What it means to be a Christian
by Abouna Peter Farrington
This morning I would like us to ask ourselves what it means to be a Christian?
It was in Antioch that the believers were first called Christians. In the Acts of the Apostles we read in Acts 11,
Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul: And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
The name Christian wasn’t one that the early believers chose for themselves. It was one that they were given by others. Perhaps rather dismissively. It means a follower of Christ, someone who belongs to Christ, even a slave of Christ. And this is how the early Church lived, in such a way that those who saw them understood that they had committed everything to Christ.
A Christian is first of all someone who has given themselves to Christ. We might even say that a Christian is someone who has abandoned themselves into Christ’s hands. St Paul says in his letter to the Philippians, ‘For me to live is Christ, to die is gain’. What does this mean? Surely it means that my whole life belongs to Christ. Every moment we live is to be lived for Christ and in Christ. Indeed once we become Christians we have no life that is not life for Christ and in Christ.
St Paul says in his letter to the Galatians,
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
In baptism we submit to the death of our old self, and coming out of the waters we are reborn in Christ.
But as St Paul says, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. This doesn’t mean that we are become a form of human robot, rather it means that we have a new energy within us, a new spiritual and personal power which belongs to Christ, and is the life of the Holy Spirit in us. Having been united with Christ we now find that the life of Christ in us gives us the grace to become that new person God wills us to be.
Christ at work in us, by the power and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, allows us to grow in the image and likeness of Christ, so that as far as possible we become like him, like the one whose life has been given to us. Apart from Christ we cannot be or become Christians. We do not become Christian simply by attending Church, or reading the Bible, or being religious, even keeping all of the fasts. These are all useful means of growing closer to Christ. But on their own they cannot change us. To become Christian we must belong to Christ, and the life we live must be the life of Christ. Not just on Sundays, but every day, and every moment of every day, we must rely on Christ for our life. At work, at home, at school. Christ must be the source of all that we are and all that we do. When this becomes true then we slowly learn not to rely on ourselves, and we find that having given ourselves to Christ, we are slowly becoming the Christian person that God intends and desires us to be.
St Paul also teaches us in his letter to the Galatians,
For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
The phrase ‘put on Christ’ has the sense of being dressed in some garment, or of wrapping clothes around about ourselves. On a cold day we become closely united to the warm coat that we have put on. We wrap it tight around about ourselves so that no draught can get inside it. To become a Christian is to be clothed with Christ in just such a manner. Is this how we are experiencing the Christian life? Are we wrapped around with the presence of Christ? Do we hold him close so that no chill wind of despair or doubt can disturb us?
This is not something that we learn overnight. Indeed many Christians stumble through their whole lives not quite sure what they are supposed to be doing. But the Fathers of our Orthodox Church teach us that the aim of the Christian life, of all life, is to be united with God in Christ. So there is a real sense in which having become a Christian in baptism, we must continually seek to become more completely a Christian through our lives here on earth. This is the aim of our life. Indeed a Christian who has ceased to try and become more completely a Christian has ceased to be a Christian at all.
St Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians,
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
This is the promise of the Christian life if we are willing to give ourselves to Christ. In this present life, whatever the difficulties and obstacles we face, we will experience this transformation ‘from glory to glory’. Perhaps this seems impossible to believe. Many of us bear burdens which are often almost too much to bear. But we should not imagine that the glory of the Lord is made known in our lives in anything other than the same humility which our Lord bore when he became man for our sake. The Lord of glory was born in a stable and laid in a manger. He lived a humble life as the son of a carpenter. He bore humbly the rejection of the men and women he had created, and was willing to suffer death for our sakes, even the death of the cross.
We should not imagine that the glory to glory he promises by the Holy Spirit to those who belong to him will be any less humble. Even while we bear with all manner of difficulties the gloiy of the Lord is made manifest in our perseverance and faithfulness.
St Paul says in the same letter to the Corinthians,
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
This is surely our experience. We have the glory of the Lord within us, but we are such humble vessels. We are weak and often fail. But this serves to place the shining presence of the Holy Spirit within us into sharp contrast. We know ourselves. We know that there is no good in us. We could remember the words of St Peter who said,
Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
When we know that this is what we are then it is clear to us that any good which we find in ourselves is of God. We discover that there is a treasure within us which does not belong to us, and yet which is transforming us. This is the Christian life. It is at heart not a matter of following a particular morality or code of ethics. It is not a matter of attending services at a particular Church. Of course all of this is part of how we live out our Christian faith. But essentially our Christian faith is life lived in the power and presence of Christ by the Holy Spirit.
To know Christ and to be belong to Christ is everything for the Christian. It does not change the circumstances of our life, nor the pain and disappointment we must often bear. But it transforms our vision of the world around us, and in our humble circumstances we find the glory of the Lord.
Let us give ourselves to Christ, and let us seek to dwell in him, to put on Christ, so that everything we do is done in Christ and for Christ. When we turn away from ourselves and seek to live only in Christ then we will find the glory of Christ in our hearts. It is a glory that sustains us, that bums up the stain of sin, that lights us from within.
May we seek above all else to be transformed by the presence of the glory of the Lord, becoming day by day more completely Christian, more completely given over to Christ. To his glory. Amen.
Source: Fr Peter Farrington, Reflections: Homilies On The Coptic Lectionary (London: Oriental Orthodox Library, July 1, 2012) 174-178.
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