Are you a Christian?
Have you trusted in the cross and resurrection of Christ for salvation? If so, you now have the joy of knowing your sins are forgiven. You now have the privilege of living every day in the confidence that, in Christ, God is for you.
But what now? What does it mean to follow Jesus for the rest of your life?
I want to offer you a few specific things you should do now that you're a Christian. No matter your circumstances, this road map will help you thrive as a disciple of Jesus.
1. Get Baptized
If you have recently become a Christian, the first thing you should do is get baptized. Why? Because baptism is how Jesus commanded Christians to profess publicly their faith in him (Matthew 28:19). Jesus's instructions are quite clear: Believe the gospel; get baptized. In that moment, you are saying to the world, "I belong to Jesus." As a friend of mine says, when we are baptized, we put on the Team Jesus jersey.
Baptism is also how a church affirms our profession of faith and receives us into membership. We will think more about the importance of the local church in a minute. For now, just notice that Jesus gave the ordinance of baptism to the church (Matthew 28:18-20). The Bible records that the early church brought people into membership by baptizing them after they had shown evidence of genuine repentance (Acts 2:41). When we follow Christ in baptism, we declare our allegiance to Jesus and at the same time the church affirms that our allegiance is genuine.
What should you do now that you're a Christian?
If you haven't been baptized, find a faithful, gospel-preaching, Bible-loving church--and pursue baptism.
2. Join a Local Church
In Christ, God has forgiven us of our sins and received us as sons and daughters. He has not only acquitted us in his courtroom but also invited us to the family dinner table. Through Christ, we know God as our Father--we have a personal relationship with God.
But we shouldn't confuse a personal relationship with a private relationship. God never intended for us to follow him by ourselves. God saves us into a community, and he designed our relationship with him to include fellow believers who are walking the same path of obedience. Being reconciled to God means being reconciled to his people (Ephesians 2:11-21; 1 Peter 2:10).
The New Testament is filled with "one another" passages for precisely this reason. Now that we are in Christ we are meant to do the following:
- Love one another (John 13:34-35)
- Live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16)
- Serve one another (Galatians 5:13)
- Be kind to one another, and forgive one another (Ephesians 4:32)
- Encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
And that is only a fraction of Scripture's "one another" passages.
By joining a church we commit ourselves to doing the type of "one another" work Scripture commands. By joining a church we are essentially saying, "I want to follow Jesus's commands, and I'm committing to do that with these people." In fact, joining a local church isn't simply one aspect of your Christian life. The local church is the primary context where you live out your Christian discipleship.
We worship God, love others, serve our brothers and sisters, suffer, study the Bible, pray, give, grieve, and evangelize--all in the context of a local church.
What should you do now that you're a Christian? Join a local church and learn to follow Jesus among his people.
3. Attend Your Church Regularly
Dinner is an important time for my family. Every morning my family scatters. But each evening we gather again around the dinner table. We talk, we laugh, and we study the Bible together. This gathering reinforces that we are family, not just strangers that share a meal.
The same principle applies to church life. By regularly gathering we submit ourselves to God's preached word every week, and we show we are committed to loving this group of people.
More than that, the Bible explicitly commands regular church attendance:
Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24-25)
Part of Christian obedience is regular church attendance. We cannot claim to love God if we only occasionally gather with his people to worship him and hear from his word.
Notice also how this passage teaches that one of the primary ways we encourage one another is by gathering. When we fail to gather with our local church, we are failing to "stir up one another to love and good works."
What should you do now that you're a Christian?
Attend your church regularly.
4. Study the Bible
The Bible is unlike any other book--it is the word of God, and it equips us for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Do you want to know how to follow Christ in every area of life? Open up your Bible.
The most frequent way Christians take in Scripture is through personal Bible reading. By reading Scripture each day, we remind ourselves of the gospel and fill our minds with biblical truth. Don't approach Scripture like antibiotics, only ingesting it in a crisis, but like a daily vitamin, providing spiritual nutrients for daily life.
When it comes to learning the Bible, we're not meant to do it alone. We should be reading and studying the Bible with other believers in a local church. We learn the Bible through the church's formal preaching and teaching ministries (2 Timothy 4:2) and also informally through the relationships believers build with one another (Ephesians 4:15).
Bible intake--both private and church-wide--fuels our faith in the gospel and gives us strength to follow Jesus and fight sin.
What should you do now that you're a Christian? Study the Bible for yourself and with others in your local church.
5. Pray Regularly
In the Bible, God speaks to us. In prayer, we speak back to him.
As Christians we have been redeemed by Christ, so God invites us to come before him and express our adoration, praise, and thanksgiving--as well as our concerns, anxieties, frustrations, and tears. Christ stands as our righteousness and advocate before the Father, so that we now "with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).
In other words, Christians pray. But just like Bible intake, praying is hard work. So how do we develop the discipline of a healthy prayer life?
Pray in Private Devotions
Along with your Bible reading, spend some time each day in prayer. How do you choose what to pray about each day? Naturally, we will gravitate toward what's important to us: our families, our health, our difficult circumstances. But that still leaves us wondering, how should we pray for our children? How should we pray for our spouse? How should we pray for our circumstances?
The best way to pray is to let the Bible inform your prayer life. As you read Scripture, respond to the truth of God's word with prayer.
- As you read about God's character, praise God for who he is.
- As you read about God's acts, thank God for his physical and spiritual provision.
- As you read about Christ, praise God for the blessings of salvation.
- As you read about God's promises, ask God to help you believe those promises and walk in light of them.
- As you read God's laws and commands, confess the ways you have failed, and ask for help to keep them in the future.
Pray with Other Believers in Your Local Church
At this point, you shouldn't be surprised to learn that the local church plays a central role in helping us develop a healthy prayer life.
Scripture regularly highlights prayer as a central aspect of local church life. In Acts 2:42 the early church devoted itself to prayer. Throughout Acts we find local churches, church leaders, or church members praying together (Acts 4:23-31; 6:1-6; 8:14-15; 12:1-5; 13:1-3; 20:36). Think of the local church like a teaching hospital for prayer. When we gather with God's people, we both pray and learn the discipline of prayer.
What should you do now that you're a Christian?
Spend time in prayer by yourself and with other
believers in your church.
6. Be Discipled and Disciple Others
I love playing the handyman around my house--even though I'm not good at it. But what I lack in competence, I make up for in shameless pleas for help. Just like I need friends to teach me basic home repair, we need friends who will teach us how to follow Jesus. This is called discipleship. It is especially important for brand-new Christians, but we all need discipling--relationships that teach us how to follow Jesus.
Discipling relationships are crucial to the Christian life. Hopefully, your local church has brothers and sisters in the faith who have walked the path of obedience and learned lessons they can pass on to you. Through our relationships with them, we learn how to walk with God.
But how do we pursue discipling relationships?
The best way is to simply start investing in the people in your local church. Make a habit of inviting others over to your home for meals. Get lunch with other believers. Get to know them. Build friendships. It doesn't matter what you do together--go bowling together if you prefer that to a meal--just make it a priority to get together. And then seek to do spiritual good to each other. Read a chapter of Scripture together and discuss it. Encourage each other. Confess sin and help each other learn how to fight sin.
Christian friendships are among the sweetest gifts God gives his people. Don't just view your church as a place where you hear preaching; invest in the people. Learn to follow Jesus through rich friendships with other believers and then teach others to do the same.
What should you do now that you're a Christian?
Disciple and be discipled.
7. Give to the Church
In the Christian life we advance the gospel by partnering with other brothers and sisters in our local church to move the gospel forward in the world. We can accomplish far more together for the kingdom of God than we can alone.
One of the primary ways we partner together is by giving financially to the church. The New Testament regularly commands and commends financial generosity for the sake of advancing the gospel (2 Corinthians 9:7-15; 1 Timothy 6:17-19; Hebrews 13:16).
By giving financially to the church, we resource the church to care for its members, ensure that pastors can focus on the task of shepherding, and catalyze evangelism and missions both near and far. We should never think of just one person doing this ministry and another person doing that ministry. Instead, we partner in ministry with one another--sharing in one another's endeavors for the cause of Christ. And we do this in part by giving.
What should you do now that you're a Christian?
Give financially to your local church.
8. Evangelize the Lost
Evangelism means telling others the message of the gospel and inviting them to respond to Christ with faith and repentance. As recipients of God's grace, we have the privilege of representing Christ to others and encouraging them to believe the gospel.
Even as we seek to faithfully evangelize, we must remember we are not alone in this work. Our local churches aid and fuel our evangelistic efforts. Our relationships in the local church showcase the love of Christ to world (John 13:35; 17:20-21), and the care members have for one another is often a means the Lord uses to make people more receptive to the gospel. In our local churches we help one another rightly understand and articulate the gospel, train each other to share the gospel well, hold one another accountable to evangelize, evangelize together, and pray for one another's evangelistic efforts. As we labor to be faithful in evangelism, we must remember Jesus never meant for us to go it alone. The local church is a community of evangelists that encourages and helps one another in their evangelistic efforts.
What should you do now that you're a Christian? Evangelize the lost.
Persevering to the End
Following Jesus is costly, but it is worth it. As we seek to follow after Jesus, we should always remember that we are never called to go it alone. Jesus always gives us his church, and he always promises us his presence (Matthew 28:20).
As you follow Christ in these ways, never lose sight of the fact that the grace of God and the promises of the gospel are what sustain your faith. We rest ultimately on this promise: "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).
About the Author :
Sam Emadi (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) serves as the senior pastor at Hunsinger Lane Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and as an editor at 9Marks.
