by Bill Rudge
Believers in Jesus were first called Christians at Antioch (Acts 11:26). The testimony of Jesus as the Christ (Messiah) was so strong in Antioch (the largest city of the Roman province of Syria and a center for missionary activity) that His followers and disciples were identified as Christians (a term of derision in the earliest days of the church meaning “of the family of Christ” but eventually, followers of Christ came to love and adopt this name).
Today, Christian has a much broader and often entirely different meaning than its initial use. Many believe a Christian is someone who merely goes to church, believes in God, lives a good life, or tries to keep the commandments. While it is true that such things as attending church, water baptism, living a godly lifestyle, and a loving attitude should definitely be marks of a believer, these should never be misconstrued as the criteria for someone becoming a Christian. We must examine Scripture and, based upon its authority, determine what it really means to come to faith in Jesus Christ.
Not by Works
According to Scripture, doing good works or keeping God’s Law does not make someone a Christian. The apostle Paul explains that one of the purposes of the Law in the Tanakh (Old Testament), which is based upon the Ten Commandments, was to show us that we all are sinners and can never achieve the standards required by God. Because of our sinful nature, we continually fall short of the mark. This dilemma reveals our need for a Savior:
By the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20).
Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith (Galatians 3:24).
Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” (John 6:28-29).
Paul makes it clear that God’s righteousness can only be obtained through faith, and that Israel did not attain it because they sought it not by faith, but by works:
What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it.
Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the “stumbling stone.”
As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame” (Romans 9:33 NIV).
Bill Rudge Ministries 