BELIEVE
To become a follower of the Christ, it is first of all necessary to believe in Him, and to believe that He is the Son of God, Who died in our place, and that He was raised from the dead.
In Romans 10:9 we read that Paul said: “If you CONFESS WITH YOUR MOUTH Jesus as Lord, and BELIEVE IN YOUR HEART that God raised Him from the dead, YOU WILL BE SAVED”.
And from Mark 16:16 we know that Jesus said: “He who has BELIEVED and has been BAPTIZED shall be SAVED; but he who has DISBELIEVED shall be CONDEMNED.”
Unbelief is not acceptable, as we read in Mark 16:14 where Jesus reproached the disciples for their unbelief. – ¹⁴Afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table; and He REPROACHED THEM FOR THEIR UNBELIEF and HARDNESS OF HEART, because they had NOT BELIEVED those who had seen Him after He had risen.
RECEIVE
To become a follower of the Christ, receiving Him into your heart is also a necessary step, for without this you cannot have the love of God in you. As a Christian you constantly need His Spirit with you.
To receive Him, the only thing you can is ask the Father. Knowing that the Father will gladly give it to you.
Luke 12:32 — Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.
When you do not have the love of God in you, it may cause you to harden your heart by which you will completely miss the blessings God has in store for you.
John 5:42-47 — ⁴²but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. ⁴³I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him ⁴⁴How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? ⁴⁵Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. ⁴⁶For IF YOU BELIEVED MOSES, YOU WOULD BELIEVE ME, for he wrote about Me. ⁴⁷But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”
Receiving the Christ is also necessary to become children of God.
John 1:12-13 – ¹²But as many as RECEIVED Him, to them He gave the RIGHT to BECOME CHILDREN OF GOD, even to those WHO BELIEVE IN HIS NAME, ¹³WHO WERE BORN, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but OF GOD.
YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN
To become a follower of the Christ you need to repent of your sin.
You need need a change of mind, a change of heart, a change of behavior, you need a complete reset.
Without this you cannot see the Kingdom of God as we read in John 3:3,5-7 — ³Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is BORN AGAIN he cannot see the kingdom of God.” ⁵Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is BORN OF WATER AND THE SPIRIT he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. ⁶That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is BORN OF THE SPIRIT is spirit. ⁷Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN.’
JESUS CAME ON EARTH AND DIED FOR YOU
To be a follower of the Christ you must believe that Jesus came on earth and died for you, of which we already see a type in the desert in the days of Moses.
Jesus too referred to this as we can read in John 3:14-19 — ¹⁴As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, EVEN SO must the Son of Man be lifted up; ¹⁵so that WHOEVER BELIEVES WILL IN HIM HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. ¹⁶For God so LOVED THE WORLD, that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHALL NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. ¹⁷For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but THAT THE WORLD MIGHT BE SAVED THROUGH HIM. ¹⁸He who BELIEVES in Him is NOT JUDGED; he WHO DOES NOT BELIEVE HAS BEEN JUDGED ALREADY, because he has not BELIEVED in the name of the only begotten Son of God. ¹⁹This is the judgment, that the LIGHT has come into the world, and men loved the DARKNESS rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
YOU HAVE A CHOICE
To become a follower of the Christ you have to make the choice to leave your old way of life behind you, and start a new eternal life with Jesus.
You have a choice between eternal life or the wrath of God.
A choice between life and death
A choice between heaven and hell.
One may think that this is an easy choice, but don’t underestimate it. As soon as you decide to follow Jesus, the world, friends, and if you followed an other believe system before, those in that believe, will start pulling hard on you to get you away from Jesus, and away from the life He wants to give you.
John 3:36 — He who BELIEVES IN THE SON has ETERNAL LIFE; but he who does not OBEY THE SON will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.
WITHOUT BELIEVE IN JESUS, NO LIFE
To become a follower of the Christ, you not only have to believe in the Christ, you also have to obey Him — “He who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him”. (John 3:36)
In John 5:38-40,47 Jesus warned the pharisees with these words: ³⁸You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent. ³⁹You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; ⁴⁰and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. ⁴⁷But if you do not believe his (Moses) writings, how will you believe My words?”
WORK OF GOD
To become a follower of the Christ you must let God work it out in you, for the fact that you believe in the Christ, is God’s work in you.
John 6:28-29 — ²⁸Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” ²⁹Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
And after you surrendered to the Christ, you must keep following Him.
He will help you on your journey over that narrow road.
SALVATION
Being a follower of the Christ you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is your Lord, and you will believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead.
For in Romans 10:9-13 we read that ⁹If you CONFESS with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and BELIEVE in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be SAVED ¹⁰for with the heart a person believes, resulting in RIGHTEOUSNESS, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in SALVATION. ¹¹For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” ¹²For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; ¹³for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”
NOW… If you are not yet sure that you are saved, if you are not yet following Him, than tell Jesus now in your prayer in your own words:
– that you are a sinner and that you ask for forgiveness for your sins,
– that you are thankful for the sacrifice He did for you at the cross,
– that you are thankful for His blood that washed you clean from your sins,
– that you repent of your sins,
– that you want to start a new life with Him,
– that you want to follow Him from now on,
– and ask Him to help and guide you on your way.
When you have done this, find a church where brothers or sisters can help you further.
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