What Is A Christian?
How the Bible, the historical church confessions, and our greatest Christian authors answer this all-important question
Part One: Introduction and What Does the Bible Say?
Part Two: What Do Preachers & Authors of Earlier Times Say?
Part Three: What Do the Great Creeds of the Church Say?
Part Four: What Do Modern Writers & Commentators Say?
What do Modern Writers and
Commentators Say?
Because modern professing Christianity has strayed from its biblical moorings on the question of what defines a true believer in Christ, a number of writers in our day have attempted, often in the face of great opposition, to bring the Church back to a doctrine of salvation grounded in a careful reading of Scripture. These writers include, but are not at all limited to, the following:
Iain Murray (1931– ), author, pastor, church historian, founder of Banner of Truth books. "The Scripture everywhere represents the will and power of God as first, not second, in salvation, and a teaching which promises that God's will must follow our will may have the effect of causing men to trust in a delusion - an experience which is not salvation at all.... Arminianism, instead of cautioning men against this danger, inevitably encourages it, for it throws men, not upon God, but upon their acts.... On this basis a person may make a profession without ever having his confidence in his own ability shattered; he has been told absolutely nothing of his need of a change of nature which is not within his own power, and consequently, if he does not experience such a radical change, he is not dismayed. He was never told it was essential, so he sees no reason to doubt whether he is a Christian. Indeed... it is frequently said that a man who has made a decision with little evidence of a change of life may be a 'carnal' Christian who needs instruction in holiness, or if the same individual should gradually lose his new-found interests, the fault is frequently attributed to lack of 'follow-up,' or prayer, or some other deficiency on the part of the Church. The possibility that these marks of worldliness and falling away are due to the absence of a saving experience at the outset is rarely considered; if this point were faced, then the whole system of appeals, decisions and counseling would collapse, because it would bring to the fore the fact that change of nature is not in man's power, and that it takes much longer than a few hours or days to establish whether a professed response to the gospel is genuine. But instead of facing this, it is protested that to doubt whether a man who has 'accepted Christ' is a Christian is tantamount to doubting the Word of God, and that to abandon 'appeals' and their adjuncts is to give up evangelism altogether. That such things can be said is tragic proof of the extent to which the Arminian pattern of conversion has come to be regarded as the Biblical one." (From chapter titled "Arminianism and Evangelism" in The Forgotten Spurgeon.) Read more
Ernest Reisinger (1919–2004), Baptist pastor and author. "Many who regularly occupy church pews, fill church rolls, and are intellectually acquainted with the facts of the gospel never stike one blow for Christ. They seem to be at peace with His enemies. They have no quarrel with sin and, apart from a few sentimental expressions about Christ, there is no biblical evidence that they have experienced anything of the power of the gospel in their lives. Yet in spite of the evidence against them, they consider themselves to be just what their teachers teach them -- that they are 'carnal Christians.' ... The 'carnal Christian' teaching is...the consequence of a shallow, man-centered evangelism ... When those pronounced to be converts do not act like Christians, do not love what Christians love, and hate what Christians hate ... some explanation must be found other than calling upon them to 'decide' for Christ. They have already done that and have already been pronounced by the preacher or personal worker to be 'Christians.' But when they don't act like Christians, something is wrong." (From What Should We Think of The Carnal Christian?) Read entire article.
J.I. Packer (1926– ), Anglican evangelical theologian and professor, author of many popular books including Knowing God. Reported by TIME magazine in 2005 to be one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in America: "God has joined repentance and faith as the two facets of response to the Savior and has made it clear that turning to Christ means turning from sin and letting ungodliness go. Biblical teaching on faith joins credence, commitment and communion; it exhibits Christian believing as not only knowing facts about Christ, but also coming to him in personal trust to worship, love, and serve him. If we fail to keep together these things that God has joined together, our Christianity will be distorted.... Simple assent to the gospel, divorced from a transforming commitment to the living Christ, is by biblical standards less than faith, and less than saving, and to elicit only assent of this kind would be to secure only false conversions." (As quoted in MacArthur, The Gospel According to Jesus)
John MacArthur (1939– ), pastor, theologian, author of over 100 books including the MacArthur Study Bible and the MacArthur N.T. Commentary; founder of Grace to You ministries; president of Masters College and founder of Masters Seminary: "I do believe without apology that real salvation can not, and will not, fail to produce works of righteousness in the life of a true believer. There are no human works in the saving act, but God's work of salvation includes a change of intent, will, desire, and attitude that invariably produces the fruit of the Spirit. The very essence of God's saving work is the transformation of the will, resulting in a love for God. Salvation thus establishes the root that will surely produce the fruit.... no one can be saved who is either unwilling to obey Christ or consciously, callously rebellious against his lordship. True salvation produces a heart that voluntarily responds to the ever-awakening reality of Christ's lordship. Because we are sinful creatures, we can never respond as obediently as we would like. In fact, we often experience pathetic failures and extended periods of spiritual dullness and sin. But if we are true believers, we can never again fall into the cold, hardhearted, determined unbelief and rebellion of our former state. Those who live like that have not reason to think they have ever been redeemed. Moreover, the message of salvation includes a call to surrender to Jesus as Lord. Those who would come to Him for salvation must be willing to acquiesce to His sovereign authority. Those who reject His right to rule cannot expect to lay claim to Him as Savior." (From the introduction to The Gospel According to Jesus.)
Joel Beeke (1952– ), pastor and author; editor of Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth; editorial director of Reformation Heritage Books; president and professor at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary: "Who really are God's true sheep that are taught by experience the wonderful sheep-confessions that flow from the beginning to the end of Psalm 23, summarized by 'I shall not want'? What are the marks of grace and experience which reveal if I am a sheep-member of the Jehovah-Shepherd's flock? It is essential to establish a good foundation here, for if we err here, we shall err throughout all our explanations of Psalm 23. Allow me to illustrate this by an example from daily life. A man makes a will. When he dies, and the will is opened and read, the very first thing to be settled is the person in whose favor the will is made. Until that is settled, it is no use to proceed a step further.... The marks or signs which reveal that a certain, faithful sheep belongs to a certain, faithful shepherd are many—both naturally and spiritually. There is one sign, however, which is the foundation mark of all other marks—a mark which quickly betrays the rightful shepherd of a flock. This mark is also the grand test of spiritual sheephood. If this hallmark is missing, all is missing. It is the distinguishing feature wrought in every true sheep of the flock of Jesus Christ. It is the hallmark of love.... Love cannot be missed if we think to claim spiritual life: "Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing" (1 Cor. 13:2). Love was the great test Jesus gave to Peter. Love is the searching test which we are called to examine ourselves by also today.... "Yes," you may say, "but are there not millions who all too easily say, 'I love the Lord'? If you say love is the mark, is there not a danger that you include thousands in Jehovah's flock who are not His real sheep at all?" Yes, there is a danger—a great danger. Danger, however, does not call us to change the mark of love, but to explain it. We are called to show you the difference between the claimed love of shallow Christendom for its imaginary god, and the real love of God's poor, needy sheep for the living God—sheep who are drawn with everlasting cords to love their Shepherd because He first loved them. To the significant question, "How may I know if I truly love God," I answer simply: "By an upright examination of yourself spiritually according to the natural marks of love found in faithful sheep toward their shepherd." [Beeke then describes ten marks of the love of all true Christians, and closes with the following words:] "Congregation, in closing I must leave you with two crucial questions. In the first place, are you experimentally acquainted with these ten sheep-marks of love: unquenchable desire for Him, unspeakable delight in Him, deep admiration of Him, thorough and overflowing love towards Him, unconditional trust upon Him, true humility before Him, reverential tenderness around Him, childlike obedience following Him, Biblical like-mindedness with Him, and everlasting love from Him? Be honest with yourself. Lay these essential, Biblical marks of grace to the touchstone of your own heart, and you shall not be able to deny the work of God's amazing grace if Divine sheep-love has been glorified within you. Happy are you if you can find these fruits—so foreign to your nature, planted in your souls. Though you may be the weakest, smallest, and most helpless sheep—if only you belong to the Great Shepherd, you shall not want." (From a book of sermons entitled Jehovah Shepherding His Sheep)
Albert N. Martin, founder and long-time pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, NJ; evangelist, pastoral leader, and author. "What is a biblical Christian? It is not merely one who says, 'Oh, yes, I know I am a sinner, with a bad record and a bad heart. I know that God's provision for sinners is in Christ and in His cross, and that it is adequately and freely offered to all. I know it comes to all who repent and believe.' That is not enough. Do you repent and believe? And if you profess to repent and believe, can you make that profession stick—not by a life of perfection, but by a life of purposeful obedience to Jesus Christ? 'Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' shall enter the kingdom of heaven,' Jesus said, 'but he who does the will of my Father in heaven' (Matthew 7:21). In Hebrews 5:9 we read, 'He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him.' 1 John 2:4 says, 'He who says, I know him, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.' Can you make your claim to be a Christian stick from the Bible? Does your life manifest the fruits of repentance and faith? Do you possess a life of attachment to Christ, obedience to Christ, and confession of Christ? Is your behavior marked by adherence to the ways of Christ? Not perfectly—no! Every day you must pray, 'Forgive me my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me.' But at the same time you can also say, 'For me to live is Christ' or, in the words of the hymn, Jesus I my cross have taken, All to leave and follow thee. A true Christian follows Jesus. How many of us are true, biblical Christians? I leave you to answer in the deep chambers of your own mind and heart. But remember, answer with an answer that you will be prepared to live with for eternity. Be content with no answer but one that will find you comfortable in death, and safe in the day of judgment. (From an article entitled What is a Biblical Christian?.) Read entire article.
R.C. Sproul (1939– ), pastor, lecturer and author; founder of Ligonier Ministries, Tabletalk Magazine and Renewing Your Mind radio broadcast: "...When a person receives Christ as Savior, he not only acknowledges his need and necessity of having a Savior, he comes in humble faith and repentance, trusting Christ. How can a person trust Christ to be a Savior and at the same time utterly ignore or repudiate the clear teaching of Jesus that he is not only Savior but also Lord? I'm afraid that what we have lurking here in this dichotomy between Jesus as Savior and Jesus as Lord is very serious distortion of the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone, a distortion called antinomianism. Antinomianism means simply anti-lawism. Some people have been so zealous to propagate the doctrine that we are saved by faith and not by works that they have concluded that the kind of faith that saves is bare, naked faith. They believe that faith doesn't ever have to have any works follow from it and that obedience is inconsequential to the Christian life.... This type of interpretation is the very reason Luther and the Protestant fathers were so careful to point out that justification by faith alone involves, not a cheap profession of faith, but an authentic faith – the kind of faith that displays its genuine character by the fruits of obedience. The works of obedience do not merit salvation for us, but if there is no fruit of obedience to the lordship of Christ that's the clearest indication that the faith is a dead faith, the faith of which Saint James says profits nothing."
John Piper (1946– ), Baptist pastor and theologian; founder of Desiring God Ministries;author of many popular books including Desiring God, and : "The Bible makes it plain, I believe, that people who persistently refuse the command of Jesus’ lordship have no warrant for believing that they are saved. Such people should not be comforted that they are saved simply because there was a time when they “believed” gospel facts or walked an aisle or signed a card or prayed a prayer. In fact, Jesus seems far more eager to explode the assurance of false “professions of faith” than he is to give assurance to people who are intent on living in sin. Where does he ever bolster the “eternal security” of a person unwilling to forsake sin? I am not saying that only perfect people are saved. There are no perfect people on this earth. We sin every day and every good work we do is tainted with sinful remnants of corruption. I am saying that a person who goes on willfully rejecting the commands of Jesus for his life has no warrant for salvation.... The answer to the question, 'What is faith?' is the most basic one in this whole controversy. It is not a simple mental assent to facts — not lordship facts and not Savior facts. It is a heartfelt coming to Christ and resting in him for what he is and what he offers. It is an act of the heart that no longer hates the light but comes to the light because a new set of spiritual taste buds have been created and Christ now tastes satisfying to the soul. This notion of faith is taken mainly from the Gospel of John where Jesus says, “I am the Bread of Life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). This view of faith implies that faith itself will inevitably wean a person away from sin because faith is a resting in what Jesus has to offer, namely, the pathway of life. Obedience is not something artificially added to saving faith later after a second discovery in the Christian walk. It is what faith does because faith is the soul’s cleaving to Jesus for the forgiveness and guidance and hope it needs to be happy....
Jesus said that the way is hard that leads to life and few there be that find it (Matt. 7:14). Could it be that we are so bent on having immediate, measurable results that we have defined the gospel and evangelism in a way that enables people to understand and respond even without spiritual comprehension and heart change? I fear this is largely why we are so weak as a church. The very foundations have been laid wrongly.... No one is a Christian who does not, in principle (i.e. even if he does not know all the specifics), bow the knee to Jesus as Lord and say one way or another, I reckon myself dead to sin and alive to God. “Those who belong to Christ (ALL of them!) have crucified the flesh” (Galatians 5:24). I believe that our unwillingness to take this possibility seriously is one of the things that makes preaching across our country anemic. If you measure by the preaching of Jesus and by the epistles of Paul the way to preach to disobedient, professing Christians it means saying things like: “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:21; cf. 1 Cor. 6:9-10). “Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:15-16). “Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (Luke 13:24). “If you live according to the flesh you will die” (Romans 8:13). The absence of this kind of preaching—with such urgency to professing believers—is one of the weaknesses of the evangelical pulpit. (From "Letter to a Friend Concerning the So-Called 'Lordship Salvation.'")
Conclusion
Throughout the Bible, we are repeatedly told that those who fail to benefit from the mercy which God extends to mankind are those who refuse to give proper attention to His warnings. For this reason, God laments that "My people do not consider" (Isaiah 1:3), and "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6), and points out His persistence in reminding them, in tender, even human terms: "I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer"(Jeremiah 7:13).
Yet even after all of this, God continues throughout the Bible to warn any who would listen among his sinful, self-centered creatures to “search out and examine your ways,” to “Consider your ways,” to “strive to enter in,” to “examine yourselves,” to “judge yourselves,” to “look carefully,” to “give diligence,” to "be sure you are in the faith," and many other such warnings (Lamentations 3:40; Haggai 1:7; 2 Corinthians 13:5; 1 Corinthians 11:31; Hebrews 12:15; Hebrews 4:11; 2 Peter 1:10). May it never be said of us at the last judgment that these, God's warnings, were precisely for us, but we refused to hear them!
Though we do not wish to make sincere Christians doubt their salvation, our purpose in this booklet is to encourage everyone, based on their own careful look at the evidence, to challenge their own hearts. This has never been more necessary than in the day in which we live, when an "easy gospel" abounds everywhere. We are not making any claim to sinless perfection, for we are all sinners – thus, what we preach to you, we first must preach to ourselves! "If we say we have no sin," John says in 1 John 1:8, "we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" But the difference between the false and the true is that for the true Christian, his sin is not his couch of ease, but his bed of thorns.
May this booklet, dear reader, be a blessing to you, either to help build you up in your faith, by considering the biblical foundation for it, or, finding yourself lacking and in doubt, to help drive you to the foot of the Cross of Christ, where mercy may still be found!
"Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:6-7)
"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)
