If you’ve been around church culture for any length of time, you’ve most likely heard someone answer the question: “How long have you been a Christian?” with the following response, “Oh, I’ve always been a Christian.” In which, that answer can typically be translated into the following – “Ever since I was in my mother’s womb, I went to a building that had a steeple on top or a cross on the side.” However, no matter how great and fancy a church facility is, sitting in a church building does not make you Christian anymore than sitting inside of a fancy McDonald’s is going to make you a McNugget.
Being “born a Christian” has to be one of the most common misconceptions in the church today. Maybe, that’s what you even tend to believe about yourself. There has never been a time when you were not a Christian. Your whole family goes to church – your grandma, parents and even your cousin that literally annoys everyone. It’s football games on Friday and church on Sunday. It’s a wonderful tradition.
I’m convinced there are many people who are sitting in church crowds every weekend believing that they are Christians when they’re not. They’ve never truly accepted God’s amazing grace, because in their mind there is no need for it. Grace is for the sex, drugs and rock-and-roll crowd. Not me. I’ve always believed. I am a person with good morals. I was born into this belief.
Ironically, Christianity is not something you’re born into, it’s something you’re re-born into.
Out of the 7.5 billion people alive on the earth today, not one of us were born a Christian. According to the Bible, every single one of us was born a sinner. “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me (Psalm 51:5).”
Our original ancestors, Adam and Eve, messed it up for all of us. In short, the man and woman were placed in the Garden of Eden and given a command by their creator to partake in everything the garden had to offer, except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was an opportunity for humanity to worship their creator by obeying Him, trusting His words and relying on Him to educate them on what was good and evil, instead of experiencing it for themselves. God said, “Adam and Eve, this is all yours—every tree, animal and fruit. Enjoy it all, but most importantly, enjoy Me as your creator. Trust My command not to eat of one tree, because it will kill you. It will kill your spirit, your soul and your heart. Disobey what I am telling you and it will immediately kill you spiritually and will slowly kill you physically. It will literally change everything.”
And yet, they disobeyed the voice of God by listening to another voice. Then the power of sin spread like a disease to every person who would live at any point in human history. (On a side note, before we beat up on Adam and Eve too much – if they wouldn’t have done it – it would have most likely been me to ruin it for the rest of us.) Nevertheless, this changed the birth-nature of mankind forever. Everything immediately changed. Adam changed. Eve changed. Mankind’s relationship with its creator changed, and every person born after them would be the same—born dead. We would be spiritually stillborn.
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SOURCE: Christian Post, Shane Pruitt
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