Our Footsteps: Marks of a True Believer

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Marks of a True Believer

Who is a true Christian? Many people make the claim, but as the saying goes, not everyone who is talking about heaven is going there. William Hendrickson remarks that "the kingdom is not for weaklings, waverers, or compromisers. It is not won by deferred prayers, unfulfilled promises, broken resolutions and hesitant testimonies. It is for strong and sturdy men, like Joseph, Nathan, Elijah, Daniel, Mordecai, Peter, Steven and Paul… and valiant women like Ruth, Deborah, Esther and Lydia." What does he mean?

He means the same thing that Jesus meant when he commanded us to enter through the narrow gate. In Luke 13:24, it says to ‘strive’. In the Greek it is 'agonizomai - from where we
get our word ‘agony’. It requires conscious, purposeful, intense effort. It is not a cheap, easy
way. You come to Christ mourning over your sin, hungering and thirsting for righteousness,
wanting the kingdom at any cost.

Who is a true Christian? How about those people in Matthew 7:21-23, who cried out "Lord, Lord, didn't we do this and that and the other..." These people THOUGHT they knew Christ, but they were sadly mistaken. Jesus told them to depart from him and then called them workers of iniquity. Do you really know Christ? How do you know? What are the marks of a true believer?

Here are several indications that someone is a Christian. Please be clear however... these are indicators that show the world that you are a Christian, but these in and of themselves do not make you a Christian. A person is only a Christian because of the shed blood on the cross that purchased their forgiveness. A person who has not accepted Christ as their Lord CANNOT lay claim to being a Christian no matter how many of these things are true.

1). Recognizes his own weaknesses apart from Christ (Matt 5:3). (be aware... you can still recognize personal weakness and still not have surrendered your life to Christ)
2). A genuine love of and zeal for the Word of God. This is God’s communication to you. It is your bread, your food (Matt 4:4). How do you claim to be a Christian if you don’t study it/ read it/ meditate on it/ share it??
3). Total devotion to prayer. This is your communication back to God. John Bunyan would say that ‘if you don’t pray, you are not a Christian’. Praying is the normal response of someone who is forgiven.
4). Genuine love for the people of God and the things of God. Do you run to Christian fellowship and/or bible studies or don’t you have time for this? Is church exciting for you or is it a drag? Do God’s people spur you on to love and good deeds or do God’s people bore you.
5). Joyful service. Psalm 100:2 – serve the Lord with gladness. Do we like to serve or be served? Do we take every opportunity to help someone else?

There may be other marks of a true believer, but these may help gauge where we are in our relationship to the Creator and Redeemer.

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I Believe...

1). I believe that there is one God. I believe God consists of three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
2). I believe that God is holy, righteous, loving, and just.
3). I believe that mankind is separated from God by sin; that sin entered the world through Adam and death through sin.
4). I believe that, because of sin, man is condemned. Because of God’s utter hatred for sin, there is an eternal conscious punishment in hell for all those who do not come to God on His terms, dealing with their sin.
5). I believe that confessing our sins and confessing Jesus Christ as Lord is the only way to properly deal with the sin that has infected everyone. Jesus Christ paid our sin debt on the cross; reconciliation by substitution. There is nothing we can do to add to the finished work of Christ.
6). I believe in the security of the believer, that once he is truly born-again, there is nothing that would cause him to lose his salvation.
7). I believe that upon the death of a true believer in Christ, that he is ushered immediately into the presence of the Lord, where he will live in everlasting joy in Heaven, experiencing eternal fellowship with God.
8). I believe in believer’s baptism by immersion. I don’t believe baptism is necessary for salvation, but it is a beautiful outward profession of an inward possession.
9). I believe in a literal 6-day creation where God created the heavens and the earth and then rested on the seventh day.
10). I believe that the words written in the Bible are truth. I believe that the Bible is inerrant in its parts and in its whole. I believe that the 66 books that make up the canon of scripture make the Bible complete and that God inspired the words written therein. The things that were written down in the Bible are sufficient for every need we have. Not only is God’s Word sufficient, but it is far superior to any other method of handling the problems that man faces, since He has given us all things pertaining to life and godliness.