Now let’s look at the matter from a positive perspective. What constitutes true and adequate evidence that a person is a Christian? In one sense, the answer to this question is both brief and simple: A person is a Christian if he or she believes in Jesus. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). What connects us to the grace of God is faith. A person who has faith in Christ is, by definition, a believer. And whoever believes in Christ has already passed from death to life and has been forgiven all of his sins.
The problem, of course, is in defining faith. What constitutes true faith, and how does such faith make its presence known? If we don’t take time to think about this question, we may deceive ourselves, thinking we believe when really we do not.
So what does faith look like? Well, first, it has an intellectual component to it. In order to believe rightly in Jesus, we have to know who He is, what He did, and what His actions have to do with us. We need to believe that:
+ He is the eternal Son of God, fully divine and also fully human;
+ He lived a sinless life, and His perfect obedience to God is credited to those who trust Him, giving them
the right to eternal life in God’s eyes;
+ His death on the cross was for the sins of the world, and all who trust in Him are forgiven their sins on
the basis of that death;
+ Jesus rose from the dead and now lives forever, and through the Holy Spirit He is present to all of His
followers in all places and times; and
+ a day of judgment will come, and only those who have placed their faith in Christ will be acquitted and
given eternal life in heaven. Others will spend eternity in hell.
Many people who do not believe these things at all nevertheless claim to be Christians, but it is hard to see that there is any basis to their claim. Jesus taught all these doctrines, and it is manifestly dishonest to call oneself a follower of Christ if one denies them.
Faith, of course, requires more than intellectual understanding. The Bible reminds us that even the devils have an intellectual understanding of the gospel, but they obviously are not in a right relationship with God. To intellectual understanding we must add the assent of the will. That is, we must not merely believe that these things are true; we must be willing that they be true. You see, it is possible for a person to become persuaded that Jesus is the only Savior of the world and yet hate that fact. He may be intellectually convinced that without Christ he will perish eternally and yet be unwilling to change his life to bring it into accordance with that truth. His mind is convinced, but his heart is still in rebellion. Such a person is not a Christian.
And there is still more. To intellectual understanding and the assent of the will we must add another element of faith: actual personal trust in Christ. A Christian (1) believes that Jesus is the Savior of the world, (2) has no desire to deny or rebel against that truth, and (3) has placed all of his or her hope for salvation in Jesus alone.
A true follower of Christ is convinced that if God judges him according to his own deeds he will be eternally condemned; so with the hymn writer he says, “Nothing in my hands I bring/simply to Thy cross I cling.” And he means it! He would be no more willing to appear before God without the imputed righteousness of Christ than he would be to attempt to swim across the Pacific Ocean. From the heart he says, “Christ is a perfect Savior for sinners. I am a sinner. I will look to Him and Him alone for my salvation.”