this must be done apart from the sinner. The One who qualifies to atone for our sins is Jesus Christ. Therefore, a Christian is a person who has fully trusted in Jesus Christ’s completed work as the ONLY solution for the problem of his/her sins.

A Christians believes that Christ’s accomplishment, His death, burial and resurrection, was done in his stead and for his sins. He/She must also realize that Christ ALONE is the ONLY solution for sin, nothing else can be added to the justification we received by accepting Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf, not even our best works (John 3:16; Acts 16:31; Ephesians 2:8–9). This is what it means to believe in Jesus Christ, and trusting in Christ alone. This is what determines who is a Christian and who is not.

So let’s go over the details again: A Christians is person who has received the gift of salvation through faith in Christ (John 5:24; Acts 16:31), he is forgiven, justified, and redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:14). He has become a child of God and new creature (John 1:12). This truth is written all over the pages of the SCRIPTURES:

John 1:12-13 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Galatians 3:26-27 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Also, a saved person has got the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13; Romans 8:9). He is blessed (Galatians 3:9), complete (Colossians 2:10) and glorified in Christ (Romans 8:30), and a member of His Body (Galatians 3:28). He has eternal life (1 John 5:11), and he is always saved (Hebrews 10:14). All these simply because he has put his faith in the redemptive work of Christ. Therefore, what it means to be a Christian is that you have believed. Not just believed, but believed in the gospel.

You Are Not a Christian Until You Believe

Not everyone who is religious is saved. The saved people are those who have believed. God began to put people in the Body of Christ after the cross. The record was given in the Bible beginning from the Book of Acts. Nobody was considered part of the Church until they have believed and were saved.

Becoming a Christian has everything do with believing something. That ‘something’ is “the gospel of our salvation”. (Remember, this article is not about how to live the Christian but about how to become a Christian).

What You Must Believe

All have sinned, including you and I. We cannot save ourselves. It is totally impossible for anyone to do anything to rescue Him/herself from he penalty of sin. Only Jesus Christ can redeem us. Only Jesus can save!

Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

The way to receive the salvation through Christ is to abandon any of your good deeds and run to the Cross. Believe in the gospel of salvation. The gospel tells us what Christ did on our behalf with regard to our sin problem. Christ came to do the will of the Father, which is to die for our sins and pay the full penalty. Among many other, the following passages clearly spell out the message of the gospel:

1 Corinthians 15:1-4  Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures

1 Peter 3:18  For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

The message is simple: We have sinned and unable to save ourselves. Christ died, He was buried, and He rose again to pay the full penalty of our sins. All that is needed on our part to be saved is to simply believe that He did all that for our sins. That is the gospel.

John 1:10-13 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise

You Have to Believe

God started to put people in the Body of Christ from the event at Pentecost recorded in the Book of Acts. On the day of Pentecost, the Jews listened to the preaching of the Apostles. The message was delivered in a miraculous way. The Apostles spoke with divers tongues, in different languages of the people. The people heard the message in their own languages (tongues). But what was even more amazing was the point of the message. Peter preached:

Acts 2:22-36 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: 23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: 24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it…36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

The people had the message, and were touched, so touched that they didn’t have any other choice than to repent.

Acts 2:37 ¶ Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

Peter continued:

Acts 2:38-40 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. 40 And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.

We know that we do not preach the gospel today exactly as above. The above message was necessary for the Jews, but because of the transition in the early Church. The message changed when the gospel went to the Gentiles. Now everyone gets saved by simply believing the gospel.

The Jews at Pentecost believed, three thousand of them! The gladly received the Word, believed and submitted themselves to the baptism.

Acts 2:41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

This was how God started bringing people into the Body of Christ, and this is how He still does it today. You have to believe. Christ makes this quite clear in His own Words:

John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

All the accounts of conversion subsequent to Pentecost happened the same way. You have to receive the Word and believe in order to be saved. Take a look at the following passages:

Acts 4:4 Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.

Acts 5:14 And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.

Acts 10:44  While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.

Acts 11:24 For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord.

Paul preaches:

Acts 13:38-39 Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through .this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: 39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.

John writes:

1 John 5:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

This is why the Christians are also called the Believers.

See also: Romans 4:3; 10:9; Galatians 3:22; 1 Thes 2:13.

When you believe, part of what happen to you is that the Holy Spirit comes into you. This is the power to become a child of God (John 1:12). The Bible makes is clear that those who do not have the Holy Spirit do not belong to Christ. That means they are not Christians.

Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Romans 8:14-17 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 ¶ And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

If by now, you’re still convinced that you’re a Christian, then I believe you. But if not, all it takes is to accept who you are (a sinner) and believe the gospel. This is very simple. Salvation is not by works, or by anything we can offer. It is wholly by faith alone, in Christ alone!

The Bible says that when we believe and put our faith in Christ’s completed work, our sins are forgiven and the Holy Spirit comes in to us to take His residence in our lives. (See Ephesians 1:13-14). This is the beginning of the Christian life.

Christians also have to realize that sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer whereby the Holy Spirit works in the believer to conform him to the image of Christ. This is not accomplished by the believer’s performance, the believer is only to yield and submit himself to the leadership of the Holy Spirit and the authority of the Scripture.

Thank you for reading!