Sunday, September 7

What is a “Christian,” anyway?


A story is told about a young sailor drinking in the wrong tavern in a certain California city. As people full of their drink tend to do, he either chose his words, or his question, poorly. He asked, "Who are the Hells Angels, anyway?" His fellow patrons decided to answer his question, and minutes later he was unable to lift his battered face off the table. These people obviously took their name quite seriously!

Not that I would ever suggest that kind of response to our question, it does mean something that we live in a culture in which the name, "Christian," is used in so many ways that we've lost track of what it really means. If someone is neither Jew nor Muslim, then the other option is Christian, right? Or is it a white-skinned European, or black-skinned African, or a member of one of the 4,000 plus organisations calling themselves Church? As we travel back in our time machine, the "Credo," let's look into some questions.

When Jesus Christ preached to the crowds in Galilee, were the people there Christians? Obviously, no, they were a mixed lot of Jewish farmers, merchants, Pharisees, Zealots, and what-have-you. What about James, John, Peter, and the rest of the lads He called to follow? They did become His disciples, but still not Christians. Without belaboring the point at which they actually became Christians, when we look at the accounts we see that "the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch."

So what's the difference? In the Greek, a disciple was a "mathetos," a learner, literally. A mathetos would follow his rabbi, sage, or philosopher around, learning to imitate his every gesture and memorise his words in order to cause his wisdom to live in his own life, and to be prepared to pass it on to his own future disciples. Antioch, a few years later, encountered a new phenomenon. People who had either followed Jesus (near or far, there had been hundreds.) or had learned from those who had, had been both converted and baptised by the Holy Spirit, and had withstood hardships, holding fast to that holy Name. The Antiochans called them "little Christs" when they first encountered them, crying out that "the people who have turned the world upside down have come here, too!" The people who so reflected their Master in their lives, whose own testimonies had turned the upside-down world right-side-up in terms of lifestyle, priorities, and the basic "excuse for living," What was the difference between them and their Syrian neighbors? They were partakers of the very nature of Christ, and by living out that Nature in the world around them they soon turned the
busy trading city of Antioch into a center for the sending of missionaries, and the site of one of the first theological colleges.

Today we think any church member, any baptised person, any "nice" person or obnoxiously moralistic person is automatically a "Christian." If we look closer, we find there is no necessary connection there. A disciple was one who was struggling to keep the rules. How many of us do even that? A Christian was someone who had been, and was being, transformed into the very likeness of God in Christ from the inside out. Let us then apply ourselves before God to be so transformed by His grace. Whenever we presume it to mean less, we are truly courting disaster!

12 comments:

  1. Robert,

    I think what you're talking about is basically what the following (very often misunderstood and misrepresented) passage is talking about (i.e., a true Christian vs. a Christian in name only):

    "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

    But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."
    Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

    You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

    You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

    In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."
    (James 2:14-26)

    As you implied, a Christian is not a Christian just because they grew up in the U.S., or just because they are not Muslim or Buddhist, or just because they attend a church, or just because they were baptized, or just because their dad is a preacher, or just because they sing in a choir or are a deacon. "Going into a church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going into a garage makes you a car." By their works you shall know them. A person who claims they are a Christian, yet lives a wicked, sinful lifestyle, is a complete contradiction. An apple tree does not bear oranges. Also, just because they prayed a prayer or walked some aisle doesn't necessarily make them a Christian, either; a 'salvation prayer' is not magic words, neither is the act of walking an aisle going to change you, any more than being sprinkled or dunked by/in water is going to automatically change you. The transformation has to occur in the heart, and that can only happen when the person surrenders their life to Christ, and turns away from everything in their life, and turns to Christ. Then the blood of Christ can wash them clean; the righteousness of Christ is then attributed to us; and the Holy Spirit indwells us since we then become a holy (living) temple of God for dwell in; we then become saints, because we are seen as righteous and holy by God through the blood of Christ. Then, since we have been made holy in position, the Holy Spirit begins the process of working on our character, so that we become more and more like Christ in our condition/walk. Our position has already been sanctified by the blood of Christ. The Holy Spirit then begins to slowly sanctify our condition. Ultimately, our sanctification will be fulfilled, completed and made perfect when we get to Heaven.

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  2. Another way to say it is that, believing that there is a God is not enough. Believing that Jesus exists is not enough. As the Scripture in my previous comment says, even the devil believes those things.

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  3. Amen, Jeff! You said,

    we then become saints, because we are seen as righteous and holy by God through the blood of Christ. Then, since we have been made holy in position, the Holy Spirit begins the process of working on our character, so that we become more and more like Christ in our condition/walk. Our position has already been sanctified by the blood of Christ. The Holy Spirit then begins to slowly sanctify our condition. Ultimately, our sanctification will be fulfilled, completed and made perfect when we get to Heaven.

    The question that hangs on us is, in one angle, the "fulfillment." If we look for Death to perfect us, then are we falling into the Platonic dualism of the flesh being an incorrigibly evil prison for our "holy" spirits, or are we casting "our last enemy" as our ultimate savior, thinking that death can do something that God can't?

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  4. Robert,

    The question that hangs on us is, in one angle, the "fulfillment." If we look for Death to perfect us, then are we falling into the Platonic dualism of the flesh being an incorrigibly evil prison for our "holy" spirits, or are we casting "our last enemy" as our ultimate savior, thinking that death can do something that God can't?

    Death doesn't perfect us; God does. But Paul said that the flesh is corrupt. We will never be perfect or sinless (in our actions) on this earth. I have never met a person who never, ever sins anymore. Though the Holy Spirit helps us to become more and more Christlike while on this earth, we will only be made perfect by God when we get to Heaven. We are not working towards salvation; we already have salvation guaranteed to us, with the Holy Spirit as our 'engagement ring.' In ourselves, we can do nothing. It is God who changes us.

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  5. Yeah, that's where it gets really interesting. Does God need our physical deaths to do His work in us, or is it our death to self which He requires? We could get into discussions about who does or doesn't sin, to what degree is a "sin" trespass or error, etc., but to claim, as some less-schooled disciples do, that "Everybody sins!" obligates God to "wink at sin" is to go dead counter to Scripture. God's plan is to conform us to the pattern set before us in Jesus is evidenced from the first, as He told Abram "Walk before Me and be perfect," and in Moses, "Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all. . ." Even the Puritans recognised that God is not going to call on us to do what He has not made possible. Never by out strength, but definitely by His! (Psalm 119:1; 2nd Peter 1:3...)

    So often we focus on our inability when faced with His boundless ability and desire to draw us, transform us, and conform us into the Image of Christ in this world!

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  6. Robert,

    but to claim, as some less-schooled disciples do, that "Everybody sins!" obligates God to "wink at sin" is to go dead counter to Scripture.

    I agree! And I want to emphasize that I in no way see God's sanctifying us as an excuse for us to sin. Paul exhorted us to "put away" sin again and again. The fact that God sanctifies a Christian is in no way an excuse for that Christian not to resist temptation. God promises to bring the Christian to full sanctification, and it can only be done through God's power, but, as with many other things in the Christian life, we are in partnership/relationship with God, and we have to do our part, as well. Of course, the only way we can resist sin is through the power of God, and practically speaking, that comes largely through the Christian spending time in God's Word, so that God's thoughts become our thoughts, more and more.

    Paul exhorts Christians not to use the redeeming blood of Christ as a 'doormat:'

    "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."
    (Romans 6:1-4)

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  7. Robert,

    Though no Christian will ever reach the point on this earth that they no longer commit any sin (even Paul admitted to not being able to get completely free from sin), Christians will be judged (at the BEMA seat, which is for rewards---and which is separate from the Great White Throne judgment, which is to determines who goes to Heaven and who goes to Hell) for the deeds they did. Whatever 'good' deeds they did for selfish reasons, will be burned up, just as hay, straw or wood is burned up. Whatever deeds they did for the sake of Christ will remain (like gold, which is not burned up), and they will be rewarded for those. However, they shall later cast those crowns/rewards at Jesus' feet (i.e., we will apparently not keep them), in realization of the fact that it was God who enabled them to do those deeds in the first place.

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  8. Jeff-

    Trying to wrap some things together here- Does Paul say the flesh is incorrigibly corrupt, or just naturally corrupt? Romans 7, in view that it's couched between the affirmations of freedom in chaps 6 & 8, reflects a pre-grace state, not the unavoidable fate of every Christian. The flesh, to be sure, is corruptible, as we see in the fact that Christ Himself, in that He was made man, subjected Himself to every temptation though without falling to any.

    You assume that it is impossible for a Christian not to sin, based on your own experience in a particular place & time when the state of the Church is at a particular low point. I've never seen the dead raised, but I know it is possible based on the testimony of Scripture. You've probably never seen the Lord calm a storm at sea. The Bible says He has one time, I've seen it another time, so I know in this instance His abilities & willingness to be involved in our lives hasn't changed. Of course, the Bible promises that to be the case in every circumstance.

    Is going without "sin" such an issue? Why? Does God say that it is His plan for us to be subjected to all kinds of temptations, without His help, until we welcome our last enemy to rescue us? I haven't seen that in Scripture. What I do see is a vast number of exhortations to not only "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness," but to "be ..understanding what the will of the Lord is," "..grow(ing) in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to Him be glory, both now and forever, amen!"

    Now, speaking of grace and glory, in your latest you mention the rewards judgment and the building materials. Do we get to keep "our" crowns? Is there any more fitting thing to do with them than to cast them at His feet Who saved us from so great a death to so great a life, and gave us every strength, ability, and insight to do all that those crowns signify? Would we dream of clinging to them when He set aside His every perquisite to glory to reach the lowest level of human misery for us?

    Likewise the picture of building on the foundation "that is Christ" with these six materials: Three are permanent, unaffected by fire except to cleanse and purify them. The other three speak of what we can to some degree produce by our own strength, and are about as enduring. Not the purpose of those works, then, is the issue, but the material from which they are drawn. What we do of our own strength and craft is a work of the flesh, whether for good intentions or bad. What He is looking for us not the fruit of our pride and independence from Him, but of our loving cooperation with Him as Paul writes later, "we are co-laborers together with Christ." It all fits into the same picture: Only in losing ourselves in Jesus Christ do we ever find "our" lives, for it is from Him, "who is our life" that we draw our life (Jn. 15:1ff)

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  9. Hey Robert,

    Thanks for the comments on my blog with Jeff. I have a new article.

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  10. Robert,

    I do not intend to continue endlessly with you on this subject, for it would be pointless. However, I do want to point out that, in the following verses, Paul is speaking in the present tense, not about the past. For example, in the first sentence, verse 14, Paul says "I am." The personal pronoun and the verb, taken together, suggest that Paul is describing his present (Christian) experience.

    "We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

    21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
    So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin." (Romans 7:14-25)

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  11. Bro Jeff~

    Please don't be thinking that this is some frivolous exercise for me, striving "about words to no profit..." These are issues which, while I don't claim to have a final grip on them, I do welcome discussion as I do walk through just what it is the Bible does say. In other words, for you to take the time- mentally as well as on the keyboard- to deal with these questions rather than, as too many today, simply huff, "I don't believe it that way, so that makes him wrong!" endorses your honesty as a scholar and as a Christian.

    Once upon a time, Jeff, I was as hard-nosed a Baptist Calvinist as you could ever hope not to meet. The Lord made me see that there was a difference between what was, for me, a self-confident presumption on the "basic truths" of doctrine and a listening heart opened to the instruction of the Word. Not that I've "arrived" at such a total openness yet, but in showing me the difference He gave me a view of Scripture that much more emphasised that Scripture is given us by the Holy Ghost, Who confirms His lessons through the seamless garment that is Holy Scripture. As long as we're willing to look openly at the whole of Scripture as He confirms it, then we're going to have our cages rattled and the cell doors in our hearts swing open. If we draw back into the "comfort zone" our our own particular backgrounds & opinions, then how do we not fit the Scripture that "if any turn back, My soul will have no delight in him?"

    The point you raised about the present tense in Paul is actually an idiosyncrasy of the language at that day, not too different from an American today saying, "So here I am, and up walks this fella..." when all concerned know he's talking about a story from any time in the past. For Paul to be saying "Oh wretched man that I am" in the literal present tense would directly contradict the verses and chapters following and, for that matter, preceding. For us to apply such a presumption to our everyday experience as Christians would be to say that God has no real power in our lives, but that either sin is stronger than He is, or that He is somehow receiving greater glory and pleasure in seeing us struggle helplessly, even against beer bottles and nasty magazines. No, what pleases God is to see us transformed & conformed into the likeness of Jesus, which only His Spirit can accomplish, only in a believing heart yielded to Him. If we refuse to believe He can, then are we going to see it performed?

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So what's your take?