Being a Christian

December 27, 2016

Devotions:

        Some think that being a Christian is trying to follow the teachings of Jesus.  This is not what makes a person a Christian. You can follow all of Christ's teachings and still not make heaven. What makes a person a Christian is to receive what Jesus did for them.  Through out the Gospels Jesus is trying to get the Jews to see just this.  They thought that they could be pleasing to God by keeping the Law. But no one will get into heaven by keeping the Law.  Without Jesus we do not have the equipment to keep the Law. When we receive Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf and are born from above, He removes all our failures and replaces it with His success. We stand perfect before the Father in the fullness of Jesus perfection.  Our good works then flows out of our recreated human spirit. We now have a new nature that naturally wants to do the will of the Father. When we sin as Paul says, it is no longer I which sin but the sin which dwells in me. 

        Our living the Christian life is because we are Christians, with the life of Christ within us, not to become Christians. We do not try to follow the Ten Commandments but we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. Where He leads, He empowers.  The Ten Commandments and all the other commandments could not and can not empower us to fulfill them.

        There is nothing wrong with the teachings of Jesus, to be His disciple but we do that because that is who we are, a Christian, not to try to become a Christian.