How to become a Christian
Christians come in all shapes and sizes. But being a Christian (according to the Bible) is not something you can inherit from your parents. Going to church is not enough to make you a Christian, and neither is living in a Christian country.
So what is a Christian? To find out, read on.
If you've become a Christian recently, you might want to look at our Basic Bible Studies for New Christians
Becoming a Christian isn't difficult
There is nothing especially difficult about becoming a Christian. Across the world, thousands of people become Christians every day.
By 'Christian', we're talking about someone who has a living, day to day relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We're not talking about ticking a box on the census.
Basically, there are three things:
Something to believe
Something to admit
Someone to put your trust in
We'll explain more in the right hand column
Something to believe
About God
You can't get anywhere as far as being a Christian is concerned without believing in God.
There are three things you need to know about God. First — God made everything. The Bible begins with the words "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth". Believing that God created the universe isn't about denying everything (or anything) we have discovered through science. Science can tell us how. But not why. And definitely not who. An engineer can explain exactly how it is the Eiffel Tower stays up. But he can't tell you who built it, or why. For that you need a history book. Science can tell us how the world came to be — what the stages and processes were — but not why, or who made it. For that we need the Bible.
Second — God is perfect.God is actually so perfect that nothing which is not perfect can survive where God is. God is utterly, utterly against every kind of wrong, evil, wickedness, sin. Call it what you like. Put simply, in the Bible, God says: "I, the Lord am holy".
Third — God loves us. God made us, and he loves us. More about that later.
About us
There's no two ways about it. God is perfect, but we certainly are not. We lie. We cheat. We even steal. We get angry with each other. We hurt each other with our words. And, what's worse, we then try to cover up and say that we're not really as bad as we seem. Maybe people see through us. Maybe they don't. But God certainly does.
The very, very bad news is that this completely disqualifies us from having any kind of a relationship with God.
Have you ever tried to pray, and felt that your words didn't go any higher than the ceiling? The fact is, they probably didn't. As long as we are stuck in what the Bible calls 'sin', God isn't listening.
And there's more. The Bible says that there's a natural consequence to sin, and that is death. And, after death, judgement. And after judgement, hell.
Good News
The Good News is that God does not want this to happen to anyone. He is patient with us, and He has made a way for our sins to be cancelled us, and for us to know Him once again.
The Bible says that God loved the world so much that He sent his only Son, Jesus. Jesus was born as a human baby, and he grew up as humans do. But the remarkable thing about Jesus was that, in Jesus, God lived among us. He was tempted in all the ways we are tempted, but he never sinned.
Jesus had just one purpose in coming to earth. It was to save us. And there was only one way to do that. If the penalty for sin is death, then someone had to die in our place. But who could die for all of humanity? Only the Creator of humanity — only God himself.
Jesus came to die on a cross, condemned as a criminal. The Roman judge who tried him thought he was dying as a pawn in a political game. The priests who had him killed thought they were safeguarding their own futures.
But Jesus actually died in our place. Yours and mine. We who are guilty deserved to die. But Jesus, who was not guilty of anything, died for us.
Did it work? Did Jesus's death cancel out all the sin of mankind? How can we know?
The answer is, yes it did. 48 hours later, on the third day, Jesus was alive again. This has never happened before in the history of the universe, and it won't happen again. Jesus rose from the dead because, after he had paid for all the sin of mankind, his goodness still won out. Jesus defeated death, the final enemy.
You can believe all that, but just believing it won't make you a Christian. As a matter of fact, even the Devil believes all that, and he doesn't like it at all.
For it to make a difference in your life, you need to admit that you are guilty, and that Jesus's death was for you. Admitting it to yourself isn't enough, nor is admitting it to your best friend. You have to admit it to God.
This is not difficult. It's not even very 'religious'. All you need to do is to pray now. No special words are required — just admit to God that you really are guilty, and you really do deserve death.
Don't stop now, though. Because there is just one more thing. It's time to put your trust in God, through Jesus. The words you use aren't important. In prayer, once again, ask Jesus Christ to come into your life to save you from your sin. And ask him to be the Lord of your life.
You can't have one without the other. To have Jesus save you is to ask him to take his proper place as your King.
What happens next?
You may not feel any different (although you may — the feelings aren't that important). But if you have asked Jesus into your life, something invisible and amazing has happened. Don't worry about it 'not working'. It isn't a magic trick. Jesus has promised that he won't turn anyone away who comes to him.
When you asked Jesus to come into your life, he actually came, through the Holy Spirit. God's Holy Spirit will help you to live the new life you have committed yourself to.
Becoming a Christian is like being born. In fact, Jesus described it as 'being born for a second time'. Once a child is born, there are certain things you have to do. These things wouldn't make a child alive if they weren't already alive, but the child won't stay alive unless you do them.
It's the same with being a Christian — although the things are different.
You will need to:
Read the Bible — we suggest getting a modern translation like the New International Version and beginning with John's Gospel. Read a chapter or so every day. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes, as the chapters are very short.
Pray — God is now listening. You can take anything to him. And you should. Prayer is the Christian's life-line to God. Pray every day. Pray more often. In fact, you can pray as often and as long as you want. God is listening. And no special religious jargon is required. Just use your own words.
Find a church — find a good, Bible-believing church which welcomes new Christians. If you are in Stechford, come down to see us. We meet in Victoria Road at 10:00 am on Sunday mornings and 6.30 pm on Sunday evenings.
Tell other people — tell other people that you have just become a Christian. Don't hide it for a while until you are a 'good' Christian (actually, you will carry on fighting with sin all your life, but God will carry on forgiving you). The best time to tell people is now. Some people will be interested enough to ask you what it's about. If they are, then tell them!
Stechford Baptist Church • Victoria Road • Stechford • Birmingham B33 8AH. Map. Stechford is in the Stechford and Yardley North Ward, and is close to Hodge Hill.
