Do Our Children Know What a Christian Is?

It struck me the other day that in all my years of teaching and pastoring, do my children really know what it is to be a follower of Jesus Christ? In answering the question, they can’t use Christian jargon that no one outside of the church would understand, jargon that people in the church often don’t understand.

“A Christian is someone who loves God.” But that makes the standard my emotions. And how much do I have to love God?

“A Christian is someone who said they were sorry for their sins.” But there is no biblical doctrine of justification by sorrow.

“A Christian is someone who believes Jesus,” quoting John 3:16. But believes what? The problem here is that the Greek does not say “believes,” but rather “believes into,” and the difference between the two is demons (Jam 2:19) and Christians.

One person told me he became a Christian because he was afraid of hell — and we all should be. But again, there is no biblical doctrine of justification by fear.

“A Christian is someone who gave their life to Jesus.” But what does that mean, and how would someone know if they really did? And don’t all of us hold back parts of our lives?

Part of the problem, which depends on your theology, is that the definition needs to include both entering into a relationship and living in a relationship with God through Jesus. When I was pastoring, I used the phrase that a Christian is someone who “believes Jesus is who he is and did what he said he was going to do.” I still think this is a great description of entering into a relationship, but it doesn't explicitly talk about the ongoing relationship. 

I also like Rom 10:9. “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” If you really believe that Jesus is “Lord,” “God,” “Yahweh,” then that will change the way you live. Remember Jesus’ prophecy about judgment, “I never knew you; go away from me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matt 7:23). Certainly, these people would have a conversion story they could tell, but they weren’t Christians. They had walked through the gate (they thought) but never traveled down the path (Matt 7:13).

“A Christian is someone who lives in a covenantal relationship with God through Jesus.” That is a good definition, but how do you enter into that relationship?

Grudem defines “saving faith” as “trust in Jesus Christ as a living person for forgiveness of sins and for eternal life with God.” This is good. It includes both entering the relationship and the life of that relationship.

The purpose of this blog is to nudge you, as it has nudged me. How do we want to describe the most important decision of our life, and how do we want to ensure that our children understand? With so many of our children, especially millennials, walking away from the church, do they understand that Jesus and the church are two different things? Are they rejecting a relationship with Jesus Christ or with what can sometimes be a faulty and flawed institution?”

How would your children answer the question, “What is a Christian?”