The DNA of What is a Christian – Part 1
DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA.
The DNA segments carrying this genetic information are called genes.
What then is the DNA, the very make up of what really makes or defines a person as a Christian?
Birth – How it all begins.
The only way to get into a human family is to be born.
Everyone has a birthday and birth is the method God has ordained for transmitting human life from one generation to the next. This is also true of the spiritual family: the only way to possess God’s life and enter God’s family is through birth.
Jesus said, You must be born again – John 3:7
What is this spiritual birth and how does it happen?
Like physical birth, spiritual birth involves in a sense two parents, and these two parents are 1. The Spirit of God 2. The Word of God. Jesus said, Jhn 3:5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
When you believe the Gospel, repent of your sins and trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, you are immediately born into God’s family and receive eternal life – Jhn 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life;
The Apostle John adds in his first letter – 1 John 5: 11 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
The Holy Spirit of God imparts life because He is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus – Romans 8:2The second spiritual parent is the Word of God – 1 Peter 1: 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, James 1: 18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth,
The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to impart life to the believing sinner who turns to Jesus Christ for salvation.
Jesus promised that, John 5:24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
The Word of God can impart life because it has life. 1 Peter 1:23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, God’s Word releases the power that resurrects you from spiritual death and places you in the family of God.
If you do not possess the life of God within, you have never been born of God.
Being a Christian does not mean simply agreeing intellectually with Christian doctrine or being actively involved in a church.
Being a Christian means possessing the life of Christ within, being able to boldly say, Christ lives in me – Galatians 2:20.The Scottish evangelist and professor Henry Drummond used an illustration to explain this truth. “He reminded his university students that there were five kingdoms in this world they had to distinguish. The lowest of them, the mineral kingdom, possesses no life at all. The vegetable kingdom, the animal kingdom, and the human kingdom all have life; and the highest kingdom of all – God’s kingdom – is the source of ALL life. He said that no lower kingdom can push its way into the next higher kingdom, but each kingdom can reach down and pull the other kingdoms up!
Minerals can’t transform themselves into plants, but plants can reach into the mineral kingdom and transform mineral into vegetable.
Animals east the plants and transform vegetable into animal, and humans eat animal flesh and transform it into human flesh.
In salvation, God reaches down into the human kingdom and lifts believing sinners into His divine kingdom.
This is exactly what Jesus did when He came to earth and died on the cross.
Jhn 3:13 “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, [that is], the Son of Man who is in heaven.
Too many people think they have to “pull themselves up” into God’s family through religious practices and being a good person before they can enter the kingdom of God – wrong!
Tts 3:5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
Thirty six times in the Gospel of John, the apostle writes about life, because life is a major theme of his book.
Johns whole purpose in writing his gospel was, John 20:31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
When you trust Jesus Christ, you re no longer in darkness because He is the Light of life – John 8:12.
You re no longer hungry and thirsty within because Jesus satisfies you with the water of life – John 4:13-14, and nourishes you with the bread of life – John 6:48-51.
In fact He is life – John 14:6.
Now this birth into the kingdom of God determines our nature.
Those who have been born again are partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust – 2 Peter 1:4.
We were born the first time of corruptible seed because humans eventually die and our bodies turn to dust.
But Christians are people who have been born again of incorruptible see – 1 Peter 1:23 – they possess the nature of God and will be children of God forever!!
What does it mean to have a divine nature? How is this manifest?
Firstly, nature determines appetite.
Foxes track down rabbits, bears fish for salmon, lions chase antelope and giraffes eat the thorny leaves of the acacia trees that grow on the African plains.
Now, if I profess to be a child of God, with God’s divine nature within me, wouldn’t you expect me to have an appetite for the things of God?
But nature not only determines appetite, but it also determines environment!
It’s the nature of fish to live in the ocean.
It’s the nature of birds to fly in the air.
Pigs enjoy mud and sheep prefer green pastures.
Unsaved people live according to the course of this world – Eph 2:2 and enjoy it.
But God’s children seek to keep themselves unspotted from the world – James 1:27.
Lost people love darkness rather than light – John 3:19.
But God’s children choose to walk in the light – 1 John 1:7, because God is light – 1 John 1:5.
Nature not only determines appetite, environment but it also determines our associations.
Zebras don’t befriend lions, nor seals great whites.
Lions congregate in prides with other lions, sheep in flocks, cattle in herds, and Christians in the fellowship of other Christians!
Now this does not mean we isolate ourselves from the lost world, because Christians have important ministries in this world such as being salt of the earth…light of the world – Matthew 5:13-16.
But it is the nature of the people of God to meet together for fellowship and mutual encouragement.
We read of the early church – Now all who believed were together – Acts 2:44
But nature also determines danger!
Water is no danger for fish but it can drown you and I.
Sea gulls can live on a garbage dump but a child would become seriously ill.
Because Christians possess the divine nature within, they are subject to dangers ands enemies against which you and I must fight.
What’s safe for others may be harmful to you so don’t govern your choices by what others do but seek God’s will for your life and conduct.
Nature also determines abilities.
Because I was born with a human nature I cannot imitate a whale and live underwater without air for long periods of time.
But since I have God’s nature within, all that He is and all that He can do are available to me.
Phil 4:1313 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
2 Peter 1:3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness
It does not mean we are little gods but it does make us, children of God, equipped to face life with its challenges and helps us to overcome to the glory of God.
Birth involves a future
You are not likely to find a police officer in the maternity ward of the hospital waiting to arrest a newborn baby, because babies have no responsible past – Romans 9: 11 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls),
All a baby has is a future!
Our Heavenly Father has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead – 1 Peter 1:3.
We have a living hope because we have a living Saviour.
Christians are people who live in the future tense.
Our sins have been forgiven, so our past no longer haunts us and God says….Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more – Heb 10:17.
We always have a bright future to look forward to!
We have the promise, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope! – Jeremiah 29:11.
Finally, birth is final!
It would certainly be strange if all babies were born with parts missing and the parents had to return to the hospital periodically to have the baby’s body completed.
No, the tiny baby is born with everything he or she needs to grow up and become an adult. We just need to grow.
At conception, I received the genetic structure that determined the characteristics and abilities I have carried throughout my life.
God’s children are born into His family with all you need to become mature Christians who can serve God and glorify Him.
You are complete in Him – Col 2:10..simply means that “all things that pertain to life and godliness” 2 Peter 1:3 became ours the instant we entered God’s family though faith in Jesus Christ.
Our spiritual birth is final!
We do not have to search for anything more to supplement our completeness in Christ.
Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. – 2 Cor 13:5