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Becoming a Christian


You may have noticed that all through this site there are bible verses that talk about stars, planets and God. This is because I wanted to do two things with this site: I wanted to talk about astronomy and I wanted to talk about God.

When I look at the planets and stars, I am reminded again of the wonder and majesty of the universe created by my God. This is the God I would like to introduce you to.

A christian is someone who has Jesus Christ alone as their personal Lord and Saviour. Deciding to become a christian is the most important decision you will ever make!

This sounds very religious, what does it really mean?

  1. We accept Jesus as Lord. This means that Jesus owns our life. We will from this time onwards live for him. We will act on the answer to the question: "What would Jesus have me do?" 
  2. We accept Jesus as our Saviour. Even by our standards we don't always do the right thing. God's standards are much higher than ours. Doing the wrong thing by God's standards is called sin. Rather than simply judging us as we deserved, God sent Jesus to die for our sins. Because of his death and not by our own good works or intentions, God forgives us our sins.
  3. We enter into a personal relationship with God. The reason God sent Jesus to die for our sins, was his great and undeserved love for us. He wants us to love and have a relationship with him.
Usually people come slowly to an appreciation of what all this means. Perhaps they know some christians who inspire them by the way they live; perhaps they are struck by something written in the bible; perhaps they examine the historical roots and philosophies of the christian faith.

One of the key things is to understand who God is and what he has done.  The best place to find this out is in the bible.  There are some bible verses linked below that will answer some of these questions.

Before You Become A Christian You:

  1. Live in Satan’s kingdom – in fact you were born into it (Ephesians 2: v 1-3).
  2. Live a sinful life separated from God, deserving his punishment.
  3. Are unable, by yourself, to please God in any way (Romans 8: v 7-8).
  4. Are spiritually dead.
  5. Are totally unaware of 1-4 above!

Becoming A Christian Requires Repentance

  1. Repentance is expressed in WORDS and DEEDS. Repentance means "turning around" and requires us to confess our sins to God.  Repentance is something we do toward God, because he is the person we have hurt the most with our sins. You also need, as far as possible, to put right your sins against others.
  2. John the Baptist preached repentance (Luke 3: v 3-14) and the practice of it.
  3. Jesus preached repentance (Mat 4: v17).
  4. Jesus expected his followers to do the same (Luke 24: v 45-49).

Becoming a Christian Also Requires Faith in Jesus

  1. Faith is FACTUAL – that Jesus lived, died, was buried and rose from the dead (1Cor 15: v 1-8).
  2. Faith in Jesus means putting your trust in a LIVING PERSON. Mohammed, Buddha, and Confucius are all dead and their tombs still contain their bodily remains. Jesus’ tomb is EMPTY!
  3. Faith is VERBAL. "That if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved" (Romans 10: v9). Faith is verbal in two ways. (a) If you believe Jesus is alive you will talk TO him. Which is why Romans 10: v 13 says "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (b) We also need to talk ABOUT Jesus to others. A believer’s faith is strengthened when they talk to a non-Christian about Jesus.
  4. Faith is PRACTICAL. The only faith the New Testament recognises is the faith that ACTS (James 2: v14-26). We need to practice exercising our faith in small ways at first, so that when a major emergency comes up our faith will be able to cope. Plenty of people accept the truth of God’s word (even Satan does), but faith in Jesus means acting on the truth of God’s word. (See Hebrews 11 – every example of faith tells of what that person DID).
  5. We need to PERSEVERE in our faith and one day we will receive our reward. This perseverance also includes encouraging fellow-Christians (Read Hebrews 10: v 19-39).
Your next step is to contact a church and ask them what they have for new christians or people wanting to find out more about becoming christians.  A good church will be very happy to help you go further. 

(this page was based on material from the New Christian website. The material is used in accordance with the posted permission.)