Daily Devotional

Have you ever been talking to someone about spiritual things and the question is asked, “are you a Christian?” Or maybe someone has said, “well I think I am a Christian,” or “I consider myself to be a Christian.” We often refer to America as a “Christian nation” and I think the idea of what a Christian is has been watered down in people’s minds. Well if you ever wanted a quick and clear definition of who is and who is not a Christian, Romans 10 has you covered. The simple answer is anyone who both confesses outwardly that Jesus Christ is Lord and believes inwardly that He defeated death by rising from the dead is a Christian.

This is amazingly simple, so much so that it can trip us up. We humans love processes, rules, rituals, etc and sometimes christianity can feel too simple. We think there must be more that is required, there must be several steps, and a church elder or priest must be involved, and maybe there is a secret password I have to learn. But no, this is an act between you and God. You are surrendering your life to Him, that is what it means to acknowledge Him as Lord.

As someone who accepted Christ very early in life I will often think back and wonder, did I actually do that? Did I mean it at the time? Did it count? But Romans reminds me that accepting Christ is not a special phrase, magic prayer, or incantation that one says to become a Christian, it’s a heart change. It doesn’t matter what I prayed with my mom all those years ago, what matters is do I believe Jesus is Lord of my life and that He died for my sins and conquered death by rising from the dead. Yes! I guess I’m still a Christian then!

It is that simple, for everyone, Jews and everyone else. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Remember the thief on the cross? He didn’t have time to be a good person, or get baptized, or jump through religious hoops. He simply asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His Kingdom. He confessed that Jesus was Lord. And Christ could see in His heart that he was genuine and responded by telling him that today he would be with Christ in paradise. What a blessed promise that is so simple, if we will simply have faith and commit our lives to Jesus, we will be saved. Salvation is a gift from God, nothing that we do other than surrender. Thank you Jesus for that simple yet profound truth.

New King James Version (NKJV) Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.