Life as a Christian
Jesus said that he is the vine and we are the branches. Being a Christian means we are ‘in’ him, connected like a branch to a vine, but we also need him to be ‘in’ us, just like the branch has the life of the vine flowing through it. Some people think going to church makes you a Christian, but they’re wrong. A branch might be caught up in the vine, resting on other branches, but if it’s not connected there’s no life.
Some people wonder, what does being a Christian actually mean? What good things do you have to do in trying to live a Christian life? Christians talk about Grace a lot, God's undeserved favour, but it's so easy for us to just get on with life as normal, without really making space for Grace. Here's the secret: Christianity is about learning to cling to God, because we believe that his way is the best way.
One thing that sets Christianity apart from other religions is that humility is not only viewed as a positive attribute, but as a vital one. Our old way of life was no good, it got us into trouble, so carrying on living that way is dumb. Depend on God in everything, with confidence that he cares for you, because if he loved you enough to save you, even though you lived as though he didn’t matter, he'll keep loving you in every other circumstance of life. The bible says that nothing can separate us from God's love for us. Not trouble, not suffering or hard times, not hunger or homelessness, not danger or even death.
Come to him every day for strength. God saved us to have a relationship with him, which means two way communication: prayer and the Bible. Let God talk to you through the Bible; it's a treasure. Study it, think about it, listen to good teaching on it. And pray, which just means talking to God. What a privilege it is! Imagine trying to phone Barack Obama for a chat. It would never happen. But the God who made the whole universe wants you to talk to him, and he wants to talk to you through the bible. It's really quite incredible.
So it's not about being good?
The Bible says we are saved by faith, and we are saved for good works. So the amount of good works we do makes no difference to how acceptable we are in God's eyes; it's our faith in Jesus that saves us. Trying to be saved by doing good is like trying to ski uphill. You need to get in the ski lift of faith first, let God take you up the mountain, and then your good work of skiing can be effective and exciting.
It's Jesus’ righteousness given to us, not our own that makes us acceptable to God. But good works are important. The Bible says that without good works faith isn't real. But be careful here! This doesn’t mean that to have faith you must have done good things. It means that if you have faith you will do good things. Good will gradually begin to happen in your life. It’s like a new plant that slowly starts to bear fruit. When the plant is young, the fruit isn’t very impressive. As it matures, the fruit gets better, and there’s more of it!
What this also means is that some people who claim to be a Christian, actually aren’t. There are loads of things done by ‘Christians’, that don’t seem very Christian at all: the crusades, the Spanish inquisition, abuse of children by priests, the church even used to burn people at the stake for reading the Bible in English. Not that Christians can’t do wrong things, but clearly not everyone who claims to be a Christian is genuine. There are even people who claim allegiance to Jesus, and then claim to have his remains in their possession. That denies the very basis of Christianity, that Jesus rose from the dead!
So it IS about being good?!
If a person is saved by trusting God, the next step for that person is to live in a way that trusts God. If they went off and acted selfishly, not really caring about anyone else, doing whatever they wanted, without any concern for what the Bible says, that would not be a life of humble trust in God's plan for them, it would be an arrogant, self-centred life. So, God thinks good works are important, but what does the Bible say a 'good work' is anyway? It means actively loving people and wanting good for them. That might be spending time with people, giving money, encouragement, and most of all telling them the good news about Jesus. Christianity isn't a life for lone rangers, it's a community project, and the community of believers is the church. God loves us individually, and because he loves us he brings us into the church, where we can receive teaching, encouragement, correction, friendship, and where we can join in worshipping God for all he's done. And the church is God's method for reaching out to unsaved people throughout the whole world.
So keep this in mind: you can’t to do good deeds to earn God's favour, because you can’t get more favour than he has already given you for free. But now that God has done so much, you can do good just because you want to. It will start to come naturally, and people you know will start to notice changes in you. Having said that, it would be wrong to say that doing good will always be easy. Jesus said to love our enemies, not just our friends. So, if there are people who just don't seem to like you, who you may not get on with naturally, or who you don't see eye to eye with, you should love them anyway.
And often we'll make a mess of it, and do the same sort of wrong things we did before. But instead of being on a downward spiral we're being changed for the better by God. Sometimes very slowly! But loving others is part of the new life he gives, it's the task that God has given to those he saves, and pleasing your new dad is something you'll want to do after all the amazing things he's done for you.
