Christ Defines a Christian
How are we to know what a Christian is or how to become one?  We must go back to the original source, Christ himself.  If one wants to become a Marxist, then one must go to the original writings of Marx and there one will find what it means to be a Marxist.  If one wants to know what Confucianism is, then one must go back to the saying and dialogues of Confucius and there one will discover what a Confucianist is.  Likewise, to know what a Christian is, one must go back to Christ, from which we derive Christian, and hear his testimony as recorded in the Bible by the many original eyewitnesses, see Luke 1:1-4, John 20:30-31, Acts 26:26, 1 Corinthians 15:3-6, 1 John 1:1-3. 

Bad News
Jesus Christ tells his disciples in John 16:8 that he will send the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin.  The Christian is one who knows he has sinned and violated not merely his own conscience, but the objective holiness of God.   To be convicted and conscious of your own sin is the first step to knowing what it means to be a Christian.  Our sin, according to Christ, merits for us condemnation and the just judgment of God.  Jesus even goes as far as to say that we will one day have to give account for every careless word we have spoken, Matthew 12:36.  This is the bad news of Christianity, but without this bad news the good news would not be good news, but merely news.

Good News
Though Jesus begins with bad news, he delivers good news not only with his words, but punctuates it in his person and his work.  Jesus tells us he has come that we might have life and have it eternally, and that it is he who gives eternal life, John 10:28.  This eternal life is attained for sinners not by sinners themselves, but by Christ!  He has come to live the perfect life that we cannot and have not lived, and to die the death that our sins justly deserve.  In Mark 10:45 Christ tells us that he has come to give his own life as a ransom or payment for many.  Jesus takes the death, judgment, penalty and condemnation that sinners deserve.  The ultimate act of God that sinners deserve is His just wrath, which is to say we deserve for God to turn his back upon us and to cast us from His presence.  Jesus takes this in our place.  Matthew 27:46 testifies that on the cross Jesus cries out “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me.  He becomes not merely cosmically ignored, but takes upon himself the wrath and judgment of God.  This act of the cross completes the justice of God upon sinners.  This is why Jesus also says from the cross, “It is finished,” John 19:30.  By this Jesus does not mean that his life is over or about to end, but that God’s cosmic justice against sin is finished.  The word used here is “tetelestai,” which means the debt is paid in full.  It was a commercial term used by merchants to indicate a debt has been paid in full, nothing else is owed.  Jesus, on the cross, paid the sinners debt to God in full.

Not only has he come to bear our sins, but also to achieve for us the righteousness God requires.  Jesus says in Matthew 3:15 that the things he does, he does to fulfill all righteousness.  We completely misunderstand the good news if we think Jesus came to merely be an example.  We need more than an example, we need a savior.  Jesus came to do for us what we could not; this is the essence of the message of the Bible.  The Christian message can be summarized with this one word: substitution.  Jesus is our substitute who achieves heaven for us.  Jesus is the righteous one and he gives us his righteousness by faith.  So Jesus not only takes our sin, but clothes us in his righteousness.

Becoming a Christian
So, what is a Christian?  It is one who knows Jesus and believes in him for eternal life, John 6:40.  Jesus did not merely live a perfect life and die a sacrificial death on the cross, but he also rose from the dead.  This means, He is alive!  You can know Christ personally and intimately as Savior and Lord.  How?  How does one become a person who knows Christ intimately and is saved by his person and work?  Jesus gives us a simple answer when he says in John 14:1, “trust..in me”.  You can be saved from your sin only by trusting in the one who can bear the burden of the judgment your sins deserve and that is Jesus Christ, who now ever lives to make your salvation secure.  You can have heaven because he is righteous for you.

If you were to die tonight and God were to ask you: Why should I let you into heaven?  The only correct answer according to Jesus, is Jesus!  Our good works can never make up for sins committed against a perfect, infinitely holy God.  Only Christ can bear our sins and give us the righteousness we need to enter the presence of God.   Why should God let you into heaven?  The correct answer is that he should not but for the person and work of Christ on my behalf, who I now know and love and cherish.  If you would like to talk with Pastor Doug Coyle about this or any other questions you might have call the church office, 575-526-5577 or indicate on the yellow visitor card.