The unsaved Christian

That's an oxymoron. A contradiction of conditions.

You cannot truly be a Christian without being saved! It's like calling the night-day!

But the word- 'Christian' is losing it's meaning these days.

So what does this word mean? Where did it originate from? The word - Christian -first shows up in the Bible in the book of ACTS in the New Testament. After Jesus ascends into Heaven and the disciples receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, their lives change!

Everybody can attest to the fact that the uneducated fishermen, former tax collectors, ex prostitutes and zealots have undergone a transformation.They talk different. They behave different.They are more and more like their teacher and master- Jesus Christ. So the crowds of those days think of a name to describe them.They give these group of people the name "Christians"  - to mean  'little Christs' or ' people who behave /act like Jesus Christ'

So what does it mean to be saved?

If you were falling off a high cliff and I reach out my hand and grab you just in time and pull you up to safety,we can say that you have been saved from certain death or terrible injury. So as a sinner, if you have been saved by Christ, it simply means that you were headed for Hell- your ultimate destruction- but that Jesus in His Mercy and Grace SAVED you. So what this means is that you are no longer headed to Hell.You are safe.Free from condemnation. No longer judged for your sin.Legally getting away scot free for crimes you should have paid for.

You have literally passed from death to life! 

Unfortunately, the Bible warns us that many of us 'Christians' will be denied by Jesus Himself. He will actually disown some of us! We can make a big racket and hullabaloo about Him in the media and in public here on earth and then on that fateful day- judgement day- His words to us will be shocking and unexpected - "Depart from me, ye doers of Iniquity! I know you not!"

So how will this happen? How will some of us 'Christians' get to this point where the one we claim as our only Hope actually denies us? God told Prophet Samuel the answer to that question. God said, "man looks on the outside, but I look on the inside- I look at the man's heart- I seek out a man's motives!"

What this sobering reminder is really saying to us is that- we can hide behind good deeds and we can indulge in sin- in private- and fool the world in public- BUT we will never ever be able to fool God. On that day, everything- EVERY SINGLE THING- secret sin,hidden motives- you name it- will be laid bare.

If that thought doesn't shake you out of your slumber and inspire true repentance from the depths of your soul-  then your beyond help! 

So if you are a 'Christian', who consciously lives in or tolerates sin because you believe you were saved by grace and you expect that 'God's grace will abound' in the multitude of your sins, think again!Your staring in the face of a future denial by your alleged saviour.

So how ought we to live?

Simple answer for that one-it's just the implementing that is a little harder to do! We should live like 'little Christ's'.Emulating our Lord and saviour, Jesus Christ.Like the Christians in the book of ACTS. We shouldn't have to say 'true Christians' - the word -Christian- should be enough!

With Christ Jesus, ALL things are possible!

Go ahead and read the four gospels again. Matthew,Mark,Luke and John. See how Jesus lived.

Read ACTS- see how real Christians lived.

Read 1st and 2nd Corinthians, 1st and 2nd Timothy-See how Paul lived and what he taught as ideal Christian living. 

Read 1st and 2nd Peter- See what the 'Rock' has to say.

Then maybe after that,the word CHRISTIAN, will have a little more meaning to you.