Are you a Christian?
Have you trusted in the cross and resurrection of Christ for salvation? If so, you now have the joy of knowing your sins are forgiven. You now have the privilege of living every day in the confidence that, in Christ, God is for you.
But what now? What does it mean to follow Jesus for the rest of your life?
I want to offer you a few specific things you should do now that you're a Christian. No matter your circumstances, this road map will help you thrive as a disciple of Jesus.
1. Get Baptized
If you have recently become a Christian, the first thing you should do is get baptized. Why? Because baptism is how Jesus commanded Christians to profess publicly their faith in him (Matthew 28:19). Jesus's instructions are quite clear: Believe the gospel; get baptized. In that moment, you are saying to the world, "I belong to Jesus." As a friend of mine says, when we are baptized, we put on the Team Jesus jersey.
Baptism is also how a church affirms our profession of faith and receives us into membership. We will think more about the importance of the local church in a minute. For now, just notice that Jesus gave the ordinance of baptism to the church (Matthew 28:18-20). The Bible records that the early church brought people into membership by baptizing them after they had shown evidence of genuine repentance (Acts 2:41). When we follow Christ in baptism, we declare our allegiance to Jesus and at the same time the church affirms that our allegiance is genuine.
What should you do now that you're a Christian?
If you haven't been baptized, find a faithful, gospel-preaching, Bible-loving church--and pursue baptism.
2. Join a Local Church
In Christ, God has forgiven us of our sins and received us as sons and daughters. He has not only acquitted us in his courtroom but also invited us to the family dinner table. Through Christ, we know God as our Father--we have a personal relationship with God.
But we shouldn't confuse a personal relationship with a private relationship. God never intended for us to follow him by ourselves. God saves us into a community, and he designed our relationship with him to include fellow believers who are walking the same path of obedience. Being reconciled to God means being reconciled to his people (Ephesians 2:11-21; 1 Peter 2:10).
The New Testament is filled with "one another" passages for precisely this reason. Now that we are in Christ we are meant to do the following:
- Love one another (John 13:34-35)
- Live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16)
- Serve one another (Galatians 5:13)
- Be kind to one another, and forgive one another (Ephesians 4:32)
- Encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
And that is only a fraction of Scripture's "one another" passages.
By joining a church we commit ourselves to doing the type of "one another" work Scripture commands. By joining a church we are essentially saying, "I want to follow Jesus's commands, and I'm committing to do that with these people." In fact, joining a local church isn't simply one aspect of your Christian life. The local church is the primary context where you live out your Christian discipleship.
We worship God, love others, serve our brothers and sisters, suffer, study the Bible, pray, give, grieve, and evangelize--all in the context of a local church.
What should you do now that you're a Christian? Join a local church and learn to follow Jesus among his people.
3. Attend Your Church Regularly
Dinner is an important time for my family. Every morning my family scatters. But each evening we gather again around the dinner table. We talk, we laugh, and we study the Bible together. This gathering reinforces that we are family, not just strangers that share a meal.
The same principle applies to church life. By regularly gathering we submit ourselves to God's preached word every week, and we show we are committed to loving this group of people.
More than that, the Bible explicitly commands regular church attendance:
Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24-25)
Part of Christian obedience is regular church attendance. We cannot claim to love God if we only occasionally gather with his people to worship him and hear from his word.
Notice also how this passage teaches that one of the primary ways we encourage one another is by gathering. When we fail to gather with our local church, we are failing to "stir up one another to love and good works."
What should you do now that you're a Christian?
Attend your church regularly.
4. Study the Bible
The Bible is unlike any other book--it is the word of God, and it equips us for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Do you want to know how to follow Christ in every area of life? Open up your Bible.
The most frequent way Christians take in Scripture is through personal Bible reading. By reading Scripture each day, we remind ourselves of the gospel and fill our minds with biblical truth. Don't approach Scripture like antibiotics, only ingesting it in a crisis, but like a daily vitamin, providing spiritual nutrients for daily life.
When it comes to learning the Bible, we're not meant to do it alone. We should be reading and studying the Bible with other believers in a local church. We learn the Bible through the church's formal preaching and teaching ministries (2 Timothy 4:2) and also informally through the relationships believers build with one another (Ephesians 4:15).
Bible intake--both private and chur
