the Christian life begins with Christ

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3)

The Christian life begins with Christ. It begins with faith in a Person. You must be in Christ before you can live upon Christ. Here are two quotes to ponder...

"...it is impossible even to begin living the Christian life, or to know anything of true spirituality, before one is a Christian. And the only way to become a Christian is neither by tying to live some sort of a Christian life not by hoping for some sort of religious experience, but rather by accepting Christ as Savior. No matter how complicated, educated, or sophisticated we may be, or how simple we may be, we must all come the same way, insofar as becoming a Christian is concerned. As the kings of the earth and the mighty of the earth are born in exactly the same way, physically, as the simplest man, so the most intellectual person must become a Christian in exactly the same way as the simplest person. This is true for all men everywhere, through all space and all time There are no exceptions. Jesus said a totally exclusive word: 'no man cometh unto the Father, but by me' (John 14:6)."

~ Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality (1971)

"He must be in Christ, before he can live upon Christ. Now, faith signifies believing the truth of the word of God: so says Christ—'Thy word is truth:' it relates to some word spoken, or to some promise made by him; and it expresses the belief which a person who hears it has of its being true: he assents to it, relies upon it, and acts accordingly. This is faith. And the whole word of God, which is the ground of faith, may be reduced to two points; namely, to what the law reveals concerning the justification of a righteous man, and to what the gospel reveals concerning the salvation of a sinner."

~ William Romaine (1714--1795), The Life of Faith.

Jesus and Nicodemus, by Henry Ossawa Tanner

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