What is a Christian? Christians trust in Jesus Christ to bring us into right relation with God. Out of gratitude for what Christ has done for us and by the power of his Holy Spirit, Christians seek to live in obedience to Jesus, following his teaching and pattern of life. While there may not be a standard order or formula to becoming a Christian, below are some basic ingredients of Christian conversion, based on the New Testament. These ingredients have been put forward in an easy to remember acronym, ABC.
A couple of important notes before looking at the outline. First, salvation is first and foremost a matter of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, out of his love for us and the whole world (John 3:16) and what he is doing in us to bring us to Himself (John 6:44). The below outline suggests how we must respond to what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. It is not meant to suggest that we earn salvation by our works or get any credit for our salvation. We are all beggars before God. As one Anglican theologian put it, a beggar must acknowledge his destitution, go to a place where help is given, and hold out his hand; but he does not merit or cause help to be given by taking these necessary actions. Second, the outline below deals with the process of becoming a Christian, it does not discuss being a Christian. Being a Christian, learning to live as a follower of Jesus, is a life-long process.
Here is the outline:
A=Admit. We must admit that we have sinned against God and others. The essence of sin is living a prideful, self-centered life. This way of life seperates us from God and harms others. Humbly admitting to God that we have lived wrongly and that we are sorry is an entry-point into the kingdom of God. (Romans 3:23; Luke 17: 0-17).
B=Believe. We must believe in Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection for our salvation. We trust that Jesus Christ, by his death on the cross, bore God’s just penalty for our sin. His cross was no accident of history. He came to die for our sins. The New Testament claims that Jesus rose again from the dead after three days in the tomb. We trust that because of His resurrection, we can have eternal communion with God in the life to come and power to overcome sin in the present life. (Mt. 26:28, Romans 3:25; Romans 6:4-7).
C=Confess. To confess Jesus Christ as Lord was the basic statement of faith of the earliest Christians. This public, verbal profession of faith was risky – it put one at odds with Roman Emperor who claimed to be Lord. Jesus expects no less of his followers today. When we accept Him as savior, we are also called to accept Him as the Lord and ruler of our life. Not only should we confess in prayer that Jesus is Lord, but we must be willing to confess to other that Jesus is our Lord. Following the command of Christ, adults and youth who have never been baptized and who have recently come to faith in Christ should be baptized as a public profession of their faith after proper instruction in the faith (Romans 10:9; Matthew 10:32; Matthew 28:19).
