What is the difference between a born again Christian and a church goer?

 

Are all Christians “born again”?

In my personal experience, the primary reason people use descriptors like “born-again Christian” or “born-again believer” (my personal favorite) is simply because so few people know what the word “Christian” even means (including the totally sincere OP, not to put too fine a point on it).

Saved. Born again. Washed in the blood. Redeemed. Spiritually regenerated. An adopted child of God.

Whatever…they all speak to the same experience. And being a “Christian” is supposed to refer to the same experience.

The problem is that upwards of 70 percent of people who casually self-identify as Christian not only have never had that experience, but don’t even rightly understand it. So, it should surprise no one that the world has so little idea what the word “Christian” means.

For the record, not one of the following things makes you a Christian:

Believing that God exists.

Believing that Jesus exists.

Believing that Jesus is a great prophet, the biblical Messiah, or the Son of God. (Satan doesn’t believe Jesus is the Son of God, he knows it for a fact.)

Reading the Bible.

Going to church every Sunday and praying before every meal.

Giving 10 percent of your income to a church (don’t even get me started).

Striving to follow the precepts taught by Jesus in the Gospels (love your enemies, turn the other cheek, etc.)

I could list 40 more without breaking a sweat, but the point is made.

There is only one thing that makes anyone a Christian, or the rightful bearer of any of the related descriptors. And although it is actually quite simple, I am deliberately being verbose for the sake of clarity.

First, at some point a person hears and understands the message of the gospel, which is that God sent His one and only Son into the world to live a sinless life as a man in a body of flesh, die on the cross to pay sin’s eternal penalty, and be raised from the grave on the third day following His crucifixion.

The Holy Spirit convicts that person of sin, or makes them uncomfortably aware of the fact that their sin has spiritually separated from a holy, just, loving God. The resulting godly sorrow succeeds in prompting that person to humble their heart before God, change their mind about their sin and their need for a Savior, and ask in simple faith for the forgiveness that Jesus purchased for them with His blood.

At that moment, God forgives them of every sin they have ever committed or ever will commit, they have Christ’s perfect righteousness imputed to them by faith, the Holy Spirit seals them until the day of their total and complete redemption, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in their spirit to continue to convict them of sin and gradually conform them to the image of Christ, and they have become a new creature in Christ.

They have been born of the Spirit, or whatever you wish to call it. It is a gift, not a prize or a reward. You don’t deserve it, you cannot earn it, and you can never lose it.

You. Are. Not. The. Same.

And since I’m not scoring any PC points anyway, I may as well point out that the Bible makes it 100 percent clear that there is no other way to be forgiven of sin and eternally reconciled to God. In other words, there is no other way to become one of God’s children. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.” And he was either a liar, a lunatic, or He was telling us exactly how it is.

Jesus did it all. Not Muhammed. Not Buddha. Not Krishna. Not little green men from a galaxy far, far away.

The man Christ Jesus.

Now you have some understanding of what the word “Christian” means.

And the decision is all yours.

Choose well.

If you believe nothing I have said, that’s fine. Go in peace. I have nothing else to offer you.

It’s Christ or nothing.