WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

Transcription

1 A STUDY GUIDE BECOMING A CHRISTIAN WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? ROGER MARTIN

2 BECOMING A CHRISTIAN WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? COPYRIGHT 2014 DO NOT DUPLCATE WITHOUT PERMISSION

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. EXPLANATION: Understanding The Big Picture...1 II. SALVATION: God Had A Plan!...8 III. REVELATION: God s Plan Unfolds...14 IV. INVITATION: The Opportunity of a Lifetime!...23 V. MOTIVATION: What Difference Does It Make?...27 VI. PERSONALIZATION: How To Become A Christian...35 VII. REALIZATION: What Just Happened To Me...40 VIII. APPLICATION: Now That I Am A Christian What s Next?...45 IX. TEMPTATION: Don t Be Surprised If...51

4 X. INFORMATION: Questions Everyone Asks...57 XI. INSPIRATION: A Final Word and Resources...68

5 BECOMING A CHRISTIAN WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

6 INTRODUCTION It is natural for everyone to have questions about what it means to be a Christian. The questions are important. The answers are important. The purpose of this brief study guide is to set forth, from beginning to end, what it means and what all is involved in becoming a Christian. This study will explain why the need to be a Christian exists; how God put a plan into place to make it possible; what action God Himself took on man s behalf; how a person can become a Christian; what difference it makes in a person s life; and finally, what to do and what to expect when one becomes a Christian. This subject matter of Becoming A Christian concerns the most important issue of a person s life. Be sure to read and re-read this material until you know what it all means and why it is important for your own life. Discussion questions are available at the end of each chapter.

7 I. EXPLANATION: Understanding The Big Picture The Bible begins by telling us that God created the heavens and the earth and all that exists. He made our universe, the galaxies and the world in which we live. He made the seas and the dry land and all that they contain. He made mankind (Genesis chapters 1 and 2). ABSOLUTE PERFECTION! The Bible tells us that God s creation was stunningly beautiful and absolutely perfect. It was so perfect that God Himself would personally visit His beautiful creation. He had made man and woman in His very own image. This means that God made man to be an eternal being. God wanted man to live forever and so He breathed His very life into man. He named the man and woman whom He had made, Adam and Eve. God would come down in the cool of the day and walk and talk with Adam and Eve. He gave to them the responsibility of being the caretakers of His beautiful creation. God also put a particular tree in the midst of His garden. Adam and Eve were told not to eat of its fruit. By doing this, God gave to mankind the personal choice to obey or to disobey (Genesis chapter 2). 1

8 IT HAPPENED ONE DAY One day, Eve was tempted to eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree. She had listened to the voice of the Tempter who told her that God had lied to them. He told her that if she would eat of the forbidden fruit, she would become just like God. The temptation sounded so good to Eve that she ate of the fruit. She then gave it to Adam and he ate of it also. In that moment of time, mankind had made a choice. They chose to listen to the voice of the Tempter (the devil) instead of listening to the voice of God, their Maker. They chose to disobey rather than to obey (Genesis chapter 3). ABSOLUTE CHAOS! The world of absolute perfection that God had made has never been the same since Adam and Eve made their choice. Because of their choice to disobey rather than to obey, our world was plunged into the familiar world that we know it to be today. It is a world of war and conflict and power struggles between nations and individuals. It is a world of hatred and bloodshed. It is a world of sickness, disease and death. It is a world of calamity, accidents, and natural disasters. It is a world of the strong taking advantage of the weak. The Bible calls our world a domain of darkness 2

9 (Colossians 1:13). We see the effects of this fallen world of darkness in our own personal lives. Every one of us has experienced the pain of deceit and hurt and the sting of death as we gather around the graves of our loved ones. But God never intended His beautiful creation to be such a place of pain. But He knew what it would become when He gave to man the free will to make his own choice in life. When man chose to ignore the voice of God, our world has paid the price of that decision ever since. BUT THAT S NOT ALL Not only did man s disobedience to God throw all of God s perfect creation into chaos, conflict and ruin, but it caused something even worse. Man s disobedience to God changed man s relationship with God. The relationship between God and man was broken. Man now found himself on the wrong side of God. And, ever since the time of Adam and Eve, everyone who has been born into this world has been born separated and alienated from God. BUT, THAT S NOT FAIR! That is exactly what we all want to say and think. We all would like to think that if we were Adam and Eve, we would never have chosen to disobey. 3

10 And since we think we all would have done better, it is easy to think it is unfair that they should represent all of us in the making of their choice. But the Bible tells us otherwise. The Bible makes it very clear that all of us would have made the very same choice that they did in fact, we actually have made the very same choice, and not just once, but many times over. The Bible declares that all have sinned and have come up short of God s perfection and expectations (Romans 3:23). This coming up short of God s perfection and expectations applies to every one of us. It is easy to look at others and then compare ourselves to one another. We may conclude that we are better than others in such a comparison. But being better than someone else doesn t solve the problem we all have of not being good enough. For example, what if the whole human race were to be lined up on the West Coast of the United States and told to swim 2500 miles to Hawaii. Some might be able to swim 10 yards. The very best of swimmers might make it 200 miles. But the very best swimmers would still come up 2300 miles short, even though they were better swimmers than the others. And that is the way we all are with God. God s moral law, the Ten Commandments, proves to all of us that, while some might be better at keeping the Ten Commandments than others, we have all come up miles short of a perfect performance. We have all missed the mark of what God requires. This missing the mark is what the Bible calls sin. It is the sin of Adam and Eve, as 4

11 well as our own personal sin that has separated us all from God. But it gets even worse than that. The Bible tells us that not only have we all sinned and come up short, but we have done so purposefully, consciously, and intentionally. We have done so by going against our own conscience and acting in full knowledge against what we knew to be right. God has a code of right and wrong and He has put it in every person s heart. We know when we violate that code, because our conscience lets us know (Romans 2:15). Adam and Eve knew they had crossed a line with God the very moment they ate of the forbidden fruit. That is why they tried to hide from God (Genesis 3:8-11). We all have proven that we are just like Adam and Eve, and so none of us can blame them for the world we live in, nor can we accuse God of treating us unfairly. The bottom line is this: we are all born into this world separated from God. We have confirmed and proven such separation by our own conscious choice. Therefore, becoming a Christian is all about getting back on the right side of God and becoming re-united with Him in a restored relationship. But how can this happen? 5

12 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Why do you think Eve gave into the temptation to eat of the forbidden fruit? 2. Do you think you would have done the same thing? Explain. 3. God never created our world to be a place of sickness, war, conflict and death. How did it become this way? 4. Why did God allow man to make his choice and allow the world to become what it has become? 5. When people blame God for the way the world is today, especially when bad things happen, how do you respond? 6. How did man become separated from God? How serious is this separation? 7. How do you respond to the fact that you were born into this world separated from God? 8. What evidence is there in your own life that you have chosen to do wrong? 9. What do the following verses say to you: 6

13 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) Therefore, just as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way, death came to all men, because all sinned. (Romans 5:12) Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men (Romans 5:18a) For just as through the disobedience of the one man, many were made sinners (Romans 5:19a) 10. What conclusions about your own life can you make from this first chapter? 7

14 II. SALVATION: God Had A Plan! Man s disobedience to God in the Garden of Eden and our own wrong choices and separation from God, DID NOT CATCH God off guard. God never had a Plan B. Plan A is still in place. God had a plan already in place for man to have a restored relationship with Him, long before He even created the world and mankind. God knew what would happen. He knew all of us would make the wrong choice. He knew all of us would become separated from Him. He knew His world would become something different than what He created it to be. And so, He had a plan already in place. The Bible tells us that God actually determined the plan that included providing a Savior and salvation for mankind long before the foundations of the world were even put into place. Revelation 13:8 talks about the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. GOD KNEW WHAT NEEDED TO BE DONE Man desperately needed help. Something needed to be done. Man had made his choice and it was impossible for man to reverse his own decision. What needed to be done, could not be done by man himself. Man, now finding, himself on the wrong 8

15 side of God, has no ability within himself to right his own wrong. He had disqualified himself from having that ability by the choice that had been made. Man has no ability to offer to God any viable or acceptable solution to his own separation. The solution, therefore, could not originate from man s side of things. There was absolutely nothing man could do to solve his dilemma. GOD KNEW WHAT HE WOULD DO And now we come to a most amazing and astonishing thing. God, Himself, would originate taking action on man s behalf. God, Himself had already decided that He would do what needed to be done. God, Himself would provide a Savior for the world and make a way for man to be restored to a right relationship with God. To do so, God knew that He would need to provide the needed sacrifice of His own Son, and send Him to earth as one of us and allow Him to remove the sins of mankind. What a plan God had! It would cost Him everything! It would cost Him His life. He would experience our death. His Son would experience what it is like to be separated from God. In experiencing such separation, all of the sins of mankind would be placed on His shoulders. It would be a once and for all sacrifice. It would be a 9

16 sacrifice for all of the sins of all mankind. It would be a sacrifice for all time past, present and future. What an amazing plan! God, Himself, offended by man s willing and conscious choice to reject Him, now offers to act on man s behalf. Man would once again have the opportunity to be in a right relationship with his Maker. Such a thought and such a plan is nothing short of amazing! The only question left is, Why? Why would God do such a thing for us all? Again, the Bible gives us the answer. The following verses tell us what was the motivation behind God s plan to provide the opportunity for man to be restored to a right relationship with God. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (I John 4:9,10) 10

17 God loved mankind so much that He was willing to lay down His own life in order to remove the barrier of man s sin that had separated man from God. 11

18 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. How significant is it that God knew what would happen to His beautiful creation and to mankind and that He already had a plan in place to address it? 2. Why is man unqualified and not in a position himself, to do anything about his separation from God? 3. Explain what is meant by the fact that a solution for man s dilemma could not originate with man. 4. How would you explain God s solution and God s answer and God s provision for man s problem? 5. Why would God provide such an answer for man s problem of sin and separation from God? 6. What does God s provision mean to you that He would do such a thing for man? 7. What does John 3:16 say to you personally? 8. Describe in your own words the meaning of Romans 5:8. 12

19 9. How would you sum up this chapter in your own words? 13

20 III. REVELATION: God s Plan Unfolds With the failure of man in the Garden of Eden and his separation from God, God s plan to provide a rescue and salvation for man went into effect. This would enable man to once again have the opportunity to be in a right relationship with God. God s plan would progressively unfold over the next 4000 years, from the time of the Garden of Eden until the time of Christ. This gradually unfolding plan would include the choosing of a man to be the father of a nation. It would include the development of a nation and the establishment of a kingdom and its failure. It would include the promise of a coming Messiah, the birth of the Savior, His subsequent rejection by His own people, His death and resurrection and His ascension back into heaven. THE CHOOSING OF A MAN God chose a man by the name of Abraham to be the father of a future nation (Genesis 12). The nation of Israel would come from the offspring of Abraham. Through Abraham s son Isaac, and through Isaac s son Jacob, Jacob s twelve sons would become the foundation of the twelve tribes of Israel. God s plan begins to unfold. 14

21 A NATION IS BORN (Genesis and Exodus 1-15) When Jacob s sons sold their brother Joseph into slavery, he ended up in Egypt. In the providence and plan of God, all of Jacob s family would also end up in Egypt. Joseph had become the Prime Minister of Egypt under the Pharaoh at that time. Over the next four hundred years, the nation of Israel developed and became a strong nation. Under the leadership of Moses, Israel left Egypt for the land that had been promised to Abraham by God, Himself. God gave His Law to Israel, the ten commandments to guide their living. God s plan continues to unfold. A KINGDOM ESTABLISHED As the nation of Israel developed, God raised up King David to rule in Israel. God promised David that through his bloodline, the Messiah would come into the world and that His kingdom would be established forever (II Samuel 7:8-17). The nation of Israel was at its strongest point under the reign of King David. 15

22 ISRAEL S FAILURE God s plan and purpose for Israel was that, as a nation, they would be the avenue through which God would bring the Savior into the world. But God s plan and purpose for the nation of Israel was also that, as a people, they would represent God to the rest of the world: then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. (Exodus 19:6,7) God wanted Israel as a nation to show the rest of the world what it was like to belong to God and honor God with their living. But Israel failed in doing this. They took for themselves the many gods of the other nations around them. As a result, God allowed Israel to be taken into captivity. For hundreds of years, Israel suffered under the empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. But God s plan continued to unfold just as He had promised. A SAVIOR IS BORN Jesus Christ was born in the town of Bethlehem two-thousand years ago in fulfillment of the 16

23 promises given to Abraham and David and the other prophets (Genesis 12:1-3, II Samuel 7:8-17, Micah 5:2). Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ (Luke 2). The coming of God into our world is one of the great climatic moments of all time. God sent His one and only Son, Jesus, into our world to reconcile man back to God. The choosing of Abraham, the establishing of the nation of Israel and the unfolding of God s plan over the centuries of time, led to this wonderful event of the birth of the world s Savior. Jesus Christ, as God s Son, could be the sacrifice for man s sins, because He Himself was without sin. JESUS CHRIST REJECTED Jesus Christ served as a carpenter in the shop of his step-father Joseph. At the age of thirty He started preaching and teaching that the Kingdom of God had come to earth. The Jewish people, however, had different expectations for their Messiah. They wanted a mighty king who would be able to deliver them from the oppression of Rome. They wanted someone who would re-establish the kingdom of Israel as it used to be in the glory days under King David. They wanted an earthly liberator and they were unprepared for the kind of Messiah that Jesus was. He claimed to be God (John 8:58), and He backed up His claims by doing many miracles. But the Jewish leaders of the day led the people in 17

24 rejecting Jesus as their Messiah. They brought false accusation against Jesus, and had Him arrested. He was put on trial before Pontius Pilate. Pilate found Him to be innocent, but for fear of the people he condemned Him to death. He was crucified and hung on the cross between two thieves. THE DEATH OF JESUS CHRIST (John 19) When Jesus Christ was crucified, His death enacted and fulfilled the plan of God. This is why He had come into the world (Matthew 20:28). His death was the once and for all sacrifice needed to remove the barrier of man s sin that separated man from God. When Jesus hung on the cross between heaven and earth, the sins of all of mankind (past, present and future) were placed on Him, (I John 2:2; Hebrews 10:12-14). Jesus, the perfect and sinless Son of God, experienced death and separation from God on our behalf. The sacrifice that was needed and required was complete. The price of man s sin was paid in full. The transaction was accomplished. There is nothing more that can be done or needs to be done regarding man s sin. Jesus Christ, in dying for all of mankind, has made it possible for man to be re-united with God in a restored relationship. This was God s plan from the very beginning of time. 18

25 THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST (John 20) Three days after Jesus was crucified and buried, He arose again from the dead. He was resurrected. This too was all a part of God s plan. Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, man is still in his sin and is still separated from God and stands guilty before God. But when Jesus conquered death by His resurrection, He broke the power of sin and the penalty of sin that it had over mankind. The resurrection power of Jesus Christ is stronger than the power of sin. It is this resurrection power of Jesus Christ that sets us free from the sin of our lives and its penalty of eternal separation from God. What a wonderful plan God had for all of us! THE ASCENSION OF JESUS CHRIST (Acts 1:10-11) Forty days after Jesus rose from the dead, He ascended back into heaven from whence He had come. His mission was complete. God s plan had been fulfilled. God, Himself, had made provision for man s sin. Man now has the opportunity to be restored back to a right relationship with God. Jesus Christ, now in heaven, awaits for God s time clock to fulfill its appointed time. And then when God s time clock is completed, He will once again return 19

26 to this earth this next time in all of His power and glory. At that time He will fulfill all of the yet unfulfilled promises that He has made with His people Israel. 20

27 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. How would you describe God s plan to provide salvation for mankind? 2. Why would God s plan unfold over so many years? 3. How did the nation of Israel originally come into existence? 4. How did Israel as a nation fail to live up to God s expectations of them? What was the result of their failure? 5. How did God send His own Son into the world and why was that necessary? 6. Why did the Jewish nation reject Jesus Christ as their Messiah? Why was this rejection a part of God s plan? 7. Why was Christ s death so important? 8. Why was the resurrection of Jesus Christ so important? 9. What does it mean to you that this was all God s plan, even before He created the world? 21

28 10. What does this chapter say to you personally? 22

29 IV. INVITATION: The Opportunity of a Lifetime! God s plan to provide an opportunity for man to be re-united in a right relationship with God, has been fulfilled and completed. The price for man s sin and restoration to God has been paid in full. Justice has been done. The offense that man had committed against God has been forgiven. All that needed to be done has been done by God Himself. He became a man and as a man He acted on man s behalf. There is nothing more that man can do. This is one of the things that sets the Christian faith apart from all other faiths and religions. They all demand that man must do something and keep doing something in order to earn forgiveness and acceptance before God. But the Christian faith teaches that whatever needed to be done, has already been done by God Himself, and that man can do no more. And so, having removed the barrier of man s sin that had separated man from God, God now sets before man a wonderful opportunity. It is really the opportunity of a lifetime! God now allows man the 23

30 opportunity to choose to be on the right side of God. The door is wide open for man and God to be reconciled once again in friendship and fellowship, just like it used to be in the Garden of Eden. THE GRACIOUS INVITATION God now invites man to come to Him. God, after all he has done to make this restoration possible, could force and command all of us to come to Him, whether we want to or not. But he doesn t. He simply invites us with a gracious invitation. The reason for this is very important and significant. The reason God invites man to come back to Himself, rather than forcing him to do so, is because it was man who voluntarily made the choice to disobey God, and walk away from God in the first place. Back in the Garden of Eden, man chose by his own free will to disobey God and give his allegiance to another. Since man chose to walk away, God now gives man the opportunity to choose to return. It is now up to man to respond to God s wonderful and gracious invitation. God s invitation to man is offered to one and all. The Bible uses a wonderful word to communicate this all-encompassing invitation. The word is whosoever! Whosoever wants to respond can do so. Whosoever wants to accept God s invitation can do so. Whosoever means you and me and everyone! 24

31 THE GIFT God is so desirous of man accepting His invitation that He describes it in the most appealing way possible. He presents the invitation in the form of a gift: The gift of God s son, Jesus Christ. The gift of His death and resurrection on man s behalf. The gift of complete forgiveness. The gift of eternal life. The gift of knowing life the way God meant it to be. God invites man to come to Him and receive the gift of a restored relationship with Him. This restored relationship with God is only made possible through the gift of God s Son, Jesus Christ (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). There has never been an invitation so awesome, so great and so amazing as God s invitation to man, to receive the gift of God s salvation. 25

32 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. What has God done about the problem of man s sin that had separated God and man? 2. How was justice done regarding man s sin? 3. What does it mean to you that everything that needed to be done regarding man s sin has been done, and that there is nothing more that man can do? 4. What opportunity does God set before man now that the barrier of sin has been removed? 5. Why does God give man an invitation to come to Him, rather than demanding, commanding and forcing man to do so? 6. When God says whosoever may come to Him, what does that mean to you? 7. Why is God s offered salvation like a gift to be received? 8. How would you personally describe this gift? 9. How important do you consider this gift to be in your own life? 26

33 V. MOTIVATION: What Difference Does It Make? The decision to become a Christian by accepting the gift of God s Son to be your Savior, and thereby give you salvation, makes all the difference in the world in a person s life. Everything changes. So, it is important in each of our lives to ask the question, Why? Why should I accept God s invitation and what difference will it make in my life? Here are some reasons. First, you will experience God s total forgiveness. This means you will have a new standing with God. Before you accept His invitation, you stand before God as guilty. But when you accept His invitation, you stand before Him as forgiven. Second, when you accept God s gift of salvation you actually become a part of God s own family. You become a child of God, a son or a daughter, and God Himself becomes your Father. As His child, you will live under His love and care for you. As His child, you receive special privileges and blessings that come with belonging to Him as your heavenly Father. Third, when you accept God s Son as your own Savior, God puts His Spirit within you so that you 27

34 have God with you for the rest of your life. God, by way of His Holy Spirit will guide your life in the right way. His Spirit will empower you and enable you to have the right attitude and response to the things that happen to us in life. Fourth, when you become a Christian, you will become a brand new person and you enter into a brand new life. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone and the new has come! (II Corinthians 5:17) Jesus said, I have come that you might have life and have it to the full. (John 10:10) New life includes having a new purpose, new desires, new goals, new attitudes, new perspectives, new values and new understanding. Everything becomes new. You will be enabled to give up your old selfish way of living and replace it by making Jesus Christ the center of your living. Fifth, when you accept God s invitation to become one of His followers, you will have a new destination. As long as a person is separated from God, the Bible tells us that our future is just that a separation from God that never ends. Man instinctively knows this to be true. That s why 28

35 religion appeals to man. It is man s effort to remedy his separation from God. And whenever you hear someone, in the heat of the moment, say to another person, Go to hell, that person is really saying, I wish for you the worst possible fate! The worst possible fate for anyone is separation from God that never ends. This is what hell really is. That is why Jesus spoke to this issue so clearly (Matthew 5:22; 23:33; Mark 9:43-44; Luke 16:23; 12:5). Separation from God that never ends is the current condition, direction, and destination of every person s life, who does not choose to accept God s gracious and generous invitation to return to Him. No one ever desires a never ending separation from God to be the end to their life. But, on the other hand, when a person does accept God s gracious invitation and free gift of forgiveness, the destination and future of that person s life is that of living forever in the very presence of God. Living forever in God s presence is what God originally intended for all of us. This is what heaven is. That is precisely what God intended all of us to experience back in the Garden of Eden. But man (through Adam) made this to be impossible when he chose to disobey God. This disobedience caused everyone to become separated from God. Everyone would desire heaven if they really understood the two options and what they both actually mean. 29

36 But now, God has made a restored relationship with Him, all possible again. And so, God invites man to once again be in friendship with Him. But he leaves the decision and the choice up to each one of us. YES, BUT I DON T WANT TO BE A HYPOCRITE! Many people respond to God s invitation with a Yes, but, I don t want to be a hypocrite response. That is a very common response as it is the opinion of many that, all Christians are just a bunch of hypocrites. A hypocrite is a person who says one thing and does another. It should be noted to that end, that both Christians and non-christians alike qualify. But, let s just suppose that the hypocrite accusation ONLY applies to a Christian. If that should be the case, then being a Christian is being just like Adam and Eve in their failure. They were created perfect and they were without sin. But they became imperfect when they disobeyed God, just like we all have done. And it is being just like the nation of Israel in their failure to live up to God s expectations for them. For, they were also imperfect. And so, now you have Christians who, as hypocrites, also fail to live up to God s expectations for them. They too, prove themselves to be imperfect. But just think about all these failures and imperfections for a moment. Do they not all together just make God s love and God s plan all 30

37 the more amazing? Do not the failures of man only highlight the love and mercy and grace of God all the more? Becoming a Christian is especially designed for imperfect people, just like all of us. Who wouldn t want to belong to a God who accepts us all for who we really are? The bottom line is that being a Christian does not mean that we all turn in a perfect performance. For being a Christian does not depend on man s performance (not at all to excuse hypocritical living). But being a Christian depends solely on God s Word, His promise, His faithfulness, and His finished work on man s behalf. Becoming a Christian and being a Christian solely and completely depends upon God from beginning to end, and not upon ourselves. So the caution might be this: be careful that you don t minimize or miss out on God s wonderful gift of salvation to you, over an excuse that, in reality, actually becomes the best reason to be a Christian. It is a great reason to become a Christian because one realizes just how much God loves us and accepts us for who we really are: people who have failed and people who have all come up short of God s requirements and expectations. But the good news is this: God gladly accepts all of us unconditionally with our failures, warts and all! And by His grace, He will begin to work on the 31

38 areas of all our flaws. And that is truly amazing amazing grace! 32

39 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. How important do you consider God s offer of forgiveness of your sins to be? 2. How important do you consider family to be? What would it mean to you to be a part of God s family? 3. When a person receives God s gift of salvation and forgiveness, how does life change and become new for that person? 4. When it comes to a person s eternal future, what does it mean to have a new destination? How important would you consider this to be for your own life? 5. Why do many people consider Christians to be hypocrites? How can this accusation keep a person from becoming a Christian and accepting God s gift of salvation? 6. How do the failures of man only highlight God s love for mankind all the more? 7. Why is it important that being a Christian depends on God s performance and not on man s performance? 33

40 8. How is it possible for someone to miss out on God s wonderful gift of salvation over an excuse that isn t much of an excuse? 9. How would you answer the question: What difference does being a Christian make in a person s life? 10. What would you consider to be the greatest motivation to become a Christian? 34

41 VI. PERSONALIZATION: How To Become A Christian If it is your choice and the desire of your heart to become a Christian, you have just made the most important decision of your life! Here is how a person becomes a Christian. Everyone who becomes a Christian, becomes a Christian by faith. This simply means that a person personally applies the truth to one s own life. By faith, a person believes that Jesus Christ is God and that He became a man by way of being born of the virgin, Mary. You apply this to your life by acknowledging that He came to this earth because He loved you personally (John 3:16). By faith a person believes that Jesus Christ suffered and died on the cross and in doing so, He took all of your sins upon Himself. He could do this for you because He, Himself, was sinless. He paid the debt of your sin in full and has forgiven you every sin of your life! You apply this to your own life by admitting, He died on the cross because of my own sins. By faith a person believes that Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day and was resurrected, 35

42 thus, conquering death on our behalf. You can apply this to your own life by admitting, Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead and conquered death for me. By faith, a person receives the gift of God s salvation and forgiveness that can only come through Jesus Christ. You can apply this to your own life by accepting God s gift of salvation and forgiveness as being true for you. By faith, you turn away from your self way of living and turn away from any living that is displeasing to God. It is a turning away from any kind of disobedient way of living, because it was that kind of living that separated you from God in the first place. This turning away is called repentance. It would be disingenuous to say to God, I m glad to accept your gift of forgiveness, but I m going to keep on living a life that offends You. That is why repentance is necessary and important. Repentance is what helps one to avoid hyposcrisy. You can apply this to your own life by deciding right now that you are turning from anything in your life that you know is displeasing to God. One way to put your faith into action is to verbally tell God that you gladly accept His gift of forgiveness and salvation. You can verbalize it with words like the following: 36

43 Dear God, I know I need you to be in my life as my Savior. I know that I am a sinner and that because of my sin, I am separated from you. Today, I turn away from the kind of life that brought about my separation from you. I believe Jesus Christ, your Son, came to earth and died for my sins and that He conquered death by being resurrected from the dead. Today, I receive Jesus Christ as my Savior and I gladly accept your gift of salvation and forgiveness. Thank you for loving me so much and for coming into my life today. Amen. God, by His grace, has enabled you to exercise faith to both believe Him and receive him into your life. By faith you have accepted Jesus Christ into your life to be your own personal Savior. By faith you have received His gift of salvation and forgiveness. By faith you have become a Christian, for the Bible says: if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation (Romans 10:9,10). 37

44 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Have you made the decision and the choice to invite Jesus Christ into your life to be your Savior and thereby become a Christian? 2. What does it mean to you to exercise faith in something or someone? 3. God s provision of salvation through the finished work of Jesus Christ in His death, burial and resurrection is called The Gospel which means, Good News. What makes what Jesus did for mankind, good news? 4. By Faith means you accept and believe that something is true and that you receive it to be true for your own life. What does this mean to you today? 5. Becoming a Christian is as simple as accepting or receiving a gift. Why does God make His salvation a gift to be received? 6. Read the prayer that is provided in this lesson out loud. After reading the prayer, summarize the content or explain it in your own words. 38

45 7. When you personalize God s gift of salvation and forgiveness to your own life, you have become a Christian. How would you explain what you just did to someone else so they might understand it? 8. You may not feel any different than you did before. This is because salvation is not a matter of the emotions. It is a matter of fact. God said it. Jesus Provided it. You accepted it. That settles it. Why might this be important to understand? 9. On the other hand, forgiveness and being accepted by God into His family is such a wonderful thing, many people, having received God s gift find themselves overcome with joy and gladness. What would cause them to have such joy? 10. As a new Christian, you have just become a follower of Jesus Christ. What does this mean to you? 39

46 VII. REALIZATION: What Just Happened To Me The very moment you accepted Jesus Christ by faith to be your Savior, a number of things immediately became true of your life. First, you just became born again. This is a term Jesus used to describe the fact that you became a new person. You were born spiritually into God s family. You became a spiritual child of God (John 3:3-5). Second, you just experienced the forgiveness of all your sin. You have been declared to be righteous in the eyes of God. All charges of sin and wrong that had been charged against you for the time of judgment have been dropped. You have been declared innocent. You have been freed from any penalty of sin (Ephesians 1:7). Third, the Bible teaches that you have just been transferred from the realm of death to the realm of life. When Jesus came into your life to be your Savior, you became a partaker of eternal life. Before a person becomes a Christian, that person is a recipient of the nature of death. This death is more than physical. It is a spiritual death that results in eternal separation from God. But now, that has 40

47 changed. You are now a recipient of eternal life because you have Christ s Spirit within you (I John 5:11,12). Fourth, the Bible also teaches that the moment you believed and became a Christian, God, by way of the Holy Spirit came to live within you. God has taken up residence within you. God s indwelling presence is God s guarantee, or his official seal of authority, that promises your eternal future with God (Ephesians 1:13,14; I Corinthians 6:19,20). Fifth, the moment you became a Christian, you were placed by God s Spirit into His Church, which is called the body of Christ. You belong to the household of faith. You belong to the family of God. Other believers in Jesus Christ are now your brothers and sisters in Christ. You have become a part of God s spiritual family (Ephesians 2:19-22; I Corinthians 12:27). Sixth, when you became a Christian, you entered into a brand new life. The Bible states, Therefore, if a man be in Christ, he is a new creature or person; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come (II Corinthians 5:17 NASV). Everything has become new for you: A new way of thinking. A new direction in life. New desires. New priorities. A new belonging. New friends. A new future. A new hope. A new kind of joy. The list 41

48 could go on and on. The Bible declares, everything has become new. Because you have entered into a new life, it takes a while to adjust and learn what has changed concerning your new life. And last, the very moment you became a Christian, your relationship with God was restored as if you were never separated from Him in the first place. This means that you are now on the right side of God and that you can enjoy fellowship and friendship with Him. Just like Adam and Eve, who walked and talked with God in the Garden of Eden, so you too can now enjoy His continual presence with you and within you. This means that you can worship God and give Him the honor that He truly deserves. (Before being a Christian, we lived our lives apart from Him and without Him in our lives at all.) But now, God is in your life and you are reunited with Him. It s just like coming home after being gone on very long trip. This is how God always meant life to be lived in the first place. God loves everyone so much that He desires that everyone be restored to a right relationship with Him. Welcome back to friendship with God! Welcome Home! (I John 1:3-7; II Peter 3:9). 42

49 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. What does it mean to you to be born again? 2. What does it mean to you to be forgiven of all your sin? 3. What does it mean to you to now be a partaker of eternal life instead of eternal separation from God which is described as spiritual death? 4. What does it mean to you to now have God, by way of His Spirit, living within you? 5. What does it mean to you to now be a part of God s family, the household of faith or the body of Christ? 6. What does it mean to you to now have a brand new life? 7. What does it mean to you to repent or turn away from the kind of living that brought about your separation from God in the first place? 8. What does it mean to you to now have a right relationship with God? 43

50 9. How would you summarize what just happened to you in becoming a Christian? 10. It would be a good time to read the third chapter of the Gospel of John and the fifth chapter of Romans. If you read and re-read these two chapters it will help you understand what has happened to you as a new believer in Jesus Christ. 44

51 VIII. APPLICATION: Now That I Am A Christian What s Next? Now, what do I do? This is a very important question because God wants every Christian to grow and become strong in their faith. The Bible declares, Like new born babies, you crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may GROW UP in your salvation (I Peter 2:2 NIV). But GROW in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (II Peter 3:18). When a person is a new Christian, having just been born again, the Bible describes us as babes in Christ. It is a way of saying we are just beginning our spiritual journey. Just as a new born baby drinks its mother s milk and begins to grow and become stronger each day, so it is for every Christian. God s Word, the Bible, becomes our milk and spiritual nutrition. There is a need to grow and become stronger in one s faith. Spiritual growth is one of the evidences that a person has really been born again. The following steps will help you to grow strong as a Christian. First, tell someone that you have become a Christian. Do not keep it to yourself. Tell your family. Tell your friends. Do not worry about what 45

52 they will think or what they might say. Remember, they may not understand all that you understand at this point. This is one of the reasons for this study. Many people do not become Christians because they do not understand what it really means or what it is all about. When you tell others about your faith in Jesus Christ, it may be the first step in their own lives to also consider becoming a Christian. Second, find another Christian who knows more than you do about the Christian life and faith. Ask that person to teach you and mentor you in learning more about the Bible and the Christian life. This will greatly help you to learn faster and grow stronger more quickly. Third, start reading the Bible every day. The Bible is God s Word that He has given to us. It teaches us about God and how He wants us to live our lives. You may read things you don t understand, but as you keep reading, God will give you understanding. Also, if you start meeting with another Christian, that person can help you in answering some of your questions. The Gospel of John would be a good starting point for your reading. Fourth, begin to attend a church that believes and teaches the Bible. You will meet other Christians 46

53 who will become your friends and they will help you and encourage you in your faith. Fifth, seek to be baptized. Baptism is a way of declaring to others that you are a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. The waters of baptism help you declare your faith publically by allowing you to identify with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When you are placed under the water, it is a way of saying that Christ died for your sins. When you are raised up out of the water, it is a way of saying that Christ was raised from the dead for you. It is important to know that the waters of baptism have nothing to do with washing your sins away as some people may think. (It is a natural thing to link water with cleansing, but in baptism, that is not the meaning.) Your sins were washed away and taken away when Christ died on the cross for you. Baptism is simply a way of declaring that you personally identify with what Jesus Christ did for you and that you are now a Christian. Sixth, a new Christian always grows stronger and faster in his faith when he gets involved with some responsibility or in some way serving in the church. There are many opportunities where a person can participate and be involved as a volunteer. Things like being a greeter or parking lot attendant, or helping around the facility, or helping with equipment or technology or sound are generally areas where a person can start helping right away. 47

54 The list is really endless where help is needed in the local church. As you begin to serve and contribute with your abilities, you will be strengthened in your faith. You will learn what serving is all about. Seventh, keep telling others about your decision to follow Jesus and how it all came about in your own life. Everyone has their own story to tell. Every time you tell your story, it will encourage you and strengthen your faith. Furthermore, every time you tell your story, you never know how God may use your story to encourage or motivate that person to also want to follow Jesus and become a Christian. There are many Christians who have never done the things that have been suggested above. They continue to believe and follow Jesus, but many of them continue to be baby Christians. As such, they do not have a strong and vibrant faith. And with a weak faith, they are more susceptible to temptations and failures and misplaced priorities and focus. So, it is important to make every effort to grow and become strong and mature in your Christian faith. Make every effort to learn, to study, to read and to serve. You will find that it makes all the difference in the world. 48

55 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. How is becoming a Christian similar to being like a newborn baby? 2. Why is it important to tell someone right away that you have become a Christian? 3. Who do you know who is an older and mature Christian that you can begin meeting with on a regular basis so you can ask questions and learn more about your Christian faith? 4. Why is it important to find a church to attend that believes and teaches the Bible? 5. How would you describe what baptism is? Why is it important to be baptized? 6. What are some skills that you may have that you can offer as a way to become involved in serving in your local church? 7. How would you describe your story as to how you became a Christian? How will telling your own story help you in becoming stronger as a Christian? 49

56 8. What can happen to a new Christian if one does not start applying the suggested actions in this chapter? 50

57 IX. TEMPTATION: Don t Be Surprised If Temptation is an effort to challenge and disrupt your faith. Every Christian faces temptation and has to learn to deal with it all the time. So, don t be surprised if you find yourself being tempted in some way or another. The goal of temptation is to create defeat, failure, discouragement and destruction in your Christian life. You may discover yourself being tempted to sin to do what you know you should not do. You may find yourself being tempted to doubt your faith and wonder if everything you have been told is really true. You may find yourself tempted to have wrong desires and attitudes. But here is what the Bible says about temptation: No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. (I Corinthians 10:13) This verse teaches us that temptation is common to everyone! You are not 51

58 being singled out and you are never alone when it comes to temptation. That is why having other Christian friends in your life can be a big help to you when it comes to facing life s temptations. This verse also teaches us that God is faithful to us in every situation of temptation. He has not abandoned us. He is faithful to provide a way of escape. There is always a back door! There is always a way out. When you know you are being tempted, look for the way of escape. All through the Bible there are examples of people who faced temptation. Adam and Eve were tempted in the Garden of Eden. They gave into the temptation and the result was disastrous for the whole world (Genesis 3:1-24). We all are still paying the price of the consequence of their disobedience today. Jesus, Himself, was tempted in the wilderness to listen to the voice of Satan, and do what Satan suggested. But Jesus did not give in to the temptation. He stood strong. He quoted Scripture. He withstood the heat of the moment (Matthew 4:1-15). The Apostle Peter had vowed that he would never let Jesus down. But when the pressure was on, he denied that he even knew who Jesus was three different times (Luke 22:54-62). 52