Becoming a Christian

Some time ago a young man said to me that how to become a Christian is the best-kept secret in America. I believe he was right, because the answer to the question “How can I become a Christian?” or “How can I get right with God?” is not often clearly stated in our pulpits, and lay Christians are not always able to give an answer either. As a result, many people are filled with a false confidence before God of what a Christian is—perhaps believing it comes about by biblical knowledge, good works, optimism, or whatever it might be. And others are simply indifferent or confused.

Yesterday, we concluded by saying that because everyone is a sinner, everyone therefore deserves to be separated from God. Now sometimes people object to this teaching of the Word of God because they think that somehow it makes them the same as the worst criminals. In one sense, I should admit, it does, because both equally need a Savior. Yet this confuses the point. I’ll admit that if you are a fine person with good character, I would much rather have you than a scoundrel for a friend. But, the point I am making is that it is not what satisfies me, but what satisfies God. It is certainly good that people on this earth live by high standards—the higher the standard the better. As a matter of fact, once a person becomes a Christian he is enabled to live by even higher standards and to do it out of right motives.

Third, the pursuit of human goodness blinds men to their true condition. I remember seeing a movie years ago, in which a number of men in canoes were racing each other on a river. They were paddling as fast as they could go. First one man would get ahead, then another man would get ahead. But the joke of the movie was that the water was moving down the stream faster than their boats were moving up. So although they were racing one another as fast as their paddles could take them, all the while they were being swept toward a waterfall. In the final scene all the boats went over the waterfall together. Well, that is what men are doing. They have their minds so much on themselves, they do not see that the goodness of which they are capable is not taking them anywhere.

But now there is a second truth, and the second truth is a great one. The second truth that God asks you to believe is that if you are to become a Christian, you must believe that He loves you in spite of your sin and that He has acted in Jesus Christ to remove that sin and to begin to make you perfect once more by conforming you to Christ’s image. This is the heart of such great Scripture passages as John 3:16 and Romans 5:8. Romans 5:8 says, “But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Or John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Are you a Christian? That is the question. Is it real? The answer does not depend upon your good works, but rather upon your relationship to the Savior. Have you ever asked Jesus Christ to be your Savior? You must say, “Lord Jesus Christ, I admit that I am less perfect than you are, and therefore that I deserve nothing–that I have no claims upon you. Nevertheless, I believe that you love me and died for me and that now by grace I can stand before you, clothed in your righteousness. Finally, I commit my life to you.