How do you become a Christian?
Perhaps you have a friend who shared the good news of Jesus with you.
Perhaps you have been given a Bible or some Christian Literature that you read yourself.
Perhaps you came across a video in the internet that teaches you the story of Jesus.
And so you have decided you would like to follow Jesus and become a Christian.
But then you asked, is there some place I have to go? Or some rituals I have to do?
First, I want you to know that asking such a question is a great place to start,
you're not alone to wonder.
In the Bible, when Christian faith was brand new, people were also asking "What must we do to be saved?"
On the first time that the disciples of Jesus preached about the good news of Jesus, over 3000 people asked what they need to do to be saved. Another time, after witnessing God's power through breaking open the jail cell where some Christians were being unfairly imprisoned. The jailer fell on his feet and asked "Sir what must I do to be saved?"
You see, to become Christian is to seek salvation from sin after death. To be saved and to become a Christian are simply two ways of expressing one idea . Christians seeks salvation through Jesus Christ, God's perfect gift for sin on the cross.
To answer your question "How to become a Christian?", we should always begin with where we are by ourselves. The Bible teaches that when we sinned, we have earned the reward of spiritual death. Sin is willful and ignorant disobedience of God's law. We alone, are unable to break free from this death. And so, when God loved us so much that he sent his only son, he broke the chains of sin by his grace. Grace means undeserving favor. God doesn't have to send Jesus, he didn't have to offer us a way out. We deserve the reward of sin because of what we've done. But thanks to God that he looks on us with compassion and mercy and wants us to be saved. The Bible says that you are saved by grace through faith.
Faith is complete trust and willingness to do what God says. By his grace, we have been set free from sin and by faith we seek him. What is faith look like? Before we going further on faith, we must take time to say that we are not saved by our own works of merit. Our salvation is not like a scale. If you have more bad than good then you cannot be saved. If you have more good than bad then you deserve to be saved. Such a model would deny God's grace which is the foundation of salvation. Also, none of us could ever do enough good to remove our own sin. We have a sin problem. We are saved by grace through faith.
What is Faith look like?
The Bible says by hearing, hearing the word of God through reading the Bible itself or having a friend carry the gospel with you. Your faith begins by hearing the good news of Jesus. The reaction that you have when you hear the gospel is to realize that you knew have a sin problem. Faith leads you from hearing the gospel to believing it. The Bible says through believing in Jesus, you can be saved. Without believing, you are lost. The Bible says, faith leads your belief to repent of a sinful lifestyle. That means, instead of living a life of sin, you will change direction. And do your best to live a life based on the righteous ways of Jesus. Faith leads your repentance to a point of confessing Jesus the son of God. The Bible says, with our hearts we believe in, with our mouth we can confess unto salvation.
Faith leads you to be baptized. Baptism is a reflection of Jesus sacrifice. We have made the choice to die the sin just like Jesus died in the cross. We were buried under water just like Jesus was buried after he died. We arise from the water a new spiritual creature, just like Jesus resurrected from the grave. The Bible says that baptism washes our sins away and through faith, we are saved by being baptized.
