What Is A Christian ?

How would you describe ‘a Christian’? According to dictionary definitions, a Christian is one who believes in Jesus and lives according to his teachings’. Would you agree with this? I often hear people say: ‘I’m a Christian. I don’t go to church, but I try to live a good life, I follow the Ten Commandments and I don’t harm others’. While these are interesting responses, they actually fall far short of the truth of what it is that makes one a Christian.

Of interest, it is worth noting that the term ‘Christian’ was a name given to Jesus’ disciples by others. As we read in Acts 11:26 ‘and in Antioch the disciples were for the first time called Christians’* Undoubtedly, this was so because their speech and their actions identified them to others as followers of Jesus, the Christ. The people of Antioch applied the term Christian to Jesus’ followers, based on what they witnessed them saying and doing. Many people, today, tend to do the same and so, most responses to the question: ‘What Is A Christian?’ focus on the beliefs, actions or lifestyle of those who profess to believe in and follow Jesus Christ.

 However, these things (important and good though they are) in themselves do not make a person a Christian. What a Christian is cannot be defined by such things. Yes, it is true that the Bible speaks of conduct befitting a Christian’s life—often referred to as ‘good fruit’ (Luke 6:44; Gal. 5:22-23) and of good ‘works’ that are incumbent upon a Christian  (Eph. 2:10; Titus 2:14). However, if such are the things that define what a Christian is, then we must conclude that many who do not follow Jesus— even some who oppose him—are ‘Christians’ for they, too, live good lives and do good works.

No, what a Christian is goes far beyond such things. That which makes one a Christian is not something one believes nor is it something one does. Rather, that which makes one a Christian is who that person is. To answer the question ‘What is a Christian?’ we have to begin with an understanding of who we are—particularly in relationship with God.

There is a wonderful Hymn with the words: ‘I once was lost, but now am found …’ and, in these words, we discover a crucial clue to who we are and what being a Christian is really all about. In the words of the Hymn, we hear echoed Jesus’ words about the return of a certain Prodigal Son and the cry of his ecstatic father: ‘this son of mine … was lost and is found’ (Luke 15:11-24). It is in Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son that we discover who we are and who God is. The son of the father was, at one time lost to the father but then, at another time, he was found. We need to realise that, at no time, was the son existing in some ‘middle ground’ between lost and found. To the father, he was his son lost or his son found—one or the other. BUT his son, nonetheless! Lost or found, that child was always the father’s son. That’s who he was. Nothing could change that.

However, everything depended on how the father reacted to his wayward son. The father could have refused to even see his son again after he left home and squandered his living. Upon his return, the father could have hired him back as a servant for the rest of his life to teach him a lesson. But no, what we see is a loving father who longs for his son who ‘was lost’ to return home. And when he does, he welcomes him home as the son he is - with a new life unfolding for him.

We all need to face the fact that we are just like that son. We are either lost or we have been found. Remember, there’s no ‘middle ground’. It’s one or the other. Which one are you?  How you answer will determine whether you are truly a Christian. Can you identify with the following ...

· A Christian is a prodigal who has been welcomed home with great rejoicing by the Father
(Luke 15:7, 10).

· A Christian is one who was lost but now is found (Luke 19:10).

· A Christian is one who was dead but has been born again into a new life
(John 3:3; Eph. 2:1, 4-5; 2 Cor. 5:17).

A Christian is a Christian because all of this is made possible through Jesus Christ. None of this can ever come about by what we believe, what we say or our lifestyle. Just as the father of the prodigal searched for his son’s return and then joyfully welcomed him home and restored him fully, so too, in Jesus Christ - believing in Him and accepting Him as our Saviour, our Heavenly Father draws us to himself (John 6:44) and bestows upon us the fullness of His blessing, as children of God:

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!  - 1 John 3:1

If you have been found and have new life in Christ then the things you say, the things you do and your lifestyle are all fashioned by the fact that you are a Christian. These things are the fruit of your new life in Christ Jesus. However, if you are still lost, the reality is that your good deeds can never make you a Christian—you need to come home. Your Father in heaven is longing for your return and will welcome you with His loving cry:

‘this child once was lost, but now is found’

* In Jesus & the Rise of Early Christianity, Paul Barnett explains that the term Christianoi (Christian) ‘was a tag given ... by the people of Roman Antioch, probably from an official source.’ p. 28

1 Thessalonians 5:21 (NWT)

We are here to assist you to do just that.