Be A First-Generation Christian

Recently, one of our Sunday School teachers challenged us to consider where we base our faith and how we disciple our children. People give all kinds of reasons as to why they believe they are saved, and so often what I hear leaves me scratching my head. True conversion can only be attributed to Jesus Christ, and none of us can rely on anything or anyone other than the Lord. You need to be a first-generation Christian even if you come from a long line of believers. Let’s explore that idea.

Always A Christian?

I was that Christian after I was saved. You know the type. I couldn’t stop talking about it. Nobody was safe from my testimony. So, imagine my delight when my notoriously skeptical friend asked me to tell her what happened to me!

Another close friend, and Christian, was with us for this conversation, as well. It was exciting to have another believer there to validate what I was saying and encourage our friend to consider her spiritual state, but that’s not what happened at all.

I took the opportunity to share what led me to Christ and explained how I had gone from death to life – spiritually speaking.

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Romans 6:23

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” (emphasis mine)

John 5:24

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (emphasis mine)

John 3:16

I told my friend that I knew I had changed. Made perfect? No. So much no…

But I felt different, and my interests had moved toward God and His children. My heart longed to know Him, and I detested the sins I never gave a second thought to in the past.

Second-Generation Christian

My friend turned to our mutual Christian friend and asked if her salvation experience was the same. I couldn’t wait to hear her story. But then it was like a scene in a movie when suddenly you hear a record scratching and everything stops.

“No. Not everyone has a moment when they are saved.” Cue my internal screaming…and confusion.

She went on to explain that her parents are Christians, her family faithfully attended church, and she had “always been a Christian.” She was describing a second-generation Christian identity. Newbie Believer Julie was stunned but persistent. I disagreed and reminded her that growing up with Christian parents and attending church doesn’t make you a Christian. She kindly and gently shot down my correction.

I can’t imagine what it was like for her to have a Christian-hating friend be born-again for, like, twelve seconds and start telling her she was wrong about a fundamental tenet of the faith. I don’t recall my tone or attitude, but I do remember feeling deflated. There I was trying to share the gospel with my friend, and another Christian and I can’t seem to agree on how one gets saved. It was a major fail.

What Are You Relying On For Salvation?

I’m not saying my Christian friend was not saved. Hey, maybe she was unable to get her words out as clearly as she intended. Perhaps she didn’t remember when she acknowledged that Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection was for her sins and that she could put her faith in Him and repent. Who knows?

I have met plenty of Christians who were saved as children, and they can’t tell you exactly when it happened. They say things like, “I was eight or nine, and I was at my grandma’s church when I understood the gospel and was saved.” That’s totally legitimate, you guys. My salvation taking place at twenty-six years of age is a bit more unique in conservative churches and makes the entire thing much more memorable for me than if it had happened when I was six.

Whether you can provide a moment-by-moment account of your salvation or can just provide a time of year and age range, what matters most is what or who you rely on for your salvation.

This Can’t Save You

1. Christian Family

I have written about my prayer to have Christian children who have Christian children who have Christian children… What an amazing thing it would be to leave a Christian legacy behind when I’m dead and gone. I can think of nothing else that is more significant than raising children who know the Lord, live out a faithful Christian life, and then raise their children to know Christ, too. What if one hundred years from now no one remembered me, but countless distant relations knew Jesus, in part, because my husband and I loved the Lord? I can only dream of such a gift!

Here’s the thing. My children can’t be Christian because I am. Sure, my Christian faith gives them an advantage in access to spiritual knowledge because they hear the gospel, study God’s Word, and see Christianity played out in real life. But they have to personally be saved. Your pastor grandfather, missionary cousin, and faithful parents cannot save you. Only Christ can.

2. Church Attendance

I love seeing people fill our seats up at church, and the sound of a full auditorium singing hymns of worship to God is beautiful and uplifting. But you know? Some of those people in our churches on Sunday morning are not believers. They’re spies!

I’m kidding. They’re not spies, but some church attendees aren’t saved. They might come out of obligation. The rest of their family comes, so they attend to keep the peace and make everyone happy.

Others come because they like church. It’s a social club for them. The people are nice, the potlucks are fun, and the attendance makes them feel like they are spiritual and in touch with God. However, they are just warming pews. These people sit in the church and are still “dead in [their] trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1-2). No matter which ministry they join or activity in which they choose to participate, they are not serving or pleasing the Lord.

“So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Romans 8:8

3. “Christian” Living

Some people who believe they have always been a Christian (and some who even have a known date they believe they became one) look to their outward behavior. This can be a touchy subject, can’t it? It’s a question with unending answers. “How should a Christian behave?” I literally write a blog called The Set-Apart Walk, so I’m obviously concerned about how Christians live out their faith. Nonetheless, we can’t expect that to be the entire story.

Face it. Some of us are good at performing. We learn the expectations, the right words to say, and the traditions, and then we live like that. In public. It’s not actually that difficult if you have a lot of self-control. Not to mention, some folks are naturally bent toward lifestyles we traditionally equate with Christians despite not being believers.

When someone’s salvation is defined by her virginity, Bible reading, clean language, and/or media consumption, then she is on shaky ground. That sounds like someone who relies on her own works to save her. We all know what the Bible has to say on that subject, right?

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (emphasis mine)

Ephesians 2:8-9

Make Your Faith Your Own And Be A First-Generation Christian

I am literally a first-generation Christian. No one in my family is a believer, and I am the black sheep who became a born-again Christian and turned from the world I once loved so much. Jesus Christ didn’t just give me a free pass out of Hell. He radically changed who I am, what I stand for, and what I love. I am new. I am His. My eternity is secure because of what He has done for me.

Fast forward to marriage and motherhood. My children are not able to claim salvation because their dad is a pastor, their parents are born-again Christians, they attend church, they study the Bible, and they live by biblical standards.

They will each need to personally encounter Christ through the gospel. They each need to individually recognize their sinful nature and their inability to ever do anything worthy of salvation. Each child must understand what Christ has done on the cross and understand why He did it. Then, they must accept Christ as their Savior, recognizing they cannot save themselves because it is Christ alone who saves.

My kids need to be first-generation Christians because there is no other kind of Christian. Salvation cannot be inherited (or earned). It is freely given by our sovereign God through Jesus’ sacrifice. I’d love to be in control of that and force my children to be saved because I want them to know the Lord, but only God Himself has the power to save.

Not Sure How To Become A First-Generation Christian?

Below is something I shared in the short version of my testimony. If you are wondering if you are saved or how to be, these verses can help point you on your way.

Here’s just a small sample of verses that address why we need to be saved and how.

First, we are never going to be good enough. We cannot work ourselves into Heaven.

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Romans 3:10 “as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one;”

Second, sin has consequences. There’s no such thing as a sin that’s “small.” If you break one of God’s laws, then it’s as if you’ve broken them all.

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

James 2:10 “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.”

Finally, there is good news for all of us. God sent his Son, Jesus, to take our punishment on the cross. He was buried, and three days later he rose back to life, defeating death. His sacrifice and victory over death means we can live, too! All we need to do is repent (turn away from our sin and toward Christ) and believe in Jesus.

Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

John 3:16 “’For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Romans 10:9-10 “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

Acts 3:19 “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,”

Romans 10:13 “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

Final Thought

Have your ever read through the Old Testament and felt frustrated with Israel. It’s like watching a yo-yo go up and down. They have faith and are close to God, then they embrace sin and forget God, then they cry out to Him and are faithful again but then… We look back and wonder why they stray from God so often. Entire generations of Israel turned their back on the Lord!

One generation’s faith did not simply pass down genetically to the next. They needed to teach their children about God (Deuteronomy 6:7-9), and those who had faith in the one true God wouldn’t do so because their parents believed in Him. They had to have a first-generation faith. A faith of their very own.

This is true for Christians, as well. We can’t rely on anyone else’s salvation, our cultural upbringing, or traditions. A first-generation Christian is a believer with a born-again experience and personal relationship with Christ. (Sounds cliché, but it’s true.)

How do you respond when someone says they have always been a Christian?

Image courtesy of Ben White via Unsplash.