What it Means to Be a Christian

I recently posed the following on my Facebook status:
You claim to be a Christian.  So what does that really mean?


Before I get to the point of this post, which is to answer this myself, I must say that I was disappointed at how few people answered the question.  I'm hoping it was because they were too busy to answer it in full, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it's because they honestly aren't sure how to answer it.  If nothing else, I hope it gave them something to think about, and possibly inspire them to go looking for an answer.

Now, to answer the question myself:


I am a Christian.  That means, above all else, that I admit I am a sinner in need of God's help.  It means I have been shown, by the grace of God, that the help I need is available in and through Jesus, the Christ. It means He has shown me, through His death, the way I am supposed to live. And it means I have freely chosen to follow Him.


This means that I am following Him, He is not following me.  I need to follow His commandments (John 14:15).  I am in need of healing, and in the same way that when I go to the doctor for physical healing I trust that following the doctor's orders will lead to my physical healing, I trust that following Christ's commandments will lead to my spiritual healing.  There are no "home remedies" here; there is only His prescription for my life, and to follow my own prescription and not His is to not be truly healed.  It might look like I’m OK if I follow my own course of treatment, but in reality, I’m not.


It means that if I want to be “spiritually healthy”, I need a daily regimen.  I need guidance, a “program”, that keeps me as healthy as I can be.  Again here, I don’t get to create the program.  I go to the Physician and get the program He has devised for me.  Being the “pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15), this program is found in the Tradition of the Church, which includes:

• the Bible, the books of which, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, were written and chosen for inclusion in the canon of Scripture by members of the Church
• the writings of the Fathers
• the worship, practices, and disciplines of the Church

I don’t get to interpret the Bible by myself (2 Peter 1:20), I don’t get to make up the worship, and I don’t get to set the practices and disciplines.  Some of the things I’m supposed to do are found directly in the Bible: pray, a lot (1 Thessalonians 5:17), fast (Matthew 6:16-18), give alms (Matthew 6:2-4), help those in need (Matthew 25), and proclaim the Gospel (Mark 16:15), to name a few.  Others are more subtle: be baptized (1 Peter 3:21), receive the Eucharist, which is truly the Body and Blood of Christ (John 6:53-56, Matthew 26:26-28), and confess our sins publicly (James 5:16), to name a few.   Others are found in the Church: attending the services, planning our lives around the Church calendar, etc.


However, none of  this is done on my own.  Being a member of the Church community and conferring with a priest to help discern what is reasonable is absolutely necessary.  Anyone who has tried to set up their own exercise regimen will understand the importance of the personal trainer if you really want to do it right.  The same idea applies here to our need for a “personal spiritual trainer”.  


All that being said, none of this is a “checklist” to be completed to guarantee my salvation, nor is it a matter of having “done enough”.  Salvation is about being healed and trying to stay healthy.  It’s not a matter of being healthy enough; it’s a matter of striving every day to be as healthy as I can.


So, what does it mean to be a Christian?  In short, it means submitting to Christ on His terms, surrendering my life to Him as completely, or at least as completely as I am able and admitting it when I fall short, and relying on Him to show me, through His Church, how to properly do all of this.