I CONSIDER myself to be a Christian

I recently heard someone on the radio say, “I consider myself to be a Christian.” I found myself feeling quite negative about that statement. I said to the radio, as if they could hear me, “if you consider yourself to be a Christian, you’re probably not one.” Does that mean the person making that statement is not a Christian? Absolutely not! First, God has reserved the right to examine a person’s heart for Himself. I have never even met this person so how do I know what their relationship to God is? Secondly, I have no right to condemn another. Again, that is a right reserved only for the Lord. God knows the heart. Only He knows where this person stands.

So why was I struck so adversely by this statement? I guess it’s because of the word ‘consider’. I looked it up and among its meanings are ‘to weigh all the facts,’ ‘to suppose,’ or ‘to regard as an alternative.’ I was bothered, in part, because of the context in which the statement was made. It was said in the sense of, ‘considering the options, I fall into the Christian category.’ As they say, this is the rub.

We may indeed consider ourselves to be Christians; I mean, I do. But, it is not in regard to the alternatives and it is not because I suppose it to be so. I know it to be so. The Bible gives us this kind of assurance. I John 5:13 tells us clearly, “I write these things to you who believe in the Name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” John did not write saying, ‘so that you can suppose you’re a Christian.’ As well, he did not say ‘considering all the choices you have, you can consider yourself a Christian.’ He wrote saying we can KNOW this as a fact. Many years ago a friend of mine, shortly after his conversion to Christ, was approached by a popular cult that likes to consider themselves God’s only witnesses. For a couple of hours they kept trying to tell him why he needed to join their group and follow their teachings; their argument being that they are the only ones with the truth. My friend, who knew little of the Bible at that time, finally posed a question. He asked, “Okay, if I join your group, can you assure me that I will go to heaven?” To that they answered that no one can know that for sure. He had them turn to I John 5:13 in their Bibles as he read aloud, “I write these things to you who believe in the Name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” After reading this he added, “Now either you are liars or God is; who’s the liar here?” With that they got up and left.

So, unlike the person on the radio I can say I do not ‘consider’ myself to be a Christian as much as I know I am. I know I am a Christian because I have put my hope and faith in Jesus Christ and what He did for me on Calvary. He died for the sins of the world, I John 2:2, but more specifically, He died for my sin. In doing so, “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us [me], so that in Him we [ I ] might become the righteousness of God.” II Corinthians 5:21. All my own works are like filthy, useless rags, but through the righteousness of Christ I find holiness in God’s sight.

So while I have no right to judge this person’s heart and am taking no liberty in trying to do so, I would expect to hear someone who is truly born again to say, “I am a Christian,” not, “I consider myself to be a Christian.”

If you have never trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you cannot say with absolute confidence that you are a Christian, please look at the A.S.A.P. file. Or call or write; I want you to have that confidence that says, “I know.”