|
About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman Being
A Real Christian Just because the teacher
down the street fixes his car in his spare time does not make him an
auto mechanic. It is not who
he is. He is a teacher.
On the other hand, the guy at the car dealership around the
corner who has been trained and licensed to fix cars is an auto
mechanic. It is who he is.
What you do, then, does not necessarily constitute who you are.
With this in mind, read 2
Corinthians 5:17. "Therefore, if
anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and
see, the new has come!!" (Christian
Standard Bible) The apostle Paul
maintained that if you are a real Christian, you are no longer the
person you once were. You
are a brand new creation, and that due to the Spirit of the Almighty
Creator God residing within you. That
fact alone distinguishes a real Christian from a false Christian.
Think about it. The
Creator of all things material and all things spiritual lives within a
real Christian and is in the process of transforming him or her into His
likeness and image. That's
an amazingly powerful truth. With
that in mind, and, understanding that there are more similarities
between a man and a woman than differences, I suggest that a Christian
is as different from a non-Christian as a man is different from a woman.
This gets me back to my
opening paragraph. If you
are a real Christian, no longer who you once were, all you do emanates
or originates from your recreated self.
This is important because there are many in that which we call
church who think they are
Christians because, like the teacher down the street who fixes his car
on occasion, they do Christian things from time to time.
They may teach Sunday school, play the piano, take up the
offering, or whatever. Simply
doing these Christian things makes no one a Christian.
What makes one a Christian is seen in Romans 8:9. "You, however, are
not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if
indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the
Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ." If the Spirit of the
Almighty Creator God actually lives within you, and without Him you are
not a Christian, then, you are no longer the person you once were.
Despite the fact that your sinful tendencies still war against
your new self, you are a brand new creation in Christ, visibly
distinguishable from everyone else.
You don't do the Christian thing on the side.
You do the Christian thing because a Christian is who you are,
and who you are determines your eternal destiny. This question
begs to be asked. Are you a real Christians?
|