Letter to a New Christian

Dear New Christian,

I am exceedingly joyful to hear about your salvation! God’s glorious gospel is certainly worth rejoicing, and do not be hesitant to do so. If the defeat of Satan and your own evil, coupled with an inclusion into the eternal family of Christ, is not worth celebrating, surely nothing on this earth is. I am writing this letter to you not simply to call you to rejoice, but to allow you to do so more readily through a more full knowledge of your salvation. What Christ has done for us and the breadth of his gospel will take an eternity to learn, but may this letter give you a starting point to grow from.

First, know that Christ has regenerated you. In other words, you know have spiritual life! The Scriptures tell us that we were dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph 2.1), but through Christ’s grace we are now alive (Eph 2.5), raised to life just as he was. This is what our Lord Jesus Christ is speaking of when he tells the Pharisee Nicodemus that he must be born-again by the Spirit (John 3). We know possess life we did not know before. We are now a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come (2 Cor. 5.17).  This regeneration not only made you capable of holding to the saving faith you now possess (John 3.5; Col. 2.13), but allows us to turn from our sin and become obedient to Christ (1 John 2.29, 3.9). This regeneration is the starting point for our salvation (keeping in mind, of course, that we are eternally elected for God’s salvation).

The moment at which you placed your faith in Christ, and so rejected the things of this world, we have come to call conversion. This involves two things: repentance and faith. We know that faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of God (Rom. 10.17), and this has no doubt been your experience. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen (Heb. 11.1). As the apostle John says, to all who receive Christ, he gave the power to become children of God (John 1.12), or as the prophet Joel describes it “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Joel 2.32). You must have faith in Christ, that he has taken your sin upon him, has paid your penalty, and has risen again, showing his victory. Faith is completely embracing the true Christ, as proclaimed in the Scriptures. This faith is coupled with repentance, or a hate of sin, and subsequence forsaking of it. The apostle Paul talks about a godly grief that leads to salvation (2 Cor. 7:9-10); this is what we mean by repentance. The Christian is to understand, however, that this repentance is not perfect. The apostle John rightly says that the Christian who says he does not sin is a liar (1 John 1.8). What repentance requires is not perfection, but a hate of sin like the apostle Paul describes in Romans 7. So, conversion is a turning from sin into Faith in Christ.

A term often sadly overlooked to a new Christian is the term justification. Although you may not know this term, you already understand the concept. Justification deals with our standing before God. As you already know, we are sinners (Rom 3.23) and therefore rebel against God and separate from him. Legally, we are criminals against the eternal law of the creator of the Universe. Justification is a changing of this legal status. This is done by Christ taking our sin upon him as a sacrifice for our sin (Rom. 3.25). Yet he not only justifies us by taking away our sin, but he gives us his righteousness. This is called imputation. He became sin that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). Martin Luther called this the Great Exchange: all of our sin, for all of Christ’s righteousness. This is all only of God’s great love and grace (Rom 3.23-24).

Realize that this salvation also gives you adoption into the family of God. We were not always so, for the Scriptures call us “children of wrath” (Eph 2.3) and “sons of disobedience” (Eph 2.2, 5.6), and even sons of Satan (John 8.42-44) before we were saved by the grace of God. But know, through faith, we are all Sons of God through faith (Gal. 3.23-26). Our prayers are given new power, as we pray to our Father in heaven (Rom. 8.14-17). Further, we are now heirs with Christ, that we may be glorified with him (Rom. 8.17). We will talk more of this later.

A natural outpouring of our regeneration and repentance is sanctification. Sanctification is the term we use to describe God’s progressive work of making us more and more like Christ in our lives. This starts quite certainly at our conversion, where we are washed by the regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3.5). In Romans 6 the apostle Paul sets out several important doctrines in regard to sanctification. As I previously stated, this does not suggest perfection, for while sin no longer holds dominion over us and we have been set free from sin, we still from time to time fall into sin. Yet, as Paul says, the true Christian slowly yields their bodies to the righteousness for sanctification (Rom. 6.19). Yet, while we battle in this life against sin, take comfort that one day we will be like the spirits of just men, and so made perfect (Heb. 12.23).

You must understand that, as a true believer in Christ, you will persevere to the end. The Lord is quite clear when he says that all of his sheep will be saved, and none shall be able to be snatched out of his hand (John 10.27-29). Realize, that all true Christians persevere and keep their faith to the end. If you hold to the truths of God’s gospel, there is no reason by which you should doubt your election. As Paul says, continue in your faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you heard (Col. 1.23). Continue in your sanctification, making your calling and election sure (1 Peter 1.3-11), and so being assured that you will never fall. No one who perseveres in the gospel will be rejected by Christ.

And for those who persevere to the end? We may joyfully await our glorification. As we said earlier, this is because of our adoption with Christ and our sharing as fellow heirs with him (Rom 8.17). We will receive glorified bodies, just as our Lord did when he rose from the dead (1 Cor. 15). Our lowly bodies will be transformed into glorious bodies, like his (Phil. 3.20-21). Greatly look forward to the day of our glorification!

Understand that much of these rewards come as a result of our union with Christ. We wre chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1.4), we are given Christ’s righteousness (Rom. 5.19), and we are raised with Christ (Col. 2.12). In fact, we must think of ourselves as being unable to do anything apart from being “in Christ.” This is healthy and good of you to do.

Now, may the knowledge of the grace of God and His gospel continue to grow within you, guided by the Spirit and God’s Church. Be sure to stay under the teaching of God’s Church, subject to its discipline, and continue in the fellowship of the believers. In Christ,

Andy Smith