What the Bible Teaches About Becoming A Christian
What is a Christian?
The first Christians were called "Christians" because of their belief in Jesus as the resurrected Son of God, and because of their commitment to follow Him and be obedient to His commands. Becoming a Christian is the process of learning about and accepting God's provision for the forgiveness of sins through the sacrificial death of His Son and obeying His commands as taught in the Bible. (Romans 10:14; James 1:21)
What is sin?
The Bible teaches that God created the world and then created man and woman to worship and serve Him. The first man and woman, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God. Disobeying God, or rebelling against him, is called sin. (Romans 5:19)
What is the result of sin?
The Bible teaches that the result of sin is death (both physical and spiritual death) best defined as "separation from God". (Romans 3:23 & 6:23)
What restores our relationship with God?
It was the work of Jesus on the cross that made it possible for the relationship between God and man to be put back together. Since sin separated man from God, God provided a sacrifice to get rid of man's sin. A sacrifice is an animal or person that is killed in the place of the person who actually committed the sin deserving the death penalty. God sent Jesus to die as a sacrifice to pay for every person's sins. This was God's eternal plan. (John 1:29; Acts 2:22-42)
The Bible teaches that to become a Christian you must do the following:
Believe Jesus is the Son of God.
You must believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of living God who died to save you from your sins. (John 3:16-18; Mark 16:16)
Repent of your sins.
Because of your sin has alienated and separated you from God you must surrender control of your life back to Jesus. To repent means that you are sorry that you are living in opposition to God. To repent means that you turn away from your sinful life, change any sinful behavior (with God's help), and do what Jesus says. To repent means to tell God (and mean it) that you are sorry your sins put Jesus on the cross. (Luke 13:3; Acts 2:38; II Peter 3:9, II Corinthians 7:10)
Confess who Jesus is.
Confession means to publicly tell what you believe about Jesus. You declare with your mouth the decision that has been made in your heart. (Matthew 10:32; Romans 10:9-10)
Be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.
Baptism is the simple act of being immersed in water by another Christian. It can be done in any body of water. The Bible connects baptism to the forgiveness of sins, receiving the Holy Spirit, putting on Christ, a clean conscience, symbolic participation in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, being born again, and becoming a new creature or person. (Acts 2:38; I Peter 3:18-22; Romans 6:1-5; Galatians 3:26-27; Colossians 2:11-12; Acts 22:16)
Though times have changed, people are still people, Jesus is still the same yesterday, today, and forever, and the Gospel is still the power of God for salvation! (Romans 1:16)