By Lisa Groen
Scripture and comments to show a few basic characteristics of a true Christian. (Words within parenthesis through this document are mine and all headings are mine.)
A Christian is someone who has been saved from the penalty, power, and pleasure of sin by an act of God’s pursuit of him/her, and will be taken to heaven for eternity and saved from the presence of sin there to be with the Godhead forever. (Godhead has three members who are one in purpose and unity=The Father, The Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit)
John 1:29 “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!””
Matthew 1:21 “She will bear a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, (spiritual death) but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”
Acts 3:19 “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,”
A Christian is someone who has faith in Jesus and aims to follow Jesus day by day.
Acts 16:31 “They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you and your household will be saved.”
Luke 9:23 “Then He said to them all, “If anyone will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
Psalm 81:13 “Oh, that My people would listen to Me, and Israel would follow in My ways!”
Deuteronomy 11:1 “You must love the Lord your God and keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments always.”
Deuteronomy 11:8-12 “Therefore you must keep all the commandments which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and possess the land which you are going to possess; 9 and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 For the land which you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt from where you came, where you sowed your seed and watered it with your foot like a vegetable garden, 11 but the land, which you are entering to possess, is a land of hills and valleys and drinks water from the rain of heaven, 12 a land for which the Lord your God cares. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year.”
Luke 6:46-49 ““Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I say? 47 Whoever comes to Me and hears My words and does them, I will show whom he is like: 48 He is like a man who built a house, and dug deep, and laid the foundation on rock. When the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, but could not shake it, for it was founded on rock. 49 But he who hears and does not obey is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently. Immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
A Christian knows the true Jesus of the Bible, and believes Jesus is God.
John 10:30 “My Father and I are one.”
Exodus 3:14-15 “14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and He said, “You will say this to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” 15 God, moreover, said to Moses, “Thus you will say to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’
John 8:58 “Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM.”
John 17:3 “This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”
John 20:24-29 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called The Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail prints in His hands, and put my finger in the nail prints, and put my hand in His side, I will not believe.” 26 After eight days His disciples were again inside with the doors shut, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came and stood among them, and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at My hands. Put your hand here and place it in My side. Do not be faithless, but believing.” 28 Thomas answered Him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have yet believed.”
A Christian knows he/she can learn about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit by reading the Bible and how to live a life that pleases God from the Bible.
John 5:39-40 “You search the Scriptures, because you think in them you have eternal life. These are they who bear witness of Me. 40 Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”
Deuteronomy 12:28 “Observe and hear all these words which I command you, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.”
Acts 5:42 “Daily, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease to teach and preach Jesus Christ.”
Acts 17:10 “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with all eagerness, daily examining the Scriptures, to find out if these things were so.”
John 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life.”
2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness,”
Colossians 1:10 “that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing to all, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God,”
A Christian realizes they are a sinner. We are born into sin, because Adam and Eve, the physical parents we all descended from sinned, then spiritual death crept into the human race bloodline from then on.
Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the age of this world and according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among them we all also once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,”
Genesis 2:17 “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” (God speaking to Adam and Eve)
Psalm 51:5 “I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.”
Although a Christian was dead to God before he/she became a Christian, the Christian becomes spiritually alive by God making him/her born again, and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit because God has given them eternal life, when they have asked God to save them from spiritual death.
1 Peter 1:23 “for you have been born again, not from perishable seed, but imperishable, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.”
1 John 2:25” And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.”
John 3:3 “Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.””
Romans 6:11 “Likewise, you also consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 6:13 “Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but yield yourselves to God, as those who are alive from the dead, and your bodies to God as instruments of righteousness.”
1 Corinthians 6:19 “What? Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God, and that you are not your own?”
Ezekiel 36:26 “Also, I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.”
Luke 15:24 “For this son of mine was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ So they began to be merry”
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Look, all things have become new.”
John 5:24 “Truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has eternal life and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death into life.”
A Christian gets the benefit of being guided by the Lord Jesus throughout his/her lifetime because Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd.
Luke 1:76-79 ““And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, 77 to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins, 78 through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise from on high has visited us; 79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.””
John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”
Psalm 23:1 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
Psalm 48:14 “For this God is our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death.”
A Christian gets the benefit of being adopted into the family of God and receiving the many blessings associated with being a child of God.
Psalm 65:4 “Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!”
Galatians 4:5 “To redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”
Romans 9:4 “who are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises”
Psalm 33:12 “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen as His inheritance.”
Psalm 24:5 “He will receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.”
Ephesians 1:5 “He predestined us to adoption as sons to Himself through Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of His will.”
Deuteronomy 7:14 “You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no male or female barren among you or among your cattle.”
A Christian actively pursues learning how to live a holy life and pursues learning how to grow in a Christ-like manner and continues to turn from sin as it is discovered in their life and seeks forgiveness from God whenever it may show up in their life.
Hebrews 12:14 “Pursue peace with all men, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord,”
2 Peter 3:18 “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory, both now and forever.”
Romans 6:13 “Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but yield yourselves to God, as those who are alive from the dead, and your bodies to God as instruments of righteousness.”
Colossians 1:9-12 “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing to all, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, 11 strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, enduring everything with perseverance and patience joyfully, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled us to be partakers in the inheritance of the saints in light.”
Acts 26:18 “to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (We renew our minds by reading God’s word)
1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
A Christian gets the benefit of God changing his/her spirit, mind, and spiritual manner and approach to life so he/she is able to grow according to God’s will to mature Christlikeness and holiness so he/she will be able to stand by grace in the free gift of Christ’s righteousness for him/her to be counted acceptable to God on judgement day when Christ shall judge the spiritually living and the spiritually dead, sending the spiritually living to heaven, and the spiritually dead to hell.
Ephesians 4:23 “and be renewed in the spirit of your mind;”
Luke 24:49 “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures
Ezekiel 11:19 “I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them. And I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh,”
Romans 5:17 “For if by one man’s trespass (Adam) death reigned through him, then how much more will those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 1:6 “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”
2 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, seeing the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, as in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord.”
Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Romans 3:22 “This righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all and upon all who believe, for there is no distinction.”
Romans 4:25 “Jesus was given to die for our sins, and he was raised from the dead to make us right with God.“
Ephesians 4:15 “But, speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things into Him, who is the head, Christ Himself,”
1Thessalonians 4:3 “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: (holiness) that you should abstain from sexual immorality,” LG
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