What is a Christian?

Question:

What is a Christian?

A Christian is a person who actually has the person of Christ living, abiding and dwelling within them.

A Christian is connected to Christ who is their Life and never ending unlimited supply of Love, Holiness, Faith, Righteousness, Peace and Joy. They now have the person of Christ living, dwelling and abiding within them and HE is now giving everything that is needed to experience His complete and full salvation. They are in COMPLETE UNION with Him. They no longer have to "do things" to get Him to work, to bless, to give them a sense of His presence. It is His life of ceaseless and infinite power, love, and holiness being imparted within them every second of every day. They are just a vessel, branch or container of God's Life within them.

This is not a doctrine, a concept, a teaching, an idea, a custom, a principle to embrace or follow. IT IS THE VERY PERSON OF CHRIST inside you NOW!!

A Christian has been one (truly united with God and Christ) by the work of God in Christ and not by anything he has done.

A Christian has Christ within them and living as them. So they do NOT have a Christ who is heaven, or over there or beside them. It is not even a Christ who is inside of them but lives in a separated compartment. NO! A Christian is so fully united with Christ that there is NO separation between them because they are ONE.

Now I have the LIVING person of Christ Abiding, Living and Dwelling within me. I am one with Christ and Christ is one with me. I abide in HIM and HE abides in ME. He is NOW my continuous and second by second living Savior. I am SAVED by His eternal LIFE that just keeps unfolding every moment. I have the river of Life that just keeps flowing within me outward to others.

My Jesus is alive, divine, and ascendant above everything else that exists and He lives in my heart. He is in me and fills every part of me full. I do not live alone. Everything I am is this Jesus, everything Jesus is fills me. Jesus is my Life; I have no other life. I am infused and completely saturated with HIS LIFE.

A Christian is a New Creation, born again, not of the will of man nor the flesh but of God, by the Spirit, born from above.
A Christian is a walking breathing miracle.
A result of "that which man could not do due to the weakness of his sinful flesh, God did..."

2 Corinthians 5 verse 17,18a: "Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. And all things are of God Who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ..."

Hi Vern,
Amen!

Hi William,
Amen!

And the disciplines were called Christians first in Antioch. Not the way we look at discipleship but more in line with The mindset of one from the Middle East.

Dear brother Miller,

Much appreciate if you can elaborate on what you wrote.

Blessings.

ADD:

Acts 11:26 -- ……….and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

A Christian is a disciple. What is a disciple?

What distinguishes a Christian from a non-Christian? Is it not his very life and walk and faith in Christ?

Acts 26:28 ”“
Agrippa replied to Paul, "In a short time you will persuade me ((((( to become a Christian )))))."

Verse 29 ”“
And Paul said, "I would wish to God, that whether in a short or long time, not only you, but also all who hear me this day, might ((((( become such as I am ))))), except for these chains."

What is a Christian? To become such as Paul was.

This is the heart of Paul’s Christianity:

(1)
Transferred from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of God’s beloved Son.

Acts 26:17-18 ”“
……… I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.

Col. 1:13-14 ”“
For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

(2)
A new creation in Christ Jesus

2 Cor. 5:17 (Berean Literal Bible) ”“
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, the new has come into being.

Ezek. 36:26-27 --
Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

John 3:5-7 ”“
Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'”

(3)
No longer I who live but Christ lives in me through the Holy Spirit who indwells me

1 Cor. 3:16 ”“
Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

John 14:16 ”“
I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

John 14:20 ”“
In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

Gal. 2:20 ”“
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

2 Cor. 6:16 ”“
For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.”

Eph. 2:22 (Berean Study Bible) ”“
And in Him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God in His Spirit.

2 Cor.13:5 -
Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

(4)
That I may gain Christ

Phil. 3:7-11 ”“
But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,
and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

(5)
Filled up to all the fullness of God in Christ

Eph. 3:17-19 ”“
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

John 1:16 ”“
For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.

Gal. 4:19 ”“
My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you--

Eph. 4:13 ”“
until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

(6)
Not yet perfect but pressing on to lay hold

Phil. 3:12
Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

(7)
Christ in us, the hope of glory

Col. 1:26-27 ”“
that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

2 Thess. 2:14 ”“
It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Today we say a little prayer and it done. Not back than. A disciple was one who completely abandoned his entire life to follow and become like his master/teacher. He would memorize not only the words spoken , but how they were spoken , every jesture every pause , in every way the disciple would completely lose themselves and become as close as possible a mirror reflection of his master. Throw in the mix the call to take up the cross and now you have a disciple. The scripture you noted was a good biblical foundation. Christians are in every way to be little Christs in this world, in word and deed a mirror reflection of Him.

Was it by their own might and power or by the Holy Spirit?

Was theirs a house of prayer?

Is it by faith that we will see the glory of God? -- John 11:40

Is it impossible with men and it is only with God that these things are possible?

ADD:

"The scripture you noted was a good biblical foundation."

What do you build on this "good biblical foundation"?

ADD:

I am already the house for Christ to live in. I must now fill every room in the house (that is, every part of me) with the treasures of Christ -- His life, His love, His holiness, His righteousness, His wisdom and all His riches which are unimaginable. Not by my own might or power but by the Holy Spirit. And all by grace through faith.

2 Cor. 3:14 --
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

1 Cor. 1:9-10 ”“
but just as it is written, "THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM."
For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

ADD

Are we to follow the mindset of one from the Middle East OR have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16)??

Disciples are those who glorify God the Father by bearing much fruit.

John 15:8 ”“
My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.

We can only bear much fruit by abiding in Christ and Christ in us.

John 15:5 ”“
I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

Therefore, disciples are those who are abiding in Christ and Christ in them.

by this shall all men know that you are my disciples, by the love you have one toward another. Just to add to your description.

The love that we must have is not fallen human love that falls short and fails. The love that we must have in us is that Divine Love with which the Father loves the Son.

John 17:26 ”“
and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.

Only God can give us His Love. It is not in man and cannot be produced by any work of man. It is the fruit of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

Gal. 5:22-23 ”“
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

When we are abiding in Christ and Christ in us, God’s own Life and Love will flow into us and fill us just as the life and goodness flows unceasingly from the vine into the branch and fills up the branch.

ADD:

Therefore, disciples are those who are abiding in Christ and Christ in them and by this union with Christ are producing the fruit of Divine Love through the agency of the indwelling Holy Spirit .

1 John 4:7 --
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

John 1:12-13

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Being a christian does not mean sinless perfection, but a child of God naturally desires to clear away from sin.

Although not attainable in our mortal bodies, yet we strive, aim, and repent toward perfection. We are continually purged of sins and ungodly character.

We may stumble and get sidetracked but we keep gravitating back to the grace of God unto our final redemption.

And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the **disciples** were first called **Christians** in Antioch.
Acts 11:26

Actually in Jn 13:35 the Greek usage the the word love is used as brotherly love and denotes an action on our part, a volition of our will to actively walk or do love.

I think what I see so much in the Pentecostal/charismatic movement is people wanting The Holy Spirit to do for/through them what God wants them to do and is inherent in all human beings. That little thing called Choice.

If someone who claims to be a christian and yet he does not forsake sin nor honor God, then no doctrine will save him.

Don't let any doctrine about choice or freewill stand before us and the Lord. Let's just do what the bible tells us to do.

We will be accountable for whatever choices and actions we did. No one is perfect, so let's keep our hearts repentant and ourselves fully dependent on the grace of God.

God Himself is the ONLY source of AGAPE. Unless a person is indwelt by AGAPE he could never express it. That is impossible. God abides in the Christian and the Christian abides in God. God is love and the Christian abides in love. This is a LIVING and active love that never ceases and just keeps unfolding.

Greek is pretty exacting, there are I believe 4 different meanings for agape, the type you rendered here isn’t what you think it is. In that scripture it’s more in line with brotherly love. Regardless I’m not here to parse languages and on this subject let it mean to you what ever you want it to mean. I don’t have the energy or patience to argue over words.