What Is a True Christian?

A Christian is someone who has obeyed the
gracious command of Jesus Christ, “Look to me, and be saved, all you ends of
the earth! For I am God, and there is no other” (Is 45.22). As one believing
into Jesus, the individual who was once a lost and wandering sinner is made a
new creation in Christ and a true disciple of the Lord: old things have passed
away; behold, all things have become new (2Cor 5.17).

But how can you tell if you really are a
Christian? How can you know if you have been born again? What are the definite marks
of a new creation in Christ?

The apostle John addresses both the new
birth and its evidences.  He wrote his
gospel so that we might know that Jesus is the Christ, believe, and be saved
(Jn 20.31). Later, he wrote his first letter so that believers might “know
that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of
the Son of God” (1Jn 5.13). John’s first letter will help us to answer the vital
question: “What is a true Christian?”

There are many things which the world – and
many outwardly religious people in the world – assumes are certain marks of
true Christianity. These things fool many into imagining that they are true
believers when they are not. Even many Christians build their assurance on
these things, and find that they fail them when they need them, because they
form no sure foundation. These are inconclusive
indications.

An excellent book by Gardiner Spring called
The Distinguishing Traits of Christian Character suggests seven things
that are not, in themselves, conclusive marks that a professed work of grace is
true or false.

Visible
morality. An outwardly upright character is no sure
indication of love to God. A fair appearance does not necessarily indicate true
heart righteousness (1Sam 16.7). There are many people who can maintain the
facade of morality without ever possessing eternal life and developing true
conformity to Jesus Christ.

Head
knowledge (mere speculative knowledge or intellectual
perception) as opposed to spiritual understanding of the truth (Rom 1.21;
2.17-20; Jas 2.19; 1Cor 2.14). It is possible to know a great deal about Christ
without truly knowing Christ; a man can know a lot of the Bible, without ever
bowing to the God of the Bible.

A
form of religion. Many have the appearance of
religion without the reality, the form without the power (2Tim 3.5; Mt 25.1-12;
Is 58.2-3). The Pharisees are the prime example of such people: a great
reputation for religion, but a heart far from God.

Eminent
gifts. Some have great natural abilities (and,
perhaps, verbal dexterity – the gift of the gab – is something that is often
taken to indicate a heart for God), which they employ even in religious
contexts (again, the gift of ready speech is one that people often mistake as a
sign of true godliness). Balaam and Saul both enjoyed eloquent prophetic
experiences without entering the kingdom (Mt 7.22-23). John Bunyan was known as
“a great talker in religion” before he became a true believer, and several of
his characters in Pilgrim’s Progress
demonstrate the same problem.

Conviction
for sin. We must be careful here. Conviction for
sin is necessary for salvation but not necessarily joined with salvation
(note also that many Christians feel conviction for sin far more acutely after
they are saved than before, and that some who are brought up in godly homes and
converted young may have relatively little clear and distinct sense of sin). Awareness
of and a sense of guilt concerning sin do not mean that a man is saved or will
be saved (Jude 14-15). Ask King Saul, King Ahab, or Judas.

Strong
assurance. There is a difference between believing
you are saved and believing in Christ and therefore being saved. It is possible
for someone entirely persuaded that they are right with God to be wrongly
persuaded (Mt 3.7-9).

Notable
time or manner of one’s professed conversion. Even
unusual and distinctive experiences do not demonstrate that one’s profession of
faith is genuine. There are some who live and die trusting in the memory of a
moment – perhaps some warm and fuzzy feeling, or raising a hand or walking an
aisle or responding to a call – without ever having known true spiritual life.

There is almost nothing more dangerous than
to imagine oneself saved and yet to remain unsaved. There is nothing more
blessed than to know oneself a Christian grounded on a solid foundation, as the
Spirit witnesses in the heart and to the work he is accomplishing in those whom
he indwells. To recognise these inconclusive indications for what they are
liberates the true believer from the tyranny of mere subjectivism, and strips
away the flawed and rotten supports on which we – and others – too often build
our hopes.

What, then, are the Scriptural indicators
that a genuine work of grace has taken place in the heart of a sinner? When
John writes his letter, he does so in carefully-planned circles. Like an
aircraft circling the same territory, John notes the same heart-terrain
repeatedly. At least four indispensable
indications of true Christianity become plain as we circle through John’s
letter.

The first indication is a humble and
wholehearted embrace of the divine diagnosis of and remedy for sin (1Jn
1.7 – 2.2; 2.12-14; 3.5, 6, 23; 4.2, 9-10, 13-16; 5.1, 5, 10-13, 20). A
Christian man has an accurate view of himself as a sinning sinner. He
acknowledges the just judgments of a holy God (Ps 51.4; Lk 15.18; 18.13). This Spirit-wrought
conviction of sin leads to genuine repentance as his heart breaks over his godlessness:
he becomes revolted by his sin and turns from it and forsakes it because it
offends the Lord God (Jl 2.12-13). With repentance is joined faith in Jesus as the
Lord Christ is presented in the gospel in his might and majesty, his meekness
and mercy. Faith receives Jesus, looks to Jesus, comes to Jesus, flees to Jesus,
leans upon Jesus, trusts in Jesus, holds to Jesus, and rests upon Jesus. Let us
remember that this is the essential point and gives birth to all that follows:
the dying thief never had an opportunity to manifest the other three marks of
saving faith (though he would have done had he lived), but still the Lord
assured him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk 23.43). Whoever trusts
in Jesus, though he believes one moment and dies the next, has his life hid
with Christ in God.

The second indication is a humble
reverence for and joyful devotion to God and his glory (1Jn 1.3-5;
2.12-15; 3.1-2; 4.12-13, 19; 5.1-2). A radical reversal of priority has
occurred: the idol Self is toppled and God reigns in the heart. A change
has occurred: a heart that by nature is enmity with God (Rom 8.7) has been
replaced by one that loves God entirely (Lk 10.37). The man who lived for self
now lives for God, offering himself as a living sacrifice (Rom 12.1-2). Gratitude
for grace received and delight in God himself issues in joyful service of the
Lord of glory. This is a man convinced of God’s excellent glory, for its
own sake: he would, if called upon, serve without reward for he recognises
God’s worthiness to be served: Romans 11.36 seems entirely pleasing and proper
to him, for God in Christ is now at the pinnacle of his thinking and feeling
and doing. The testimony of such a man’s heart is “Whom have I in heaven but
you?  And there is none upon earth that I desire besides you.  My
flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion
forever” (Ps 73.25-26). He believes it, knows it, pursues it, and repents
afresh because he does not know and feel and prove it more. He is concerned for
God’s name and God’s people and therefore his time, energies, graces, gifts,
faculties and efforts are consecrated to God, whether in the apparently
spectacular or the genuinely mundane (1Cor 10.31). His chief end and great
delight is to glorify God and to enjoy him now and forever. God in Christ is
all in all to him, and he longs to know and feel and prove it more.

The third indication is a principled pursuit of godliness with an
increasing attainment in holiness (1Jn 2.3-8, 15-16, 19, 29; 3.3, 6, 10,
24; 4.13; 5.2-5, 21). The hypocrite likes the reputation of holiness, but the
true child of God is satisfied only with the substance. He considers his ways,
and turns his feet back to God’s testimonies (Ps 119.59). The world no longer
sparkles as it did – or, at least, his attraction to it and affection for it
have been fundamentally altered – and now he lives for God, called to be holy
as God himself is holy (1Pt 1.16). The bonds to sin have been broken, and the
persistent habit of unmortified sinning has been shattered because of his union
with Christ. The new root brings forth new fruit (Mt 7.20; 12.33-35). His
obedience – though not yet perfect – is universal (throughout the whole man),
habitual (a regular and consistent part of life), voluntary (he does it
willingly, not because he is forced) and persevering (he continues to pursue
obedience to the end). He has taken up his cross, and continues to do so daily,
as a disciple of a crucified Christ (Mt 16.24-25). He pursues Christlikeness –
it is the burden of his private and public prayers. He increasingly manifests
the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5.22-23); he has no love for the world (Jas 4.4);
the previous pattern of conformity to, company with and compromise for the sake
of the world is over (2Tim 3.4; 1Cor 16.33). This is not sinless perfection,
but laborious progress. It does not mean that a Christian faces no battles but
rather than he fights great battles, opposed as he now is to a raging and
committed enemy of malice and power (Rom 7.13-25). Sometimes he wanders;
sometimes he is on the back foot; sometimes, grievously, he backslides.
However, the tone and tenor of his life is one of advance. The trajectory of
his life over time is upward. The points plotted on his spiritual graph are not
a seamless upward curve, and there are painful plateaus, but the line of best fit
indicates persevering progress over time as sin dies and godliness is
cultivated.

A fourth mark that John identifies is affection for and attachment to God’s
redeemed people (1Jn 2.9-11; 3.10-18, 23; 4.7-11; 4.20 – 5.2). This is more
than natural affection (just liking them), mercenary attachment (what you can
get out if it), party spirit (a gang mentality), or mere presence (just turning
up at the right place at the right time). The true Christian loves God’s people
because they are God’s people, even
though they may be unlovely in themselves. In that sense, he needs no other
reason, and yet he has several. He loves them because of what they are to God,
loved by him and saved by Jesus, and it is therefore Godlike to love them. He
loves them because of what they are in themselves, marked out increasingly by
the image of God, by likeness to the Jesus whom he loves. He loves them because
of what they are to him, members together with him of the one body of which
Jesus is the saving and sovereign head (1Cor 12.12-14, 26-27). He loves not in
word only: it is manifest in his thoughts and deeds (Eph 4.1-6, 12-16, 25-32).
He is a true churchman: he does not simply “do church” but views and responds
to the saints individually and gathered together with affection, commitment,
service and investment. He is not a spectator but a servant, concerned not just
to get out but to put in.

These four marks will invariably be present
in a true child of God. They will not be perfect until glory, but they will be
present now.

We cannot afford to be fooled, imagining ourselves saved when we are not. This is a most
desperately dangerous condition to be in, and a devastating conclusion to daw. We
do not need to be confused, either
always doubting or building on a wrong foundation. We can know whether or not
we are saved. John writes so that we can be sure,
knowing ourselves saved and enjoying eternal life.

If these indispensable indications, these
marks of a true believer, are not in your heart and life, then you are not a
Christian, whatever you claim or imagine, and you should not fool yourself nor
dishonour Christ by claiming his name without walking in his ways. You
blaspheme Jesus and expose him to scorn by taking the label of a true believer
but living apart from his gracious power and saving wisdom. The hypocrite gives
other unbelieving men a reason to scorn and deride true religion by pretending
to what he does not have. We see this written on a large scale when those
professing to be a true church depart from the truth, teach their own
concoctions, live without godliness, and give occasion for men to blaspheme.
“Call that Christianity?!” No! No, it is not Christianity – it is an empty
masquerade that gives opportunity for sinners to deride or despair of Jesus,
which leaves your hands with the blood of men upon them, and which will
ultimately damn you if you are not saved from it. It is better to know yourself
outside than falsely to imagine yourself inside: you must therefore flee to
Jesus, and acknowledge your need, repent of your sin, and trust in the Saviour.

But if these things are present in you and
true of you then you are a Christian, and you should not dishonour Christ by
denying the source of grace in you. Some doubting and fearful saints are
terrified that they will lay claim to God’s grace in Christ without having it,
and so walk in shadow if not in darkness, robbed of joy and neither being
blessed nor blessing others as they might. But consider: these things simply do
not grow in the soil of the unregenerate heart, and to possess them without a
Christian testimony is to know the privileges of the kingdom without wearing
its livery. It might give the impression to some that the fruits of grace can
grow in natural soil, and imply that unconverted men can attain to true godliness
and genuinely Christian morality, and so prompt a despising of the work of
God’s Spirit. Others might be profoundly discouraged, imagining that a man can
show marks of true holiness but not really be saved, and so wonder if they can
ever truly testify, “I am his, and he is mine.” Friend, if you have these
things in you, then honour the God who put them there by owning yourself saved
of God, and live accordingly.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my
anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way
everlasting” (Ps 139.23-24). If you need Jesus, go to
him now and you will be saved.  If you
have Jesus – if he has you – then hold fast, love him, serve him, and rejoice
in him, for you are a child of God, and he will keep you to the end, perfecting
that which he has begun in you.

Jeremy
Walker is a pastor of Maidenbower Baptist Church. He blogs at The Wanderer and is co-author of A
Portrait of Paul: Identifying A True Minister of Christ (Reformation Heritage Books, 2010).