What Is A Biblical Christian?
By Albert N. Martin
There are many matters of which ignorance is of little importance. Most of us, for example, are not familiar with Einstein's theory of relativity. Yet, that hardly affects our life. But to the question "What is a Biblical Christian?" we cannot afford to be ignorant and indifferent. We must never make the assumption lightly that I am a true Christian. Reason: The wrong assumption is eternally tragic and fatal.Romans 5:12; John 14:21-24 To help you determine when does a person have the right to the name "Christian", let me set before you the four-strand definition that the Bible itself gives. What is a Biblical Christian? He is a person...
1. who has confronted his personal sin problem.
Christianity is unique in that it is a sinner's religion. When the angel announced to Joseph the approaching birth of Christ, he said, "Thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins." The Lord Himself says, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." A Christian is one who has seriously faced his personal sin problem.All that the Bible teaches about sin can be reduced to this fact: every one of us has a bad record and a bad heart.
Bad record. By "a bad record", I am using a terminology that describes the doctrine of human guilt because of sin. We obtained a bad record long before our existence upon the earth: "As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have
sinned" (Romans 5:12). We all sinned in Adam. Our first parent was appointed by God to represent the whole human race. So, when he sinned, we all sinned in him and were all charged with guilt.Furthermore, after we are born, additional guilt accrues to us for our own transgressions. "For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not" (Ecc. 7:20). God measures the totality of our human experience by a standard that is absolutely inflexible. It weighs not only our external deeds, but our thoughts as well. Hence, the stirring of unjust anger, the Lord Jesus says, is tantamount to murder; and a lustful look, adultery.
God is keeping a detailed record in which are listed our every thought, every intention, every deed, and every dimension of human experience that is contrary to God's holy law. That record, which is among the books that will be opened on Judgment Day, documents our guilt. Hence, Romans 3:19 declares that the entire human race stands guilty before the Almighty God.
Bad heart. Besides our bad record, our sin problem arises from what we are as well. When Adam sinned, he not only became guilty before God, he also became defiled and polluted in his nature. Having inherited that nature from him, we all have the problem of an evil nature or a bad heart.
Jeremiah 17:9 speaks of this defilement: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" And Jesus speaks of it in Mark 7:21: "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders" and in verse 22, many other sins. In Romans 8:7, Paul asserts, "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." By nature, the disposition of every human heart can be pictured as a clenched fist raised against the living God.
Have your bad record and your bad heart ever become matters of deep concern to you? A Biblical Christian is one who in all seriousness takes to heart his own problem of sin. The degree to which we feel the weight of sin differs from one person to another. So is the length of time over which we are convicted of our problem. But at some point, every true believer realizes that he is liable to be eternally condemned because of his bad record and bad heart.
2. who has seriously considered God's remedy for sin.
Thankfully, God has taken the initiative in doing something for the sinner. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son," (John 3:16). "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (I John 4:10). And "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us" (Eph. 2:4).Those familiar verses teach that the Christian faith is not a religious self-help scheme where you patch yourself up with the aid of God. It is unique in that Christ is the only Savior for sinners, and that our help comes all from above and meets us where we are. We cannot pull our
selves up by our own bootstraps. This remedy has at least three simple but profoundly wonderful focal points.First, it is bound up in a personthe Lord Jesus Christ, who is both God and man. Jesus Himself said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6).
Second, it is centered in the cross upon which Jesus died. John the Baptist uses the Old Testament image of the sacrificial lamb when he points to Jesus and says, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Jesus Himself says, "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Matt. 20:28).
The cross is not to be thought of as an abstract idea or a religious symbol. Its meaning is what God declares it to be. The cross was the place where God, by imputation, heaped the sins of His people upon His Son. In the language of the Apostle Paul, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13), and "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (II Cor. 5:21).
Third, God's remedy is offered to all men without discrimination. Knowing how much God hates sin and sinners, we wonder how a righteous God can do anything other than consigning me to everlasting punishment. But thankfully, in Christ crucified God has provided a remedy that is openly offered to all.
This gracious offer comes in such unfettered invitations as "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price" (Isa. 55:1) and "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28).
3. who has complied with God's terms for salvation.
When Jesus began his earthly ministry, He says, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:14-15). Right after His crucifixion and resurrection, He told His disciples that "repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:47). The Apostle Paul then preached "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21) to both the Jews and the Greeks.To obtain God's provision for sin, we must repent and we must believe.
Repentance. What is repentance? The Shorter Catechism gives this definition:
Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension (that is, the laying hold) of the mercy of God in Christ, does, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.Repentance is the Prodigal Son coming to his senses in the far country. Once he recognized his sin, he arose, and came to his father, turning his back on everything that belonged to his old life-style. Drawing him home was the confidence that his father was merciful and gracious. It is a beautiful stroke in our Lord's picture when He says, "But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell
on his neck, and kissed him" (Luke 15:20).The prodigal son did not come strutting up to his father, talking about making a decision to come home. True repentance involves recognizing that I have sinned against the God of heaven and that I am not worthy to be called his son. Yet, when I am prepared to come back meekly, the Father meets me, and throws his arms of reconciling love and mercy about me.
Faith. Repentance is always joined to faith. What is faith? Faith is casting myself upon the Savior in the nakedness of my needs, trusting Him to be to me all that He has promised to be. Faith brings nothing to Christ but an empty hand with which to take all that is in Christ.
What is in Christ? Among other things, His death on the cross that atones for all my sins, His righteousness that is counted as mine; and His gift of the Holy Spirit. Also in Christ are adoption, sanctification and ultimately glorification. "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (I Cor. 1:30).
4. whose life testifies to his repentance and faith.
Paul says in Acts 26:20 that men "should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance." Speaking of such works, he writes, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). The apostle further states in Galatians 5 that faith works by love. Wherever there is true faith in Christ, genuine love to Christ will be implanted. And where there is love to Christ there will be obedience to Christ.Jesus says, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me...He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings" (John 14: 21,24). We are saved by trusting Christ, not by loving and obeying Him; but a trust that does not produce love and obedience is not saving faith.
True faith works by giving you joy in loving and in obeying your Savior; it enables you to live a life that glorifies God. With true faith, you are willing to be counted as old-fashioned because you believe that there are divine, unchangeable moral and ethical standards. You are willing to take your stand against sexual immorality and the murdering of unborn babies. For Jesus said, "Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in
the glory of his Father with the holy angels" (Mark 8:38).Hence, a Biblical Christian is not one who merely says, "I know I am a sinner, but I have repented and believe that Jesus is my Lord and Savior." That is not enough. Your repentance and belief must be reflected in a life of purposeful obedience to Jesus Christ.
"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;" Jesus says, "but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). In I John 2:4 we read, "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him."
Important questions. Can you make your claim to be a Christian as the Bible defines it? Does your life manifest the fruits of repentance and faith? Do you possess a life of attachment to Christ, obedience to Christ, and confession of Christ? Not perfectly, no! Every day you must pray, "Forgive me my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me," but at the same time you can also say, "For me to live is Christ."
Are you a Biblical Christian? I leave you to answer in the deep chambers of your own mind and heart. Respond with an answer that you will be prepared to live with for eternity. Be content with no response but one that will find you comfortable in death, and safe in the day of judgment. o
Rev. Albert N. Martin is senior pastor of Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey, P. O. Box 395, Montville, NJ 07045. He is also heard on the God's Word to Our Nation radio broadcast. (http://www.tbcnj.org).