You cannot do anything to earn your salvation or be good enough...none of us can. God's Grace has saved us...our love for Him will naturally produce good works out of our desire to live for Him because we love Him.
Thanks Carla ,I believe clarity is very important in these discussions ,and yes indeed faith is the keyword ,and before we can build faith up in something ,we do need to first acknowledge ,whatever we are going to put our faith in......God be with you.......Andrew.
The simplistic answer for me is found in John 3, especially verse 3, being born-again. Then that leads me to Romans 8 and being led by the Holy Spirit. As some of the old-timers used to say, we need to be "twice born."
Anything less is not Christian. Christianity is a life lived out in relationship with Jesus.
Not fair Pastor - you are cheating the discussion hahaha by doing what scripture does so well. That is to envelope a magnitude of truth in a few words.
Amen, but let me ask you then, how do you know you believed, that you are born again? Well you already answered that one as well, by saying you are led by the Spirit. Snap!
I guess to me a 'false christian' is a person who calls themselves a christian and yet does not live for Christ...they talk the talk but don't walk the walk.
Permalink Reply by RoyW on October 7, 2010 at 9:01am
Raj,
The Scripture is written to those who believe that they may know that they have eternal life. We know those who believe in Jesus have eternal life. I struggled with this very issue for so many years until He clearly showed me that I was saved and that I belonged to Him. I am not saying that all Christians know for sure that they are saved but I am absolutely confident that you can know. I was one that couldn't live with not knowing. I needed some kind of miracle. I grew up believing that you had to be living a perfect life in order to know that you were saved. He showed me that He had died for my weaknesses. That is no excuse for sinning but I was not sinning willfully. We are instructed not to sin but also told that if we do sin we have One that makes intercession for us. This is the sin that is not unto death. Notice what John says:
1 Jn 5:13-15
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him. NIV
Is it proper to ask Him to save you from all your sins? Is it proper to ask Him to save you? Of course, it is. Do you believe He hears you? If you know that He hears you, you know that you have what we asked of Him. Blessed be the Name of our Lord that takes away all our sin. We have been blessed beyond any measure.
Raj, it is His will to forgive you of all your sin. However, you must present yourself before Him and ask Him for that blessing. Eternal life is an absolute free gift. There is nothing you can do to earn this. You must come to Him as a child longing for this blessing.
Actually we can KNOW that we are Christians. I'm sorry I don't have the exact reference for this because I'm on a computer at the library and don't have access to my bible. In Romans Paul tells us that the 'Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God." Again I apologize for not having the exact reference.
As A W Tozer says in one of his books " we only know as much about God or Christianity as the Spirit reveals to us. "
But Paul tells us in Corinthians that God reveals these things to us by His Spirit.
Permalink Reply by JB on October 7, 2010 at 9:17am
You might have a form of Christianity, but to be a false Christian?
You can’t be a Christian! And be false. You are either one or the other.
Wouldn’t that be like saying “I am a Republican, Democrat?”
I don’t know about the validity of this, but it is something to think about, right?
Joe
Permalink Reply by RoyW on October 7, 2010 at 9:32am
Joe,
I absolutely agree with you. You are either a believer or unbeliever. I can't find anywhere in Scripture where there is another category. Believers go to heaven. Unbelievers go to hell. I don't think there is an in between place for those who might say they are neither one.
And it is better to be either hot or cold ,than luke warm ,God don't like people sitting on the fence!!! Revelation 3:16 So because you are lukewarm--- neither hot nor cold---I am about to spit you out of my mouth.