by Jacob Ninan
One of the most common mistakes people make when it comes to Christianity is that they consider themselves to be Christians when they are not. This is a most crucial distinction because whether they are truly Christians or not will decide whether they will spend eternity with God in heaven or in hell.
Jesus came proclaiming the kingdom of God and inviting people to repent of their sins and to come to Him. One day, Nicodemus came to talk to Jesus. He was a Pharisee and a leader of the Jews who was well-versed in the Jewish scriptures. But Jesus came straight to the point and told him that unless a man was born again, he could not see the kingdom of God, let alone enter it (Jn.3:3,5). To become a Christian is not a natural change that any man can make, such as changing religion, beliefs or practices. It can only through a supernatural work of God where He creates spiritual life in a person's spirit through implanting His seed (1Jn.3:9). A Christian is one who has Christ in him.
Where many people go wrong is to assume that they are Christians because of different natural factors, without having God causing them to be born again. If one is born in a 'Christian' family or carries a Christian name, that will not make him a Christian in God's eyes. A spiritual rebirth that comes from God alone can make someone a Christian and no amount of human effort can suffice (Jn.1:13). Having one's name in a church register is not going to be valid before God, because what He looks for is if a person's name is in the Lamb's book of life (Rev.21:27). The only way to get our name there is through being born again. Some believe in the false doctrine of 'baptismal regeneration', but anything that we do from our side cannot qualify us for heaven.
Even if a man has got high degrees from a Bible college and can teach others, unless he is born again he is not going to find himself in heaven. Many people are deceiving themselves thinking that God cannot possibly reject them, because they are very active in the church, singing in the choir, teaching in Sunday School, helping with festivities and social work, etc. Think of Nicodemus who was a Jewish scholar and a leader of the Jews and who found himself in need of being born again!
I myself was someone who once imagined I was a good Christian because I was going to the Sunday School, sang in the choir and was the son of a church leader. But as I grew up I began to realise that my life was not matching what described a Christin in the Bible. Then I came across some young people who were giving their testimonies of how Jesus had saved them in their lives, and I came to realise that I did not have what they had. It was when I placed my life into the hands of Jesus in my hopeless condition and trusted Him enough to hand over the complete ownership of my life to Him, that He caused me to be born again and become a Christian in reality. I discovered slowly that God had begun to change my life from inside.
Now I am greatly concerned for my 'fellow' 'Christians' who have not actually become Christian but who are presuming that they are Christians. Even though I may appear to be acting in a dramatic manner, I will have to warn such people that until they are born again, they are only going to end up in hell.
What I am suggesting is that we should examine ourselves to see if we are truly born again. The way Jesus said this could be done was to examine our life for the fruit that come from being Christians (Matt.7:16). Natural life cannot produce spiritual fruit.
One supernatural change that takes place in our life when we are born again is that we begin to have a hatred towards sin. Earlier we used to do whatever we liked, even when we knew that it was wrong, and only tried not to get caught. That was from our natural life, our sinful life, which we had inherited from Adam and Eve. But now we find our heart hating those things and we don't even want to do them. This is because God has given us a new birth with His nature that hates sin (1Jn.3:9). It is not that a true Christian never sins. But we don't want to sin, and sin is no longer a habit for us. If we fall in some sin, it is a failure on our part and we now want to set it right and get back to being faithful before God.
When we are born again and realise what God has done for us who deserve eternal death as the punishment for our sins, a new desire comes in our heart because of gratitude to God. Now the goal in our life is to be pleasing to God in every area of our life for the rest of our life and to get rid of everything in our life that we know to be displeasing to God (2Cor.5:9).
One inexplicable change that happens in our heart after we are born again is to have strong appetite in us for the living word of God. The words in the Bible become our living manna which we feed on for our spiritual life (1Pet.2:2). Now when we read it, we can sense God speaking to us, and we begin to understand what the words really mean. Nobody has to force us to read it, but we long to read it ourselves, and to get to know God and His ways better. And, what we find in the word, we want to follow, because that is what gives us direction, help, comfort, encouragement, etc.
"We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death" (1Jn.3:14). John points this out as a mark of our having entered into life from death, our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Since we have begun to taste the life of God we see an affinity in our heart towards others around us who also have the same life in them. We are somehow drawn to them, more than to our relatives and friends.
When we get into a relationship with Jesus, we find that He becomes more important to us than everybody else we know, including our closest relatives and friends (Matt.10:37).
Most people in the world aim for rising up in rank and recognition above the others as much as possible. But what we have received from God is His nature that made Him give His Son to death in order to redeem us from sin. We too begin to have a nature that cares for others and is willing to make sacrifices in order to serve others (Matt.20:26).
Instead of glorying in our position, wealth, family reputation, etc., the more we get close to God we remember from where He picked us up. The apostle Paul was possibly one of the most recognised Christians of his time, for the number of churches he had developed, the number of people he had led to Christ, the number of books he had written, the great miracles he had done, etc. But he never forgot how he had been an unbeliever, a blasphemer, a persecutor, etc. (1Tim.1:13). This made him so grateful to the Lord that he was willing to lay his own life in service for Him.
One thing that drove Paul was the zeal for the name of the Lord (2Thess.1:11,12). The Lord Jesus taught us to aim for the glory of God's name, His kingdom to be set up and His will to be done (Matt.6:9,10). Many non-Christians wonder why we are so eager to go everywhere and tell others about the good news of salvation. It is like an asthmatic who discovered a cure for asthma and experienced relief from his struggles to breathe, who now wants to go around and tell all the other asthmatics about this wonderful cure!
If 'fruit' such as these cannot be seen in our life, don't we need to ask ourselves whether we have been truly born again. Isn't it better to discover the truth now than to find out when it is too late?
The simple way of salvation We cannot be saved by anything we can accomplish by ourselves but only by leaning entirely on the unmerited favour God is willing to show us and has made readily available for. The first step is to acknowledge in our heart that we are sinners in the eyes of the holy God. We must confess to God that we realise we are only sinners who have no merit of our own before God and who actually deserve the wrath of God against our sins. What we must believe in our heart is that there is no other thing except the death of Jesus the Son of God on the cross that can suffice to pay the punishment for our sins. Once we understand this, we can receive forgiveness as a free gift from God.
The immediate response on receiving forgiveness from God is to surrender ourselves as a sacrifice to Him, wanting to do whatever He wants from us. We can then ask for the filling of the Holy Spirit to enable us to know God better, and to be what He wants us to be and do what He wants.
My humble request to anyone who reads this and whose heart has raised questions about your relationship with God, is to open your heart to know that God truly wants to have a proper relationship with you as your Father. Go to Him in humility and honesty and receive this gift of salvation freely. Please remember that God looks at our heart and cannot be impressed by any external things we may do.