“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me….”  (John 6)

“…[I]f thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God Raised [H]im from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”  (Romans 10)

“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on [H]im, If ye continue in my [W]ord, then are ye [M]y disciples indeed…”  (John 8)

“If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Ananth-e- ma Maranatha.”

“And being made perfect, [H]e became the [A]uthor of eternal salvation unto them that obey [H]im…”  (Hebrews 5)

“Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.”  (James 2)

 

Sometimes a preacher knows that what he is about to say will get him in trouble. He knows that some persons will be upset with what he says or writes. This is one of those times.

 

Anyone with any knowledge of Biblical prophecy knows we are living in the last days of the last days. All of Christ’s prophecies and other Old Testament prophecies are all converging as they never have before. We are told in Scripture that the next scheduled prophecy is the falling away and revealing of the anti-christ. I’ve got my pick on anti-christ but we will be discussing more of the falling away in this article.

People will be offended who think they’re right because that’s how they were taught. This type of “believer” has been told what to believe but not why. In the above passages we highlighted parts of the passages to draw your attention to them. We will now define the Christ-ian.
1. The Father gave certain persons to Christ and Christ lived the perfect and righteous life for those certain persons. He died in the stead of those certain persons, and rose again for those certain persons in particular.  Those certain persons, in their lives were called by God…drawn by God to and by the truth and revelation of the Gospel. Those certain person were then justified because of Christ’s death in their stead or in their place…He paid the price and penalty for the sin and sins of those certain persons only, those persons who have and will believe. Now those certain persons are Christ-ians and are living a sanctified life unto the Lord, The Lord and Saviour Who purchased them. What I just said is a Christian is one whom the Father elected to be saved. God passed over others leaving them to die in their sins and chose to save certain other persons, Hand picked by Him. It is what it is, readers. So now we know that the believing persons were chosen by God…that is who a Christ-ian is…hand picked by God. The mark, therefore, is a mark of passion, humility, continuous thanks, praise, worship and love for Christ.

2.  The Christ-ian Submits his life as a living sacrifice. The Christ-ian submits himself to the Lordship of Christ. As the passage from Romans 10 states, if a person confesses the Lord Jesus they will be saved. This confession is the confession that you have submitted to the Lordship of Christ.
The term Lordship causes a problem for some but it should not. Anyone, for whom Christ lived, died, and rose again and were called, justified, and sanctified come to him in repentance and they gladly live a life that is pleasing unto Him…that is Lordship. The person that is drawn to God takes the Lord’s yoke and gladly lives in service to God…we seek to please Him and shy away from the things that will displease Him….that is submission to Christ’s Lordship. It’s not a formal declaration, “Christ, I receive you as My Lord and Saviour…I will submit to all thy pleasure. etc.” Though that last sentence is true, one does not have to have all of it in mind…in other words, submission to the Lordship of Christ is built into your Salvation, if your salvation is real and is of God. The mark of the Christ-ian is the gladness to follow the Lord in the spirit of submission. After all, if Christ submitted to all of the Father’s good pleasures and purposes, should we not do the same unto our Lord and Saviour? Were we saved to continue living the old lifestyle of sin and rebellion to holiness?

3. Our (3rd) passage has the words, “if ye continue” highlighted. Christ teaches us and the world that a true disciple of His, a Christ-ian, will continue in His word, works and commands. “If ye continue,” the word continue implies a continuing or a continuation from a point or a place. Our Lord is simply saying that the Christ-ian will continue from one point or from one command to another. Once a person has come to the understanding and meaning of the Cross and comes to the Lord and is saved, the very next step of obedience or evidence of your belief and submission to Christ is baptism.
I have observed that baptism serves many purposes. Baptism demonstrates one’s salvation and humble obedience to the Lord, it is an outward showing of God’s inward grace, and in it’s absence, it betrays a person’s false confession in Christ. We and many pastors have seen it many, many times. A person makes a profession of faith and as soon as you mention baptism, they are gone. A person that makes a profession of Christ but refuses to be baptized demonstrates a false confession and a commitment to follow Christ in obedience. The mark of the Christian is-they follow up their confession of Christ with their baptism and continuing will to please God.

4. Our fourth passage from above has the word love emboldened. Love is a mark of a Christ-ian. One’s passionate and all consuming love for Christ is a hallmark of one’s faith. If a person shows no love for Christ, he is none of His. One may object and say, “You can’t see or tell how I feel about Christ.” That objection is ridiculous. Love can be seen and recognized. If a man loves his wife and or children, that love is manifested by his life laid down for them. All that he does is for the betterment of his family. His love can be seen.
The same is true of one’s love for Christ. Peter said, we “love Him (Christ), whom we have not seen.” People will see and recognize that we do love Him by seeing our love for the One Whom we have not seen. The Bible tells us that grace, faith, and love can be seen. How do we love our Lord and how would others see that love?
Our love for Christ is manifested through our words, our works, and our ways…This is the same way persons recognized Jesus Christ as the Messiah, by His words, works, and ways. Others will see our love for Christ by the way we love others, IE. others will see our love for Christ by treating them and engaging them as Christ would. Our love for Christ is seen by our continuous loyalty and determined dedication to the Word of God, to the people of God, to the ways and the words and works of God. The mark of a Christ-ian is determined dedication to Christ, to The Church of Christ, to the Words, works, and ways of Christ.

5. The next passage, from above, has the word obey highlighted. To obey really is the mark that defines one as a Christ-ian. One who does not seek to obey the words or follow the ways of Christ is no Christ-ian. For Christ-likeness is the point of our predestinated end. God loves His Son So much that He wants us to be just like Him. As you read above, “he that continues in my word is [M]y disciple, indeed.” In other words, if you are not concerned with obeying Christ, you are none of His, for the Christ-ian lives to please Christ. But let me be very clear on one point, none of us pleases Him all the time. We are saints and sinners at the same time. The Christ-ian sins…a lot, but less and less as he grows in grace and the knowledge of Christ. In our own person, we are sinners extrodinaire, but in Christ we are saints alive . The mark of a Christ-ian is obedience and sorrowful confession when we falter before our loving Father…He remembers that we are made from dust.

6. In the last passage above the word works is highlighted. As we have been saying a mark of the believer is the work he does for Christ and others. Let us be clear, works do not earn us salvation with God….they do not. Works, however are a mark of our faith and dedication to Christ. Our works are not wrought to be seen by men, but by God. Work has many definitions and unfortunately works in the church has become the standard of the faithful Christ-ian, “If I’m not seen doing good works, then it’s a waste of time.” Good works is a smile and acknowledgement that you care for another person, Good works is doing the right thing when no one is looking, Good works is loving others as we love ourselves and how we love Christ, good works is esteeming others above ourselves, good works is the spirit of longsuffering others, good works is looking out for others and taking an interest in them and their circumstances, good works is doing what Christ would do in any situation.

To wrap this article up, we will summarize the hallmarks of the Christ-ian: The Christ-ian is one who is chosen by God to be saved and become Christ-like, the Christ-ian is one who confesses Christ as Lord, the Christ-ian is one who continues, perseveres, endures, and keeps on keeping on in the faith of Christ, the mark of the Christ-ian is a passionate love and loyalty to Christ, the Lord and Saviour of our lives, souls, and our eternity. The mark of the Christ-ian is a passionate and loving obedience to Christ. The mark of the Christ-ian is following Christ in His works, in His good works and in His good ways….The determining and indelable mark of the Christ-ian is Christ-likeness period.

Godspeed.