It’s critical that we use God’s objective word when evaluating whether or not we are a Christian, and not our subjective opinion. Scripture, not experience or sentiment, is the say on the status of our soul. After we die, when and we stand before God in the judgment (Heb. 9:27), he is not going to ask, “So, did you think you were a Christian in life? You did? Oh, OK, come on in to heaven.” He will judge by his standard. And, according to Jesus, on that day many will be surprised when they are shut out from heaven for all eternity (Matt. 7:21-23).
It’s about as puzzling as it is pervasive. Especially in our nation, people assume the label, “Christian,” for themselves as easily as a food preference. A 2014 survey revealed that about 70% of Americans consider themselves Christians. Often at funerals (in an understandable grasp in grief) individuals—even clergy—will proclaim with certitude the individual’s presence in the eternal place for Christians, despite an absence of Christianity in the individual’s life. Some of the more common answers to the question, “How do you know that you are a Christian?”, are things like, “I have always been one,” “I believe in God,” “I was baptized or confirmed,” “At camp I came forward,” “I just grew up that way,” “I prayed a prayer,” “Because I am a decent person,” or, “Because I grew up going to/go to church.”
But how do those reasons match up with the Christian manual—the Bible—on what it means to be a Christian? Are 70% of 300 million Americans characterized by the Bible’s definition of Christian characteristics? What does the Bible say about what it means to be a Christian?
It’s critical that we use God’s objective word when evaluating whether or not we are a Christian, and not our subjective opinion. Scripture, not experience or sentiment, is the say on the status of our soul. After we die, when and we stand before God in the judgment (Heb. 9:27), he is not going to ask, “So, did you think you were a Christian in life? You did? Oh, OK, come on in to heaven.” He will judge by his standard. And, according to Jesus, on that day many will be surprised when they are shut out from heaven for all eternity (Matt. 7:21-23).
So, this matters. Eternity is at stake. This is a matter of our own souls and those of people we love. Thus, it is inappropriate, and even more, perhaps, spiritual suicide, to respond, “Who are you to question me?” The answer, of course, is, someone who cares about you and your eternal well-being.
Before some Christian evidences are given, a word of encouragement.
Evaluation is a normal thing. We do it with our diet, our car, our dentist, and our golf swing. A willingness to evaluate one’s soul is also to be normal. The Apostle Paul exhorted a local church, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” (2 Cor. 13:5).
If we have zero willingness to evaluate whether or not we are a Christian, there is a problem. So, though a willingness to do so is not the means by which one enters heaven, it evidences the presence of a healthy humility.
I have personally witnessed far too many people appear to live as Christians for years, only to walk away from Christ. These are people who said they were Christians, talked like Christians, acted like Christians, and even believed that they were Christians. They had no major outward evidences that they were not. Yet, after a time, they ended up openly denying the Christian faith. It happens far too much, which is why a little soul diagnosis is necessary.
Even the Apostle Paul—a fairly godly guy—was willing to go in for periodic soul-check-ups (1 Cor. 9:27). He did not see himself as above the need for such diagnoses. Where does that put us? So, if you never see the need to evaluate whether or not you are a Christian, you might not be one. And if we are eager to, unforced, evaluate our teeth at the dentist, should we not be all the more willing to do so with our soul?
With that, here are a few signs which evidence that an individual is a Christian.
- Awareness of and sorrow over personal sin and moral imperfection.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:3-4).
A Christian is someone who understands that morally/spiritually, they are destitute before God. They have nothing, morally, to offer God, in and of themselves. A Christian personally embraces the truth that they are infinitely in the red morally before God, and thus, contribute nothing to their right standing with God and entrance into heaven.Here in the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3-12), Jesus is not giving prescriptions for how to get to heaven, but descriptions of those already going there. In v. 3, he speaks not of physical, but spiritual poverty. The Greek word translated “poor” did not mean, “barely making ends meet each month.” There was a word for that in Greek and this is not it. This word refers to a beggar in abject destitution; destitute of both provision and the ability to provide. If you were to see this individual, they would be the raggedly covered (if covered at all) beggar, cowered over with head down and hand out (TDNT, 6:886).
Steve Lawson said, “No one giggles through the narrow gate, but all who enter come mourning over their sin.” John Owen wrote, “This is the test of the real efficacy of the gospel: It keeps the heart humble, lowly, sensible to sin, and broken on that account. The Spirit of grace moves us to repentance and teaches us to detest sin” (Triumph Over Temptation, 80). Octavius Winslow remarked similarly, “The contrite heart is a blessing of the Holy Spirit.”
2. A confidence in Christ alone for acceptance with God.
“[A]nd may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith” (Phil. 3:9).
“For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God…” (1 Pet. 3:18).
This is the big one. Jesus Christ did for man what man could never do for himself: render him in permanent right standing with God. Christ’s substitutionary atoning death and resurrection is that single package in the universe which removes sin’s penalty. Heaven’s doors fly open to the sinner who clings to Christ and his cross alone by faith for moral status with God.
A Christian possesses total confidence that, apart from Christ’s finished work on the cross, he deserves to spend eternity in hell. He agrees with Richard Baxter who said, “So then, let ‘deserved’ be written on the floor of hell but on the door of heaven in life, ‘free gift.’”
It is by Christ’s work and not our contribution, not 1%, that contributes to acceptable standing before God.