Are You A Christian?

Are You Genuinely Converted?

“These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.”
Acts 17:11

      The early church was genuinely converted. We know that by what we see in Acts 2:42-47. So how can we been genuinely converted today?  There is a lot to this conversion thought.  If you ask a Christian today who knows what answer you will get? I ask these questions “Is everyone who says “I’m a Christian” a Christian?” and “And how do we know which way is right?” It is life and death for us all, how do we know what to do? I will say this; in order to do anything right we must do it by Christ’s authority (Matt. 28:18). The only thing we have to go by to know what He wants us to do is His word (2 Tim 3:16-17). So we must search there.  With that being said, we must agree that the only place we can see how to be genuinely converted to Christianity is in the bible.

     Do we ask Jesus into our heart? 

      Is that how we are converted? This seems to have a lot of connection with many Christians. Let us look.  Matt. 5:8 lets us know that the pure in heart will see God. So, ideally, asking Jesus into your heart would make sense. He is the only one that can forgive us (Acts 4:11-12). I haven’t found any scripture where someone has asked Jesus into their heart.  Why is that? Perhaps the spiritual heart is not what we think it is. The spiritual heart imagines and has intentions in Gen 6:5. We see in Matt. 13:15 that the spiritual heart understands as Jesus quotes Isaiah 6:9-10. The spiritual heart reasons according to Jesus in Mark 2:8. In Luke 9:47 Jesus perceived the thoughts of their hearts, so the heart thinks. We understand the heart believes Rom. 10:9. Then in 1 Pet. 1:22 this spiritual heart loves. 

     Wait, these are not attributes of a heart. We understand the heart as an emotion factory.  According to Webster dictionary the heart is thought of as the place where emotions are felt. The spiritual “heart” holds the characteristics of the mind! It’s shown as the seat of intelligence.  So what if the heart is the inner most seat of intelligence?

    Wouldn’t that mean that if you could ask Jesus into your heart than you would imagine, reason, think, understand, believe and love. So you would be saying that in my innermost being I intend on or imagine on Jesus, I reason with Jesus’s word, I think on Jesus’s  word , I understand Jesus’s authority and commands, I believe in Jesus and I love Jesus.  Then wouldn’t one be lead to do the same thing the early Christians did (Acts 11:26; Acts 8:1-4; Acts 2:37-47).  They heard and had intent (Acts 2:37). They reasoned with the Scriptures (Acts 17:11). They understood the word (Acts 2:41-47). They believed (Acts 8:37-38). They loved (1 John 4:7-11). But they never asked Jesus into their heart.

     So is it by faith only that we are converted? 

 

     Well Faith (Heb. 11:1-2) comes by hearing (Rom. 10:17). You can’t please God without it (Heb. 11:6). James makes it clear faith without works is dead in James 2:14-26. James also lets us know that we are to be doers, not just hear only deceiving ourselves, in James 1:22.  According to the word it’s not just faith, it’s an obedient faith. Then we are presented with the fact that faith takes action. By our action we see our faith (Heb.11:8). Christ learned obedience by what he suffered (Heb 5:8).  It definitely means more than just saying you have faith (James 2:17-19).  It definitely has something to do with obedience (2 Thess. 1:8; 1 Pet. 4:17; Gal. 3:1). How do we have an obedient faith?

 

   Are we converted by obeying the gospel? 

    The early Christians obeyed the gospel (1 Pet. 4:17). To understand this we must go back to the beginning.   We see in Acts 2 is the compliance and carrying out of Matt. 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-16, Luke 24:46-49. They preached to all those that had come from every nation under heaven we see in Acts 2:5-13 in accordance with Matt. 18:18-19 and Mark 16:15. See the apostles preached repentance and remissions of sins in Acts 2:37-40 in accordance with Luke 24:46-49.  Those that had received his word were baptized (Acts 2:41 & Rom. 10:14-17). They baptized them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:37-41 with accordance of Matt. 28:19. We see them observe all that Christ had commanded in Acts 2:42-47 in accordance of Matt. 28:20. The Lord added to their number daily those who being saved in Acts 2:47 in accordance with Matt. 28:20. That was the church.

  

    Each individual member went through the same course of action. They heard (Acts 2:14-41;Rom. 10:17; John 6:44-45), they believed (Acts 2:37; Acts 16:31; John 8:24; Heb. 11:6), they repented (Acts 2:38 &41; Acts 17:30 Luke 13:3), they confessed (Rm. 10:9-10; Acts 8:37;Acts 2:41), they were baptized (Acts 2:41; Mk. 16:16; 1 Pet. 3:21; Rm. 6:1-4; Gal. 3:27), and they lived faithfully (Acts 2:42-47; Col. 1:21-23; Rev 2:10). 

 

What is baptism?

      Being baptized comes from the word “baptizmo” meaning immersion, submersion, and dunked. Also we need to know that “Into the name of” means into the authority of Christ.  These believers were immersed into the authority of Jesus Christ. How do we accomplish this immersion, submersion into Christ?

     We know that it was by water. We see the water immersion in Acts 10:47. Jesus was immersed in water in Matt. 3:16 and Mark 1:9. They, Philip and the eunuch went down into the water in Acts 8:38. We are buried and raised in and from water (Rm. 6:1-4; Col 2:12). Our bodies are washed by the water in Heb. 10:19-25.  The water is an antitype of the flood (1 Pet. 3:21). It’s not the water that saves us but the blood of Christ (Rev. 1:5). The water must be used for it is an antitype or symbol of being cleansed by the blood of Christ. It is not the water that saves but it is at the moment of immersion or submersion into the water we are saved and forgiven (Acts 2:38 & Rm. 6:1-4).

    Was it just for the early church?

     They didn’t just stop on Pentecost, the first day of that week. They continued on (Acts 8:4). All of them did, not just the apostles. Acts 11:26 shows us that the group was taught the word by those that were spread out in Acts 8:4. Those that were in Acts 8:4 started and were added to those in Acts 2:41-47. So when those in Acts 11:26 were called Christians they were of the exact same body of Acts 2:37-47. They did the exact same things! Because of what they did in Antioch, they were first called Christians. All who followed this pattern were called Christians.

    They never said a prayer, signed a card or took a class.  If they didn’t do these things and with characteristics of the innermost seat of intelligence they were lead to something else, why do we? What are we doing when we do these things? Are we putting God in an imaginary box and saying we are His?

    The box idea makes sense. In the last ten years the Christian media was flooded with material about how to get God out of your box.  It was basically the thought “to stop bending God to your will but to bend to His.” Another way to put it is to be more objective on the word and remove our feelings and opinions. Is that what happens?  That by doing it differently than the early church we put God in a box.  A place we can’t intend on or imagine on, understand, reason with, think on, believe in, and love the Word. That we can’t do those things as the word outlines us to. We can’t do them as Christ did. What did they do?! It matters. They defined what is means to be a Christian (Acts 11:26). If they defined it and I say I am one, then anyone would reason that they must do what the early Christians did to be a Christian.
 

   Are you genuinely converted to Christ? 

Acts 2:37-41

     The early body of believers had not gone through some form, nor had they merely emotionally responded to sign a decision card, nor were they joining just another denomination, etc. There was no such thing. Instead they were deeply convicted, they sincerely repented, and they had been willingly and obediently baptized. They were first called Christians in Antioch, are you one of them? (Acts 11:19-26) They were all taught the same thing and did the same in obedience. 

Are you a Christian?  If not what do you need to change?