What is a Christian?

What Is A Christ Follower?

A Christian is a Christ-follower when the trials are turned up and the persecutions become the most bloody.

For many, a Christian is someone who goes to church; they say they believe in God and follow Jesus Christ. These same people live relatively moral lives; they are not big drinkers, thieves, or liars, and they are not immoral in relationships. I am not going to quote the statistics of women who attend church just weeks after having an abortion. An AI Overview made the following comment. "Lifeway Research has found that while many churchgoers express enthusiasm for evangelism, few actually practice it regularly. Is the previously stated view of what a Christian is valid according to the scripture?

What is a Christian According To The Apostle Paul?

If a Christian is merely a moral person, what do we do with Romans 2:1: "Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things." Judging others by our own standard of morality is a sentence of condemnation on ourselves. There are moral people in the world; they live to a higher standard than others, such as gang members, the mafia, and people of power who have no qualms with having other people killed for self-serving purposes. Furthermore, Jesus said, in Matthew 5, "You have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court... 'and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell." Human standards of morality cannot suffice before God's judgment.

What Is A Christian According To Jesus Christ?

A follower of Jesus sounds like a good answer to the question, What is a Christian? However, in Matthew 16, Jesus, as always, defines what He means by separating one who only professes to be a disciple from one who is a disciple, because the latter possesses the authenticity that reveals non-conformity to the world. "Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, (refuse to associate with himself in Greek) and take up his cross and follow Me (the cross as a means of death). 25 "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 "For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS."

A Christian is far more than a moral person; they are someone to whom the ways and philosophy of the world have lost their meaning. Wealth, having an abundance of material possessions, wielding authority over others for self-gratification, etc., becomes meaningless to the person who is living for Jesus Christ. Those who follow Jesus observe Him seated at the right hand of the throne of God as Lord of all creation. Further, morality is never manufactured by human endeavor. The people of Adam's race, Romans 5, no matter how moral they act, there remains a resentment toward God, who is sovereign over them and will one day make them accountable.

What Is A Christian According To The Apostle Peter?

After three years of healing a nation by divine miracles, teaching the truth as only God can, exhibiting humility as only God would, not once seeking applause in this life, what belongs to Him as worship in eternity. He is equal to God the Father, yet He temporarily relinquished His exalted place as God the Son to become sin for us. The people of Israel, many of whom had been present at His crucifixion, upon hearing that Jesus Christ was the long-awaited Messiah and proven so by His resurrection from the dead, and Peter's accusations about them, responded in the following way. "Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'Brethren, what shall we do?" 38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:37, 38)

It is not a manufactured morality that God desires, but His own divine hand upon a sinner that causes a rebirth, a regeneration from what is dead in Adam to what is born again in Jesus Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit. No immature child with little to no understanding of sin, its guilt, and consequences, walking an aisle because it is the acceptable thing to do, and living by a cultural standard of morality, but not acceptable to God, will enter the kingdom of heaven.

What Is A Christian According To Your Preferred Pastor?

Does he regularly make the need for repentance clear? Does he lead the fold in such a way that the people understand the significance of living by faith? Does he lead by such a profound humility that there is no difference between the shepherd and the sheep? Does he teach that all sheep are called to share the gospel and disciple those who come to Christ through them? Does he place so much emphasis upon God's work in salvation that institutions, denominations, and the calling of men seem out of place? Lastly, does he so lead that all justification for side-stepping obedience to God, no matter how demanding it might be, becomes ludicrous, ridiculous, absurd, and offensive to anyone who would consider themselves a Christian? What a Christian is is the most important question any "follower of Jesus" will ever answer after who Jesus Christ is and how important He is.