How to Become a Christian

Becoming a Christian is a rewarding and fulfilling commitment that lasts a lifetime and sets your sights on eternity. The first thing you have to realize is that God is not an angry cosmic avenger quick to strike vengeance on the soul who slips up. No, the God I know and love first loved me – even while I was over my head is sin. God loves you as an individual person. He does not reject you for your sins, but wants to pull you out of your sins and show you his goodness. No one is unforgivable. God does not want you to clean up your act and come to Him. He wants you to come to Him and let Him do the cleaning. We can’t clean ourselves. God does not reject you. God longs for you and is calling you even now. Sin is the only thing that keeps you from having a loving relationship with Him but that is easily corrected.  God does not send anyone to hell.  If someone is determined to spend eternity in hell it will be over God's dead body.  The proof of this statement is Jesus Christ.  Jesus became sin for you, died on the cross, was separated from God so that you would not have to be.  If a person is determined to reject that gift of grace and choose hell, they are free to do so.   God has done everything including sacrificing himself, but He will not force himself on you.  You must choose to receive His gift of love.

First lets look at what sin is. Until we see our need for Christ, we can’t be forgiven. We have all heard the 10 commandments, don’t steal, don’t kill, don’t commit adultery… Jesus said those are outward signs of sin, but sin resides in our hearts and not only our actions. If we lust, we have already committed adultery in our heart; if we hate, we are a murderer; if we are greedy or envious, we are a thief. Romans 3:23 says, "for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God". We are all sinners and need forgiveness.  If you can't admit your sin, you can't see your need for salvation and can't receive it.  Our good deeds don’t earn God’s favor. Look at Romans 4:4, "To him who works, his wages are not counted as grace but as debt." If we work and do good deeds to try to earn our way to heaven, it does not earn God’s favor or grace, but it goes toward our debt of sin. And we can never do enough good works to become as holy as God. Therefore we can’t, by our deeds, ever enter God’s presence or go to heaven.

But look at Romans 4:5, "But to him who does not work, but believes on Him who died to justify the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness".  In Romans 5:6 we are clearly told that it was Jesus Christ who died for the ungodly. So if we work, we don’t become righteous, but only through faith in Jesus Christ. What is the only requirement? To qualify for this gift you must be ungodly. But this gift is only an offering until it is received. You are not automatically justified, you have to accept this gift of an exchanged life.

What literally takes place is when you believe on Jesus Christ and what He did for you on the cross, is that you give him, by faith, your ungodliness, failures and sin, and by faith receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ into your life. So you can now be as clean and righteous before God and Christ himself. Not by anything you have done, but because of the work Jesus completed on the Cross. When you receive this gift, you can now have peace and abide with God and have a personal relationship with Him just you were created to have.

Receiving this gift takes faith. Faith must have an object. Faith must also go from only being head knowledge to becoming heart knowledge. Believing that Jesus is who he said he was is not enough. Faith is depending on Jesus as the source of your salvation and righteousness. Revelation 3:20 says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in". He stands at the door of your heart now. Today is the day of salvation the bible tells you. What you do today will directly affect your life tomorrow.  When God calls, and we reject him, there is no guarantee that you will hear his voice again.  Most people think that they will be making a great sacrifice if they commit to Christ.  What they don't realize is that God has promised that in His presence is fullness of joy and pleasures that will last into eternity.  When we seek pleasures outside of God's design, we find that we are empty and have to continue to pursue pleasures.  If you keep trying the same thing, you will keep getting the same results.  Pleasures can't bring us peace and happiness.   Pleasure is not equal to happiness.  If you are depending on pleasures and things to bring you happiness it will never happen.  You will always have to get more things and more pleasures.  But when you receive that relationship with God and shift your focus to Him, you will find that pleasures are meant for us to enjoy.  The are designed by God to add spice to life, but not to be fulfilling in themselves.  Only in God's presence is fullness of joy.  Only when He becomes our first love can we enjoy life as it was intended.

If this relationship with God is what you want, just invite Christ in your heart by faith. Just pray this simple prayer:

Dear Jesus, please forgive me of my sins. I repent of my sins. I turn from my own ways and turn to you. I give my sins, failures and my lifestyle to you and by faith receive your righteousness into my life. Please come into my heart and be my savior and Lord of my life. Thank you for coming into my heart. Amen.

If you prayed to receive Christ into your heart and meant it, you now are forgiven and can walk with God and experience the blessings He has designed for your life.