“Giving One’s Life to Christ”
I had advertised a vacant post for a Marketing/Ad Officer in my office. Amongst those who responded was Peter, a charming young man in his early twenties. When he walked into my office for an informal interview, He had a copy of a book by T.D. Jakes with him. As he sat in front of me, I was impressed with his looks and I liked him instantly.
After the interview, and just before he took his leave, I deliberately turned the conversation to the Lord, out of curiosity.
“Peter, tell me, are you a Christian?” I asked looking serious.
“Oh yes sir”, he enthusiastically responded and without hesitation. Still wanting to know more, I prodded further.
“So when and how did you become a Christian Peter?”
“ Actually, sir I have been a Christian from birth, but I actually became baptised when ‘I gave my life to Christ’ some ten years ago…”, he confidently answered.
The phrase “I gave my life to Christ” really got me thinking and wandering what he meant and where that thinking came from. Still not satisfied, I pushed on.
“Peter, please tell me about how you gave your life to Christ”. This time we were both looking serious. Just before he could say anything, and in a bid to make him really relax, I said:
“You see, I’ve only asked you a very simple question about how you became a Christian and you have used so many words and phrases to try to explain that simple experience of yours. You said you were baptised… and that you gave your life to Christ. What do you really mean by these words and phrase? Now tell me Peter, can you show me from the Bible where this phrase was used to explain being a Christian? Are you telling me that giving your life to Christ is synonymous with being a Christian or a necessary step in becoming a Christian?”
“I understand what you are saying sir, and I can show you in the Bible what I mean by my answers”, the young man interjected.
“All well and good, please show me from the Bible where we are told to ‘give our lives to Christ’ before becoming Christians”, I gently pressed on, this time pointing a copy of the Bible to him. To this, Peter confidently took up the challenge and began to search the infallible Word of God to prove his case. After a while, he pointed me to two passages of Scriptures, one was 2 Corinthians 5:17 and the other was John 3:16.
“Read them out”, I demanded.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17).
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).
After reading the verses, he attempted to explain them in the light of what he has read. But he couldn’t, as he fell flat on his face.
“You see, Peter” I set out to make some salient points. “Becoming a Christian is indeed the most wonderful experience any mortal can have. It is indeed a very unique experience and all that is required of us is our non-meritorious belief in the Lord Jesus as our Saviour. Nowhere in the whole of the Bible are we asked or admonished to ‘give our lives to Christ’. If we must describe biblical experiences; we must as well use biblical language and term to describe them, and rightly too…” I concluded.
From the looks on his face, Peter could not agree less with me. Intrigued and impressed, he responded, “I have learnt something from your little explanation.” But Peter is not alone. No doubts, from all indications, as we talked that afternoon, Peter is a Christian, a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet he was not able to articulate in a biblical manner what he had experienced in Christ with biblical words and terms that reflect biblical understanding.
I’m an African and a Nigerian, somehow, in my limited experience in sharing the Gospel of God’s love and forgiveness found only in Christ, I’ve come to the conclusion that so very many of us who profess faith in Christ do not understand what Christianity is all about. Sadly enough, so many pastors whose responsibility it is to explain the true meaning of Christianity cannot do this either, hence the attempt to import into Christianity thoughts and ideas that are alien to it.
“How can anyone execute in a beneficial manner what he does not understand?” I’ve pondered on this issue for sometime now. God is the author of life and the giver of eternal life. In the Bible, salvation and becoming a Christian, are one and the same thing, and anyone who is a Christian is described as one who has eternal life (1 John 5:11-13). The simple truth is that we cannot explain what we do not fully understand; therefore any attempt to do that leads to distortion of facts. If truths (especially spiritual truths) are distorted, the inevitable result is false doctrine. This is the bane of the distortions we see around today.
Let’s illustrate this simple truth with the phrase Peter used to describe his experience. The phrase: “give your life to Christ” has found its way into our vocabulary. It is generally used to motivate unbelievers to make a commitment to Christ, but nowhere in the Bible is this phase or the idea it conveys ever used as a synonym of being a Christian. As a matter of fact, it portrays something entirely different from what actually makes one a Christian. The implications of using such unbiblical phases to describe salvation are far reaching indeed. For one thing, it gives the impression that we must have to do something on our part in order to be saved (in this case, we gave our lives to…). Where it to be so, it will contradict passages like Ephesians 2:8,9.
Scripture is crystal clear about this. Salvation is FREE and it is based on God’s grace policy towards mankind. It is received on the principle of faith. Faith we must understand is “a non-meritorious system of perception”. The non-meritorious nature of saving faith is best described with the ritual we are all used to when we introduce ourselves or someone introduces us to new acquaintances. Whenever we introduce ourselves as Mr. So and so, without a doubt, the other person immediately believes us that our name is what we have introduced it to be. He does not have to do anything to believe that you are Mr So and so. In the same way, when we believe in the Lord as our Saviour, technically speaking, we do nothing.
We must not trivialize this point. God has given us physical life, and upon hearing the Gospel, we are called or commanded to believe in the LORD Jesus Christ. We are never told to give our lives to Christ; rather we are commanded to BELIEVE in the uniquely born Son for eternal salvation. This is the biblical way of becoming Christians. In Acts 16:31, the Philippian jailer who had taken Paul and Silas into custody almost killed himself when he supposed that they had escaped. When eventually he met them he asked: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” To this question, they answered: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” The Bible further makes us to understand that: “Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.”
The great Apostle Paul certainly knew more than us. His answer to the jailer was not in any way ambiguous. He never told him to “give his life to Christ” as many of us would do today. Straight to the point he said: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved …”
“Why all the fuss about giving ones life to Christ as opposed to believing in the Lord?” Simply, for this and any other matter, we must use biblical words and phrases to describe and explain biblical experiences. Otherwise, distortion will easily creep in as it is in so many issues in Christianity today.
I’ve written a book: I Really Want to Experience God, Please show me how. In it a detailed explanation of what it really takes to become a believer is made. Please download a PDF version of the e-book for free. If you find it interesting, you have my permission to send this post to friends and relations. I’m sure they will appreciate it. The link again for the book is:
www.ernestad.com
Email this post
