Personal reception of Christ

In most Christian traditions, although Salvation is offered to all, there has to be an individual response. Once we are aware of who Jesus is and His claims,there is an obligation to say “yes” to the invitation of Jesus to believe in Him and to become a follower of His.

For those who have not heard or who have been given distorted or false information, the situation is less clear. Most believe that they will be judged by how they have responded to the light they have received.

A Christian is a follower of Jesus, someone who learns from Him like an apprentice would learn from a master and who aspires to be an imitator of Him.

As well as affirming a set of beliefs, a Christian is someone who has a close relationship with God, one which God initiates. Often compared to that of Parent-Child. God loves us with a love which surpasses that of any human parent and that has far-reaching implications for our lives.

To become a Christian, we do not have to be “good enough”. We can only come to Him as we are and He will receive us in that state. However, we will not remain there – rather He will transform us into His likeness and forgive us anything we have done wrong in the past. Our response is to ask Him to do so.

The nature of the human response is seen slightly differently in different traditions. For some the response is simply to ask Him, such as by praying the “sinners’s prayer”. For others it starts with baptism, unless there are impediments to being able to do so. Either way we can be confident that, having endured the suffering on the cross in order to save us, He is not going to exclude anyone on a technicality.