On Becoming a Christian
How
many times have you heard non-Christians, judging one who professes
Christ, say in disgust, "Well, if that's Christianity, I don't want any
of it!"
How many judge God by the way professing Christians live?
How many assume that one must live a perfect life before he can become
a Christian"?
How many say, "If I could give up smoking, I'd become a Christian"?
How
many think a Christian is supposed to be perfect, never doing anything
wrong? Suppose you do see or hear about a Christian doing something
wrong. Does that mean he is a hypocrite — that he is not really a
Christian, after all?
Is it possible for one to actually sin, while he is a Christian, and still remain a truly converted Christian?
I suppose nearly everyone would reply in the negative. But here is a vital point you need to understand!
It's
hard to believe — but true! Few know just what is a Christian. Few know
how one is converted — whether suddenly, all at once, or gradually.
Does conversion happen immediately, or is it a process? It's
HIGH TIME WE UNDERSTAND!
The
truth is that there is a sense in which true conversion does take place
at a definite time — all at once. But it is also true that in another
sense conversion is worked out gradually — a process of development and
growth.
Now notice carefully!
When does one really become
a Christian? It is when he receives God's Holy Spirit. In Romans 8:9,
we read that unless we have the Holy Spirit, we are not Christ's — not
Christians.
There is a definite time when God's Spirit enters
into one. At the very moment he receives the Holy Spirit, he is, in
this first sense, converted. Yes, all at once! If he has Christ's
Spirit, he is Christ's — he is a Christian! He has been begotten as a
child of God.
But does that mean his salvation is complete? Is
he now fully and finally "saved"? Is that all there is to it? Is he
now, suddenly, perfect? Is it now impossible for him to do wrong?
NO! Far from it! But WHY? What's the answer? Why do so many misunderstand?
Here is the good news you need to know.
First,
there are two conditions to becoming a Christian: repentance and faith.
These two we, ourselves, must perform. Yet no one can, of himself, say:
"O, now I see — I must repent. All right, I hereby repent." One does
not just decide casually, as a matter of routine, to repent. Why?
Jesus
Christ said that none can come to Him, except the Spirit of the Father
draw him. God grants repentance. God calls one, and convicts the mind
and conscience by His Spirit, working on the mind externally. Usually a
real struggle goes on within. The person has been shaken to know he has
done wrong — he has sinned. He is not only sorry — he abhors himself!
He is brought to real repentance, not only for what he has done, but
for what he now sees that he is.
Yet he, himself, must make the
decision. If he does repent, surrender to God and in faith accept Jesus
Christ as personal Savior, then, upon performance of these two
conditions, God promises to put within him the gift of the Holy Spirit.
This is the very life of God — spirit life. It imparts to him the very
divine nature!
Then what, at that stage, has happened?
This
new convert has only been begotten of God — not yet born. He has not
received the full measure of God's Spirit Christ had — he is only a
spiritual babe in Christ — he must now grow spiritually, just as a
newly conceived fetus in its mother's womb must grow physically large
enough to be born as a human.
This new convert has now repented,
in his mind, from the depths of his heart. He means it, too! In all
sincerity, in his mind and heart he has turned around to go the other
way — to live a different life. He is now a Christian — he has received
God's Holy Spirit. He really wants to do what is right — to obey God —
to live God's way.
Yet he finds he does not do this perfectly!
Many, at this stage, become discouraged. Some give up even trying to
live a Christian life. And why? Because of the false notion that a
Christian is one who becomes perfect at one fell swoop — or, that one
cannot become a Christian until he has broken all wrong habits, and
made himself righteous.
It's vital to understand how true Christianity really works!
The
newly begotten Christian must grow up, spiritually. What would you
think of a human baby who became 6 feet tall all at once, without
growing up? The growing-up process requires time. There is an instant
when a person receives the impregnating Holy Spirit of God — when he
first becomes a Christian. But he is only a spiritual infant. He must
grow up spiritually.
The newly converted person, in his mind and
heart, sincerely has about-faced! He has actually gained contact with
God, and received God's Holy Spirit. God's own divine nature has now
been conceived within him.
But that's all — it is merely
conceived — not yet full grown! And his human nature is still there —
it has not been killed or removed!
Understand this!
We
were all born human. We all have human nature. Few seem to know what
human nature is. It is a strong pull — a tendency — and, like gravity,
it is a downward pull. Like a strong magnet, it draws us in the way of
Satan — that is a pull toward self-gratification and jealousy, envy and
resentment toward others. It is the spirit of rebellion against
authority, hostility toward God and the law of God. That is human
nature. It is within you. But how did human nature become that way?
Adam and Eve were not created with that nature.
Originally God
created the beautiful archangel Lucifer. He sealed up the sum of
wisdom, knowledge and beauty. But one thing he lacked — the righteous
character to choose the right way, and resist the wrong — to discipline
the self in the way he ought to go, instead of the way of self-desire.
So Lucifer became Satan. He allowed pride and vanity, selfishness and
greed, a lack of outgoing concern for others — the spirit of
competition, opposition, strife, effort to acquire and to exalt the
self — to enter his mind. He became perverted.
Satan, ever since
the Garden of Eden, has beamed his new perverted thinking into the
minds of unwitting human beings. So humanity has accepted Satan's
nature and allowed it to become infused with human nature.
God's
purpose in having created humanity — in having caused YOU to be born —
is to reproduce Himself. And God, above all things, is PERFECT,
RIGHTEOUS CHARACTER! God is able to create character within us — but it
must be done as a result of our independent free choice. We, as
individual separate entities, have our part in the process.
What
is perfect character? It is the ability, in a separate entity, to come
to the knowledge of the right from the wrong — the true from the false
— and to choose the right, and possess the will to enforce
self-discipline to do the right and resist the wrong.
Like
muscle, character is developed, and grows by exercise. My name is
Armstrong. I suppose I could make my arm stronger, and develop the
muscle, by constantly bending it back and forth at the elbow. But if I
pull, or push, against some heavy weight or resistance, the muscle will
develop much faster. Therefore God allows us to have this nature that
exerts a heavy pull against that perfect righteous character — to give
us something to strive against, for the very
PURPOSE OF STRENGTHENING AND DEVELOPING RIGHT CHARACTER!
God's character travels in the direction of His law — the way of love. It is an outgoing concern for
others.
God has that character! He has an outgoing concern for you and for me.
He gave His only begotten Son to reconcile us to Him, and make the joys
of His character and everlasting life possible for us. He showers on us
every good and precious gift. He even puts within us His divine nature
— when we repent and turn from the wrong way of this world, begin to
resist it and turn to Him through faith in Jesus Christ as personal
Savior!
God's divine nature is the nature of love — of giving, serving, helping — of outgoing concern. It is the nature of humility.
Now when one is converted — has repented, and turned from Satan's and this world's false way — has at
once
received God's Holy Spirit —; his human nature, as I said before, does
not flee. It, too, remains. It still exerts a pull. We still live in
this present evil world, and it exerts a pull. God still allows Satan
to be around — and he exerts a pull.
So we now have three pulls
to resist — to overcome! We must now overcome these three — Satan, this
world and our own selves. We have to battle against these three, in
order to develop and strengthen right character within us. God says
plainly it is the overcomers who shall be saved — who shall reign with
Christ!
No human being is strong enough to do this by himself! He
must seek, and in faith receive, the help and power of God. Even with
God's power he will not overcome such forces easily, or all at once. It
is not easy! Christ plainly said the way to ultimate salvation is hard,
difficult. It's a constant battle — a struggle against self, the world
and the devil. The creation of character comes through experience — it
takes time!
This development is a process. It is a matter of
growth — development. It requires, to become perfect, full and right
knowledge of the very Word of God — because Jesus taught that we must
live by every Word of God.
The natural, unconverted mind cannot
fully and rightly understand the Scriptures of God. The acquisition of
this knowledge, in itself, is a procedure requiring time. It is the
doers of this Word, not hearers only, who shall be saved.
But
can any man do, immediately and all at once, this new way he now learns
about? Can any man, all at once, break all habits he now sees are
wrong? No, he finds he has a fight against acquired former habits.
He
still has this pull of human nature to overcome. This nature is a law
working within him. The apostle Paul calls it the law of sin and death.
Paul
was converted. Paul was a real Christian. He had repented, accepted
Christ and received the Holy Spirit. With his mind, he wanted with all
his heart, and in real, intense sincerity, to do God's WAY! But did
Paul do it perfectly? Let him tell.
Listen! "For we know that
the law is spiritual," he wrote, "but I am carnal, sold under sin. For
that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what
I hate, that do I. . . . Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin
that dwelleth in me" (Rom. 7:14-17).
He is speaking of human
nature within him. He continues: "... for to will is present with me;
but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I
would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.... O
wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?" (verses 18-24). Then he thanks God — that God will — through
Jesus Christ, and by the power of His Holy Spirit. But IT TAKES
TIME!
The truly converted Christian will find that he often
stumbles, under temptation, and falls down — even as a physical child
learning to walk often falls down. But the year-old child does not get
discouraged and give up. He gets up and starts out again.
The truly converted Christian IS NOT YET PERFECT!
God
LOOKS ON THE HEART — the inner motive — the real intent! If he is
trying — if he gets up whenever he falls down, and in repentance asks
God's forgiveness and sets out to do his very best not to
MAKE THAT
MISTAKE AGAIN----and to persevere with renewed effort to overcome, God
is rich in mercy toward that man in his striving to overcome.
Speaking
to converted Christians, John writes: "These things write I unto you,
that ye sin not. And if any man sin [even though he ought not], we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And He is the
propitiation for our sins" (I John 2:1-2). Yes, for the sins of
converted Christians. Such people often are under heavier temptation
than before conversion. They are striving against sin — striving to
overcome. But they are not yet perfect. Sometimes they are caught off
guard. They may actually sin. Then they wake up, as it were, and
realize what they have done. They repent. They are filled with remorse
— truly sorry — disgusted with themselves. They go to God, and cry out
for HELP — for more power and strength from God to overcome!
This is the way of the Christian!
It
is the way of a constant battle — a striving against sin — a seeking
God in earnest prayer for help and spiritual power to overcome. They
are constantly gaining ground. They are constantly growing in God's
knowledge, from the Bible. They are constantly rooting out wrong
habits, driving themselves into right habits. They are constantly
growing closer to God through Bible study and prayer. They are
constantly growing in character, toward perfection, even though not yet
perfect.
With Paul, they say: "Not as though I had already
attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after . . .
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I
do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto
those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:12-14).
But,
someone may ask, what if one's life is cut off, and he dies before he
has attained this perfection? Is he saved, or lost? The answer is that
we shall never obtain absolute perfection in this life.
I said,
earlier, that a person who is converted does receive the Holy Spirit at
a definite time — all at once! Not the full measure Christ had — he is
not at once full-grown spiritually — only a spiritual babe in Christ.
Yet he is then a changed, converted man — changed in mind, in attitude,
in the direction he has set himself to strive to travel. Even though he
has not yet reached perfection — even though he may have stumbled under
temptation, and taken a spiritual fall — as long as, in his mind and
heart, he is earnestly striving to travel God's way, to overcome and
grow spiritually — as long as God's Spirit is in him — as long as he is
being led by the Spirit of God, he is a begotten Son of God.
If, anywhere along this life's journey, that life is cut short, such a man will be resurrected.
It
is only the one who deliberately quits and gives up — who rejects God
and God's way, and rejects Christ as his Savior — who turns from this
direction of God's way, in his mind and heart — in his inner intent —
who deliberately and intentionally in his mind turns from Christ, who
is lost. If, once having been converted, having received God's Spirit
and tasted of the joys of God's way, one deliberately rejects that way,
makes the decision, not under stress of temptation, but deliberately
and finally, not to go God's way, then God says it is impossible to
renew such a one to repentance. He would have to repent of that
decision. But if he willfully made it, not in a time of temptation, but
calmly, deliberately, willfully, then he just will not ever repent of
it.
But anyone who fears he may have committed the "unpardonable
sin" — is perhaps worried about it, and hopes he has not committed it,
and still wants to have God's salvation — no such has committed it —
such a one may repent, and go right on to salvation if he wants to!
If you have stumbled and fallen down, DON'T be discouraged! Get up and press on ahead!
If
you see a Christian do something wrong, don't sit in judgment and
condemn — that's God's business to judge, not yours! Let's have
compassion and mercy — we don't know the inner heart of others — only
God does!
Personal from Herbert W. Armstrong The GOOD NEWS June/July 1980
