For Indigenous Australians

A picture of a Bible Christian

 

 

Paul Thompson with A N Martin 

 

 

You may be ignorant of many things, but to be ignorant of what the Bible says a real Christian looks like can be tragic and fatal leading to eternal pain in Hell.

We don't want to assume that we are a true Christian. Many claim this and show little fruit. What does God say in His word the Bible? It is crucial...for eternal life and heaven.

There are four steps that make up the picture of a Bible Christian each builds on the other. To miss one is to miss the whole and lead only to error and great danger. To know in your heart each is to know joy unspeakable...and that by grace alone you are a Bible Christian.

A Bible Christian constantly faces the reality of God, the problem of his own sin and the remedy – Jesus Christ. He responds in faith and repentance which become growing realities of fruitfulness.

 

1. FACE THE REALITY OF GOD

 

>God is the creator

 

He made the world 

 

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1

 

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth.  Act 17:24

 

He made us in his image or likeness

 

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.  Genesis 1:26

 

>God is the law giver

 

And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”  Genesis 2:16

 

>God is Holy

 

You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong.  Habakkuk  1:13

 

Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory. Isaiah 6:3

 

Since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." 1 Peter 1:16

 

>God is just and angry

 

Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord. Romans 12:19

 

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Romans 1:18

 

2. FACE THE PROBLEM OF MY SIN.

 

Christianity is different from all religions – it is a sinners religion.

 

• He will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."   Matthew 1:21

 

• The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.   1 Timothy 1:15

 

The problem of my bad record and my bad heart and bad master

 

          > My bad record – in heaven

 

• Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.   Romans 5:12

 

• For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 1 Cor 15:22

 

• Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. 

Ecclesiastes 7 :20

 

• And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
• Revelation 20:12

 

• Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.  Romans 3:19

> My bad heart – God sees me

 

• The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?   Jeremiah 17:9

 

 

• For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.  Romans 8:7

 

• Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."    Matthew 9:13

 

> My bad master –  Satan controls me

 

 

• Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. John 8:34

 

• You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.  John 8:44

 

3. CONSIDER GOD'S REMEDY FOR MY SIN.

 

>God's remedy for my sin is Jesus Christ

 

• "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

 

• Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  John 14:6

 

>God's remedy for my sin is in His death on a cross

 

• Whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.  Romans 3:25

 

• Through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Colossians 1:20 

 

>God's remedy for my sin is His resurrection

 

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4

 

>God's remedy meets perfectly my bad record

• Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Romans 5:1

>God's remedy meets perfectly my bad heart

• And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

                   Ezekiel  36:26 

• and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, Ephesians  4:23

 

>God remedy meets perfectly my bad master

 

• For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.    1Thessalonians 1:9

 

4. RESPOND TO GOD'S REMEDY – JESUS CHRIST IN FAITH & REPENTANCE

 

> By constantly having faith in Christ to save me from God's anger & justice

 

Forsaking All I Take Him

 

• "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!  John 1:12 

 

•  "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." John 6:29 

•   And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."

  Act 16:31

• So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Romans 10:17

> By constantly repenting of my sin to Christ and his way

 

“Repentance is being sorry for my sin, hating it, changing my attitude to it and leaving it behind”      - A Child's First Catechism by Dr David Jackson

• For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. 2Corinthians 7:10

 

• For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 1Thessalonians 1:9

 

4.  SHOW BY MY FAITH & REPENTANCE A GROWING REALITY OF FRUITFULNESS

We will be growing

 

• Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—1 Peter 2:2
• But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. 2 Peter 3:18

 

Because of my new identity – as a new creation in Christ 5 realities are true

 

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.   Galatians 2:20

 

1. I don't have to perform for God or others because I am Justified – right with God and pleasing to Him

 

• Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Romans 5:1

 

2. I don't need human approval because I am reconciled – to God, forgiven, in relationship and acceptance

 

• And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,

          He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.   Colossians 1:21 -22

 

3. I'm not to blame others or circumstances because Christ has turned away God's wrath

 

• In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4:9-11

 

4. I don't have to feel shame – or hopeless because God has regenerated me by His Holy Spirit

 

• Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. "   John 3:3

 

5. I can expect to bear the fruits of the Spirit, leadership and souls saved.

 

• I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.   John 15:5

 

A Bible Christian constantly faces the reality of God, the problem of his own sin and the remedy – Jesus Christ. He responds in faith and repentance which become growing realities of fruitfulness.

 

Editor: This article has included material from "What is a Biblical Christian." by A N Martin.