WHO IS A CHRISTIAN?

It's very easy to say, "I AM A CHRISTIAN", but come to think of it, 'who really is a christian?' These days we have so many people declaring that they are Christians or 'BORN AGAIN' and how they have this or that salvation, yet a closer look at their personality shows quite the opposite!

There are certain evidences to show that an individual is a Christian and these evidences go beyond mere proclamation. To be a Christian there are physical evidences as well as spiritual that makes it glaring to all and sundry that an individual is not just born again but a Christ-like person.

Before I go ahead to define who a Christian is, let me explain the first step to being one.

YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN!

In John 3:1-6, the story of Nicodemus was narrated and we saw a man who was supposed to be knowledgeable when it came to the things of God as pertains the law but he in HUMILITY came to Jesus by night and raised up a conversation with Jesus. Jesus plainly told him that 'except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God'. In his confusion the man asks, 'how can a man be born when he is old?' But what Jesus meant wasn't mere physical birth but Spiritual rebirth; the birth by Water and Spirit. Here we see how most people reason when it comes to being born again. Many people would react same way whilst some may accept it immediately. Note this first: you cannot be born again and yet live in the flesh, when one is born again, life is lived in the spirit and not the flesh. So, if you are living in the flesh (being moved by the dictates of the body, what to eat, drink, wear, buy and live like on earth), you are not yet born again. Living in the Spirit is being born again. This is the first step.

Next...

LIVE THE NEW LIFE!

After you must become born again, you need now to begin to live the new life. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, 'Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.' Imagine you give birth to a new child, there are so many things the baby adjusts owing to the fact that it just entered a new world and you need to teach the baby so many things (mention these things). From first cry, it begins to see light, sleep, wake up, eat and grow. In such ways too we are opened into new light having been in the darkness of sin. We then begin to hunger and get the right nourishment to enable us grow as new babies and mature into adults; this of course is a spiritual action but is evident in the physical. This new life in the spirit is the function of the Spirit of God not ours. We only live as reborn spirits, living by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit. By default, you now tend to hunger and thirst adjusting to the laws of the spirit which are gotten only from reading the scriptures (THE WORD) as written in 1 Peter 2:2-3 which says, 'As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.' Your growth in the new life is dependent on your hunger. If you hunger less, you have stunted growth just as humans that have malnutrition as a result of bad food combination or total lack of food.

As you grow also, many things begin to change and new things develop. You start to bear spiritual fruits (evidences of new life) and these fruits are as follows:

1. Love,
2. joy,
3. peace,
4. longsuffering,
5. gentleness,
6. goodness,
7. faith,
8. meekness, and
9. temperance. (Galatians 5:22-23)

If you are not bearing these fruits then I'm sorry to break your heart, you are not yet a Christian.

CATEGORIES OF CHRISTIANS (to be continued)