First of all, a Christian is a human being: A man or woman, a younger child, a teen, an elderly person. I know there are a few folks out there who really work hard to believe that Christians are a whole new species, but such is not the case.

God is reaching out to people because people are in trouble. When the Bible says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, it is not saying that God loves an empty planet, or that God loves all the living creatures of earth. I have no doubt that God does love all living creatures, but the Bible is all about God’s interaction with human beings.

A Christian is a human being that has been redeemed from the great sea of lost humanity. All people are born into the world as lost souls. Our common “lostness” is an inherited state or condition. The problem is inherited sin and the resulting spiritual separation from God. The whole thing began with the very first two human beings to walk the planet.

The story of human sin and “lostness” is not small. It is huge, the central core of all human experience and all human history. The spiritual, emotional and physical damage done to our species by sin is the story of human existence as we know it. You can read the story for yourself in the Bible (as well as in most history books). The benefit of reading the story in the Bible is that you get the whole story and not just another human justification for human behavior.

A Christian (a real Christian) is a person who has responded in faith to God’s call for repentance and faith. God offers salvation, a spiritual rescue to all people who respond to His call. And we need such a rescue.

A Christian is not a sinless saint in daily practice. We are sinless to the extent that God makes us clean through Jesus Christ. All the stuff that would otherwise count against us is taken away because Christ took it all on Himself when He suffered for sin in our place. You see, the big penalty for sin is total death. Not only spiritual separation from God but also physical destruction as well. Jesus took our place, dying for all people and suffering the whole thing — including separation from God.

A Christian is a human being who has escaped spiritual death (separation from God) and the judgment of God which follows physical death. We have embraced Jesus Christ as our Savior and Shepherd, as our hope of eternal life.

Christians are made aware of sin by the Word of God and by the Presence of God (His Holy Spirit) working in us through faith in Jesus Christ. We learn what God has to say about sin, and we learn to hate sin. This learning is not something that takes a long time. It begins immediately when we are reborn, spiritually. Once we are made clean inside by God’s grace, we do not want to feel the old guilt and shame of sin again.

Here is where the struggle comes in.

Christians are made alive as spiritual beings by the power of God’s own life in Jesus Christ. We have been reconciled to God and have a whole new dimension to our thinking and feeling. We also have the power of God inside (by the Holy Spirit) to resist sin and to live a life that is pleasing to God. But we also have the same old physical bodies (including the physical brains) that we were born with in the first place.

The human body of a Christian believer is not made new when he or she is born again. Any previous damage caused by disease or injury, for example, is likely to remain as it was. Addictions may also remain. Bad habits, like good habits, are things we train our bodies and minds to do. They become automatic behavior. So even when the new Christian receives God’s power to walk away from old sins, some sins may linger on.

All sin is bad. All sin is destructive in some way. God hates sin because it harms and damages the people He loves. God dealt effectively with sin in Jesus Christ, making it possible for all sin to be abolished, once and for all, from the universe. Sin is therefore not something we should defend or justify but something we should avoid at all costs and with all that we are.

Christians have a struggle, an all out war, going on in their lives. The Spirit of God calls us ever upward, away from all sin and death. But the human body calls us back into the old paths of sinful indulgence, addictive behavior, and selfish ambitions. Never forget that the brain is not only a part of the body, it is the center of all physical activity. So do not be surprised, as a Christian, when your very mind tries to turn things around to make sinful desires and practices seem innocent and even virtuous.

A Christian sins. We are still human. Our level of wisdom — or even common sense — is not always very high. We sometimes neglect the very things God has given us for our spiritual life and health.

We may not spend much time in the Bible, for example, retraining our brains to think the way God wants us to. Without God’s perspective on life and truth and meaning, we will certainly fall back into foolish and selfish patterns of behavior. We will justify wrong desires and wrong choices instead of avoiding them and growing stronger in Jesus Christ.

A Christian is able to grow up spiritually, learning from every mistake and correcting old and harmful patterns of thinking and behavior. A Christian is able to respond to and benefit from the lessons God teaches us in daily life. A Christian is able to grow wise spiritually and emotionally. A Christian is able, by God’s power, to avoid sin and its consequences in daily life.

The apostle Paul remarks in a letter to the Christians at Corinth that God often judges us here and now, chastening us in the course of daily life in order to spare us any judgment later on. The world of lost humanity will be judged for all their sins after this age is finished. But Christian believers are corrected as we go. Our sinful behavior usually pays its wages here and now, rather than later on. We will not be judged along with those who do not know God.

A Christian has God’s Spirit living within, to guide and direct us in all things. We may choose to ignore God’s direction, but we will soon learn that to ignore God’s voice is to suffer the consequences of our wrong choices. A small child who is warned to stay away from the street by a loving parent will be corrected in they persist in heading for the street. A little punishment is far better than crippling injury or death.

A Christian knows that he or she is loved by God. A Christian loves God and the things of God because God’s Spirit is powerfully at work inside. A Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ, the Great Shepherd. To the extent that we follow the Lord we are safe. And when we (like regular sheep) wander off on our own, we make ourselves easy prey for the sins of our own flesh as well as easy pray for the spiritual forces of darkness.

A Christian is a human being who knows God and who will spend all eternity in the Presence of God, living in God’s house as a member of the family.

Jim