The Good News of Jesus Christ
What's Next? Your New Life as a Christian
If you're now trusting Jesus for salvation, you've passed out of death into life — you're a new person: "Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." [70]
You've embarked on a wonderful journey of faith — a life with meaning and purpose. God Almighty loves you dearly and wants you to grow in your knowledge of Him. Jesus saved you that you might serve Him in the world.
In order to illustrate this, Jesus compared Himself to a vine and Christians to branches on the vine:
I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.... Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing...By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. [71]
If you are to succeed as a Christian, you must "abide in the vine," Jesus Christ. Apart from Him you can do nothing, absolutely nothing! If you are to bear fruit for the glory of God, you must look to Jesus for the knowledge, desire, and strength to do it:
But by His [God's] doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, that, just as it is written, "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord." [72]
We cannot address here everything that you need to know as a Christian. That's why God gave us the Bible and the church. But there are some Christian disciplines that are foundational to everything you do as a Christian. We will briefly address these foundational Christian disciplines.
Just as you repented of your sins and believed in Jesus for your salvation, so you must continue, day by day for the rest of your life, to repent of your sins and believe on Jesus as your Savior and Lord.
Although a Christian must aim to be perfect in his moral character, [73] he'll never achieve it in this life. He still struggles with a remaining tendency to sin. As a "new creature," however, his sin-tendency no longer has mastery over him! [74] When a Christian sins, he must confess it to God and turn from it: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." [75]
In all that you do, look to Jesus in faith as your Savior and Lord, for apart from Him you can do nothing. It is important that you keep this in mind, because it is very easy for a Christian to become self-sufficient and forget that Jesus alone is the Savior. You will fail to grow as a Christian to the degree that you are self-sufficient.
If you forget that Jesus is your daily Savior, you will become discouraged in view of your daily sins.
Another basic Christian discipline is prayer to God. God is now your Father through adoption, [76] and He wants you to communicate often with Him. [77] He loves you and desires to do you much good. [78] The Bible gives you this promise:
And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. [79]
God also wants to communicate with you. You will learn from God as you read and study the Bible. Take its truth into your mind with the purpose of obeying God. [80] Do you want to know God's will for you? Learn the Bible, for it reveals His will for your life!
There are several good translations of the Bible available in English. We suggest that you obtain The English Standard Version (ESV) or The New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition (NASV Update) or the New King James Version (NKJV). Each of these translations is accurate and easy to read.
Another foundational discipline is that of involvement in a church that believes the Bible. Jesus does not save us to live in isolation from other Christians; rather, He commands us to be baptized and to join His church:
And Jesus came up and spoke to them [the apostles], saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. " [81]
And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near. [82]
Baptism is an ordinance of the church. Your baptism into water signifies that you've been washed from your sins and joined to Jesus Christ. [83] Although baptism doesn't save anyone, you should not delay to be baptized; you should seek to be baptized as soon as it is convenient to do so. [84]
The church is the God-ordained institution for our growth as Christians. Jesus gives to each Christian a spiritual gift that he or she must employ to help other Christians in the church and in private. [85]
There are many churches from which to choose, but not all of them are faithful to the teachings of Jesus Christ. If you live in our area, we invite you to join us for worship. If you need help finding a good church in your area, you may contact our church by phone at (919) 563-9249 or by e-mailing us.
The grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit, be with you all.
2 Corinthians 13:14
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Footnotes
[70] 2 Corinthians 5:17
[71] John 15:1,4,5,8
[72] 1 Corinthians 1:30-31
[73] Matthew 5:48 - Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
[74] Romans 6:1-23 - What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[75] 1 John 1:9
[76] John 1:11-13 - He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
[77] 1 Thessalonians 5:17 - pray without ceasing;
John 16:23-27 - [Jesus speaking] And in that day you will ask Me no question. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you shall ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you in My name. "Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full. "These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; an hour is coming when I will speak no more to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father. "In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father.
[78] Matthew 7:11 - If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!
[79] 1 John 5:14-15
[80] 2 Timothy 3:16-17 - All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
[81] Matthew 28:18-20
[82] Hebrews 10:24-25
[83] Romans 6:3 - Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
[84] The New Testament pattern is "believe and be baptized." We will not quote all of the Biblical passages in full, but a study of the following passages should be sufficient:
Acts 8:12-13 - But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. And even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip; and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed.
Acts 16:29-33 - And he called for lights and rushed in and, trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, he said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household." And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household.
Acts 18:8 - And Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized.
[85] 1 Peter 4:10-11 - As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
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