What Does It Mean to Be a Christian?

Christianity remains the religion with the most adherents worldwide, so it's no surprise to find a great many ideas about what it means to be a Christian. Since only God knows for sure who is and who is not a Christian, we will approach this question with humility. Let's begin with what, it seems to us, doesn't by itself make someone a Christian.

Following Christian ethics is admirably noble, but this alone may not be enough. Beginning in the nineteenth century, certain well-known philosophers and religious leaders began promoting the idea that what it means to be a Christian is to imitate Jesus by loving others, not just with words but also with actions.

In the New Testament, the writers of two of the four narratives of Jesus' life (gospels) report him saying that to love one's neighbor as one's self is one of two supreme divine commands. Before announcing this, however, he says that the first and greatest imperative is to love God with one's heart, mind, and soul. If loving God means loving people and that's all there were to it, why not just have one command instead of two? In what sense is loving God greater?

To be a Christian, as we understand the term, we'd like to suggest two conditions a person must fulfill. Although none of us may know everything that's sufficient to make someone a Christian, at least these two things seem necessary.

Before discussing them, however, let's look at what actually happens inside someone who, maybe for the first time, recognizes and embraces Christ for who he is, Lord of the Cosmos. What, we might ask, happens when a person receives God's offer of love, acceptance, and forgiveness, and lays aside defensive attempts at self-justification? The short answer is transformation. This change is invisible and cannot be measured in a laboratory, but it is nonetheless real. Although many shy away from this term, you might even say that something mystical happens.

There's likely to be little if any change in the new believer's outward appearance. Inwardly, however, things will be different, and so will that person's perceptions of the world. All things will, in a sense, become new. Right and wrong will take on a whole new meaning, and the person is likely to think, "God, that was you, there, there, and there, and all the while I never knew."

God now residing within the new Christian is the cause of this transformation. It's as if now living within the person is an inner voice, guiding him or her toward truth. The source of that voice is, in fact, God's Spirit. There will always be that nasty streak of rebellion running through all of us, which makes it easy to persuade ourselves that God's inner voice is telling us whatever we want to hear, rather than what's true. Nevertheless, God's voice is there for any Christian who truly wants to listen to it. As long as the Christian remains aligned with God, rather than venturing off in an untethered direction, creator and creature will work together: they will co-operate.

A byproduct of God indwelling the Christian is that he or she now participates in God's ongoing existence. This is an astonishing claim. Yet, it is what Jesus promised, that we would be what the Bible describes as joint heirs with Christ.

Here, then, are what we believe to be the two necessary beliefs:

To call yourself a Christian in any meaningful sense, it's necessary to embrace the fact that, after his execution at the hands of the Romans and a day and a half in the grave, God brought Jesus back to life. Christians have resisted attempts to water down this claim, for example by suggesting that Jesus only appeared to die, or that the whole thing was a hoax, a put-up job.

Stripping the resurrection out of Christianity turns it into a religion of the same name but devoid of its foundational assertion. The resurrection, Christians believe, was tangible and decisive proof of who and what Jesus was and is. If you deny the resurrection, you also have to rid yourself of any well-reasoned hope that you will survive death. Curiously, many people who identify themselves as atheists report that they believe in an afterlife.

No one can force you to believe something you don't. You will, therefore, only be convinced of the resurrection if it makes sense to you. If you're skeptical, we encourage you to take the time to read through the New Testament, perhaps beginning with its fourth book, the Gospel of John. As you read, consider asking God to guide you in your search for truth. If there is a God, it makes sense to assume that God will do that.

Belief in the physical resurrection of Jesus is the foundation for the second condition, which is to live in alignment with God through faith in Christ. Through Christ because apart from Jesus we would know little about God. This amounts to accepting Christ as your chief executive officer. Rather than continuing to view Jesus as a historical figure who once may have lived but is no longer relevant, Christ must become an ongoing presence, not just in the world at large but inside of you.

His spirit comes to live in the hearts and minds of those who embrace him as preeminent commander. This spirit nudges the Christian toward, rather than against or away from God. An individual Christian can resist a lot of  nudging, but it is always there.

Perhaps no Christian lives in continuous communion with God. The practical demands of life occupy our attention, which can make it hard for even the most passionate believer always to stay in touch with the commander. But a Christian never loses sight of who that commander is. When Christians pray, they are attempting to hear whatever the commander is communicating. The word communication comes from a Latin root meaning to share, impart, or inform. It also means to join or unite.

We have used the terms Jesus and Christ. Christ is not a last name but a title. The New Testament was written in Greek, and Christ is the Greek translation of the Jewish word messiah. Nearly all Christians before the last third of the first century were Jews. They understood messiah to mean the one chosen, sent, and commissioned by God for a specific purpose. As these early Christians eventually came to understand, this did not mean a new king who would lead a political rebellion against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire.

It meant something far more universal and astounding, the restoration of the ruptured relationship between humanity and God.