So You Say You’re A Christian!

How often do I hear from people, “I know God.” “I’m going to heaven.” “I was baptized as a baby.” “My family is Christian, therefore I’m a Christian.” Well maybe they haven’t said the last one verbatim, but it’s implied.
But how will anyone know? John the Baptist said, “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” (Luke 3:8 NKJV)
John the Baptist was telling the Jews not to count on their heritage or linage to make them right or righteous with God. Instead they were to show in their lives their sorrow by turning away from their sin and turning toward God, that which is known as repentance.
In fact, heritage or bloodline can do nothing, John continued saying, because God could raise up a stone as a child of Abraham. What makes a person a child of Abraham is faith.
“Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” (Romans 4:3 NKJV)
To be a Christian takes faith in Jesus Christ. It doesn’t come from being a part of a Christian family or attending church, it comes when a person becomes “born again,” as Jesus Himself said (John 3:7).
But how will you know? Through “fruits worthy of repentance,” or when our actions reveal our faith. The Apostle Paul said, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10 NKJV)
Therefore it’s not enough to say you are a Christian, you must be a Christian by a faith that is alive in both what you say and in what you do.