What it means to be a Christian

What is salvation? You used to live for yourself - for your own happiness and success - which was often at the expense of others, or at the expense of what was right. This is called sin, and sin leads to death and judgment.

"But now [if you have surrendered your life to Jesus] you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life" (Romans 6:22).

Salvation is not an event, but the entryway into a new lifestyle. Suffering is part of this lifestyle.

Romans 8:17-18 says that we share in Jesus' suffering so that we may share in His glory, and that what we suffer now pales in comparison to the glory that is to come.

Olympic athletes train tirelessly for years to be able to compete in the games. They go into the process knowing that it's going to require sacrifice (devotion of their time, separation from family, pushing through the pain of physical training, injuries, disappointments...). But they know that if they want the glory of the gold medal, they have to endure the pain.

Becoming a Christian is a commitment to a way of life that is difficult but that leads to the greatest prize worth fighting for - holiness, eternal life, and a relationship with your heavenly Father.

I was listening to a really great sermon by Francis Chan, and he made an analogy that went like this: When you become a Christian, you enter into a war. What soldier comes back to his commanding officer after the first day of battle and complains, "They were shooting at meeee!!!" Yet so often, we as Christians do this: God, why is my boss treating me like this? God, why didn't you solve this problem for me? God, why do I have so many bills? God, why is life so hard? We have to realize that hardship is part of life, and becoming a Christian doesn't make the hardship go away. In fact, it often invites more hardship, but as a Christian, hardship has an eternal purpose.

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." -2 Corinthians 4:16-18

*I left out a big part of what it means to be a Christian, but that will come in a later post.
*I've been writing about the topic of suffering since December. This post just describes a part of one aspect of it. The posts below are an attempt at understanding other facets of suffering.