How to Become a Christian

Jesus is reported to have said, “Come to me, if you feel weighed down by life, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). For this invitation to be meaningful, it is important, in fact necessary, to understand who Jesus was and who he continues to be for humanity.

Jesus was both the same and different from the rest of us. Like us, he lived, breathed, ate, and did everything else people do. He also suffered, emotionally and physically. Unlike us, however, Jesus was the self-disclosure of God. He embodied God’s nature, God’s essence. To become a Christian is to recognize these things and the qualitative difference between Jesus and us. It is also to come to terms with the reality that Jesus appeared on earth for the express purpose of conveying us to his Father, the creator of the universe and everything in it.

To become a Christian means reckoning with our failings as creatures with obligations to God and other people. We fail every day by not fully loving God with our mind, heart, and strength. This does not mean thinking about God all the time, so caught up in adoration that we forget to brush our teeth or stop at red lights. It does mean allowing God’s invisible Spirit, who indwells every true Christian, to guide our thoughts and actions.

Becoming a Christian also involves coming to terms with our failings in relation to other people. Although it may be difficult to admit, we have failed to love people in countless ways. Our inclination is to look out for ourselves, loved ones, and friends, whose welfare we instinctively put above that of others. In this way, we resemble animals.

When we truly recognize these things in ourselves, we run into an acutely uncomfortable requirement: repentance. The idea of repentance can be discomforting because it implies submission, and we have grown up in a society that fosters self-reliance, and self-determination. Kneeling to pray can seem unnatural, beneath the dignity of any assertive man or woman raised in our competitive culture.

Yet, to approach God, like it or not, is to repent. Repentance is sorrow and sometimes remorse, along with the decision to act differently. It is to experience ongoing conversion, a commitment to head in a new and better direction.

Central to all of this is the realization that we need what only God in the person of Jesus can provide, which is to restore our relationship with the divine. The Bible has a word for Jesus, which is savior. But what, exactly, do we need to be saved from? One answer is ourselves. We need to be rescued from the pride, self-absorption, and self-orientation that prompts us to ignore and rebel against God, to care too little about others, and perhaps directly or indirectly to harm them. Christians who take the New Testament seriously also find it difficult to explain or rationalize away its many reference to a spiritual agent of evil and our need to be protected.

Christians believe that in response to asking God to adopt us into God’s family as a sibling of Jesus, we become part of a new humanity. However flawed, God grants the gift of eternal existence. Life on earth is God’s greatest gift to us here. Infinitely greater is life with God forever.

If we refuse the hand of Jesus, we risk annihilation or worse. Exactly what worse consists of, no one knows, but we all understand the meaning of annihilation. Game over.

Only God knows what happens to those who have never heard of Jesus. Perhaps, as the Apostle Paul says in the his letter to those Christians living in Rome, they are judged by the light within. It could be an entirely different story for those who have heard the invitation of Jesus, but in their quest for what they take to be the good life, ignore it. Actually hearing the gospel can be difficult. Some people, perhaps understandably, close their ears because they have been put off by hype-artists who sell prosperity or healing instead of proclaiming Jesus.

If you want to become a Christian, you might consider this prayer: “Father, forgive all the bad things I’ve done and the good things I should have done but neglected or refused to do. I want you to become Lord of my life, Jesus, so please fill me with your Spirit, and makes all things new. I accept your love and offer of rest.”