Why am I a Christian? Moving from religious labels to real surrender
Most Christians should be able to explain what they believe. Far fewer, have stopped to ask themselves a much more personal question - why do I call myself a Christian? Not why Christianity is true. Not why the Bible can be trusted. Not why Jesus rose from the dead. These are foundational questions, and worth answering; but this is something different and personal:
Why do I wake up each morning and call myself a Christian?
What has captured my heart?
What sits at the very centre of my life?
What am I really living for?
Because the answer to that shapes everything else in life.
Jesus was never afraid to ask searching questions - in fact our motives and hearts are looked at far more that we often realize. Jesus welcomed those who sincerely came to Him, but He also exposed shallow motives, empty religion and comfortable assumptions. Jesus wasn't looking for people who simply agreed with His teaching. He called people to follow Him.
Before exploring the rest of this site, it's worth slowing down long enough to ask the question only you and God can answer honestly - why am I a Christian?
What is at the centre of my life?
Every life has a centre. Whether we realise it or not, we all organise our lives around what we believe is ultimately valuable. Something shapes our decisions, our priorities, our ambitions, our fears, our hopes and more practically - the way we spend our time and money.
For some people it is success. For others it is family. For others it is comfort. For many it is simply themselves. Even religion can become the centre without Christ ever truly being there.
Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.
Everything flows from the heart. Our actions don't appear out of nowhere; they reveal what we treasure. The words we speak, the choices we make, the things we pursue, the way we treat other people, and the direction of our lives all spring from what has captured our hearts.
That is why Jesus so often addressed the heart rather than simply outward behaviour.
He knew that outward obedience without inward surrender eventually becomes empty religion.
A changed life begins with a changed heart.
Following Jesus is so much more than agreeing with a set of doctrines. Christianity certainly involves believing truth, but it never stops there. Jesus did not simply invite people to improve themselves, adopt better morals, or add religion to an already busy life. He called people to something far more radical…
…If anyone wishes to follow Me [as My disciple], he must deny himself [set aside selfish interests], and take up his cross daily [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me].
It should be obvious from this invitation that if I am are called to deny myself, it begs the question then, who has actually been sitting on the throne of my life until now?
By nature, each of us wants to rule our own lives. We want to decide what is right, choose our own path, and pursue our own desires. We may be happy for Jesus to forgive us, comfort us, or help us, but being Lord means something entirely different. A lord is not merely admired - he is obeyed. John 14:15, AMP says, "If you [really] love Me, you will keep and obey My commandments."
This is where the Christian life begins to become deeply personal - does Jesus truly occupy the place only He deserves? It is no longer simply asking, "Do I believe the right things about Jesus?" but more correctly, "Is Jesus truly Lord of my life?"
Who shapes my decisions?
Who determines my priorities?
Whose voice carries the greatest weight?
Who is really sitting on the throne of my life?
Understanding the life and purpose of the Apostle Paul
In the New Testament, there is no clearer example of a religious person like the Apostle Paul. If anyone could have found confidence in religious achievement, it was him. Before meeting Jesus, he had everything many people would have admired. He was highly educated, zealous for God, powerful and respected among his peers and advancing in influence. By his own description, he had every reason to be confident in his religious credentials… then he met the risen Jesus and it changed everything.
The man who had once devoted his life to status, reputation and religious accomplishment, now counted it all as loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ (Php 3).
His ambition was no longer power. No longer recognition. No longer religious success. His entire life became centred on one pursuit, "That I may know Him…" (Php 3:10)
Paul didn't merely change his beliefs; he changed his Lord.
The One he had once opposed became the One he lived for. He gladly surrendered wealth, influence, comfort and eventually even his life because he had discovered something infinitely greater than everything he had left behind. When Paul later wrote to the believers in Ephesus, he addressed them as "to the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus" (Eph 1:1). Faithfulness was not simply a greeting - it was the kind of life Paul himself pursued.
He longed to hear the words every disciple hopes to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
Not merely knowing about Jesus. Knowing Him personally.
Walking with Him.
Becoming like Him.
Living for His purposes.
The letter to the Ephesians paints the same picture. Believers have been rescued by grace, made alive with Christ, adopted into God's family, created for good works, called to live differently from the world around them, and equipped to stand firm as faithful followers of Jesus.
The gospel is never presented as merely a ticket to heaven. It is an invitation into an entirely new way of life under a new King.
The question for each of us even today, is not simply whether we believe what Paul believed. It is whether, like Paul, we have come to the place where Jesus has become the centre of everything.
Why did I come to Jesus?
John 6 contains one of the most searching conversations in the Gospels. After miraculously feeding thousands with a few loaves and fish, Jesus became the centre of attention. The crowds eagerly followed Him from place to place. At first glance, it looked like revival. Thousands wanted to be near Jesus. But Jesus saw what no one else could see. He saw their hearts.
Rather than welcoming their enthusiasm, He exposed their motives, "Truly, truly, I tell you, it is not because you saw these signs that you are looking for Me, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill" (John 6:26).
They weren't ultimately seeking Him. They were seeking what He could give them. They loved the bread. They had not yet recognised the Bread of Life standing before them.
That conversation is just as relevant today. Why did I first come to Jesus?
Perhaps it was because I feared judgment. Perhaps I longed for forgiveness. Perhaps I needed hope. Perhaps my life was falling apart. Perhaps I grew up in a Christian home and church simply felt familiar. Perhaps Christianity made sense intellectually.
None of those reasons are necessarily wrong. After all, starting points matter less than where the journey leads. People often reach out to God through conviction, suffering, questions or the faithful witness of others. Many of us first came to Christ because we recognised our need. Yet, while recognizing our need is a vital beginning, it cannot be where we stay. Eventually every disciple must move beyond asking, "What can Jesus do for me?" to the deeper question of, "Who is Jesus?"
Is He simply the One who meets my needs? Or is He the Lord who deserves my life?
As John 6 unfolds, Jesus deliberately makes the cost of following Him clearer. He no longer speaks about free bread but about wholehearted commitment. The same crowds that eagerly chased miracles began walking away. Jesus did not soften His message to keep them. He let them leave.
Then He turned to the twelve with a question that every disciple (including you and me) must eventually answer, "Do you also want to go away?"
Peter replied, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." Peter did not claim to understand everything Jesus had just said. He simply knew there was nowhere else to go. Jesus Himself had become the treasure. That is the difference between admiring Christ for His gifts and following Him because of who He is. Genuine disciples discover that Christianity is not primarily about what Jesus gives us, but about Jesus Himself.
Following Jesus vs following His gifts
This is one of the easiest places to deceive ourselves. It is entirely possible to admire Jesus without surrendering to Him. To appreciate Christian values. To enjoy church. To love Christian community. To agree with biblical truth. To call yourself a Christian, yet still remain firmly in control of your own life.
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus repeatedly challenged people whose interest in Him depended on what they received in return. Some wanted healing. Others wanted food. Many wanted political freedom. Many welcomed Him while He met their expectations, but quietly drifted away when He called them to repentance, obedience and self-denial.
The New Testament never presents Jesus as merely a means to a happier life.
He is not simply a counsellor for difficult seasons. He is not a life coach. He is not a spiritual safety net.
He is Lord.
That changes everything. Sooner or later we have to come to terms with "what response does Jesus deserve from me?" We often hear that God loves us - and rightly so. But Jesus also taught that the greatest commandment is to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matt 22:37). He places equal emphasis on our love for God. If Jesus truly is Lord, then this is not optional - it is the greatest commandment. We rightly emphasize God's love for us, but do we truly love Him?
The answer is not rooted in guilt or obligation; but in His worth. The One who left heaven, took on flesh, became sin, conquered death, and rose again. He gave His life, suffered brutally and shed His blood so you and I might have mercy and life. He now reigns as Lord and is worthy of our trust, our obedience, our worship, and our whole lives.
The greatest gift of the gospel is not merely forgiveness, peace, or the promise of heaven - it is Christ Himself.
Life is not about me or you. It is all about Jesus.
We are not warning against gratitude for God's gifts - we are warning against loving the gifts more than the One who gives them. A heart that truly knows Jesus learns to trace every blessing back to Him, and finds that knowing the Giver is the greatest gift of all.
When He becomes our treasure, obedience is no longer simply duty - it becomes the natural response of a heart that has discovered something infinitely greater than anything this world can offer.
It is worth being honest about what the alternative can look like. Someone following Jesus for what He gives, rather than for who He is, doesn't genuinely want to be saved from their sin - only from its consequences. They are not truly sorry for sin; they are sorry that God will hold them accountable. Deep down, they don't believe the life Jesus offers is actually better than their old sinful one.
They call radical what Jesus simply expected of all His followers. They give Him a section of their time, money and thought - but He is not allowed to direct their lives. Their love extends to those who love them back: friends, family, people who can return the favour. Little for those who can't, and almost none for those who have wronged them (Crazy Love, Francis Chan & Danae Yankoski).
Has your relationship with God actually changed the way you live? Do you see evidence of His kingdom in your life? Or are you slowly crowding it out by spending too much time, money and energy on the things of this world?
Are you following Jesus or just identifying as Christian?
One of the most sobering realities in the New Testament is that Jesus never encouraged people to rest in labels alone. Many people called Him "Lord." Not everyone obeyed Him.
Jesus asked a question that still cuts through appearances today - why call Him Lord while refusing to do what He says (Luk 6:46). He was not questioning what people said with their lips. He was asking whether their lives agreed with their confession. Later, in Matthew 7, He gives an even more sobering warning - there will be people who speak confidently about Him, minister in His name, and sincerely believe they belong to Him. Yet Jesus says, "I never knew you. Depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness." Their profession was real, but their obedience was not.
It brings to mind a powerful thought from Andrew Wommack, who once asked: "If you were arrested for being a Christian, what evidence would you be tried on?" It is a really confronting question. Would the evidence simply be that I attend church? That I own a Bible? That I pray occasionally? Many people pray. Many people read religious books. Many people identify with a particular religion because of their family or culture. Even saying, "I'm a Christian," proves very little on its own.
Jesus repeatedly pointed people somewhere else - fruit. Matthew 12:33–35 says "a tree is known by its fruit." Fruit doesn't make a tree alive, it reveals that it is alive. In the same way, genuine faith produces evidence.
Not perfect performance. Repentance, when we fail. Growing obedience. Observable direction. A desire to obey Jesus. A heart that increasingly reflects the character of Christ. A growing love for God. A growing love for people. A willingness to forgive.
This is why Jesus ended the Sermon on the Mount in the same way - the wise man is not the one who hears His words, but the one who hears and puts them into practice. Likewise James 1:22, also asks us whether we are merely hearers of God's Word or whether we are doers.
Faith is invisible. Its fruit is not.
Just as a healthy tree gradually bears fruit according to its nature, genuine trust in Christ gradually changes the way we live.
Not instantly. Not flawlessly. But genuinely.
This is why Paul repeatedly encourages believers to examine themselves - not to create anxiety, but to make sure they are not confusing familiarity with Christianity for life in Christ.
Evidence of a genuine Christian in every day life
If Jesus is truly Lord, it changes the ordinary moments of life. Following Jesus begins to shape the decisions we make, the conversations we have, the way we spend our time and money, the way we treat our families, our neighbours, our colleagues, and even those who are difficult to love.
As we walk with Him, we gradually become more patient, more humble, more generous, more forgiving and more willing to put the needs of others before our own. When we fail - and we all do - we don't hide our sin or excuse it. We bring it honestly before God, repent, receive His grace and keep following Him.
It also changes the way we think about God's mission. Jesus did not give the Great Commission only to pastors, missionaries, or a few especially gifted Christians. He gave it to His disciples - i.e., all of us, including you and me.
If Jesus is Lord, His mission naturally becomes our mission. We begin noticing people the way He noticed them. We pray for opportunities to speak about Him. We become willing to step out in faith, whether that means healing someone who is sick, offering to pray with a struggling friend, or simply having a conversation about Jesus that we might once have avoided.
None of these things earn God's acceptance. They are not a checklist to prove that we are Christians. They are the kind of fruit that gradually grows in a life that is surrendered to Christ. An apple tree does not struggle to prove it is an apple tree - it simply bears apples because that is its nature. In the same way, disciples increasingly resemble Christ because His life is at work within them.
Perhaps one of the simplest questions we can ask ourselves today is this, If someone quietly observed my life over the next month, would they see increasing evidence that I am becoming more like Jesus? We could even ask this of ourselves honesty - if we look back over the last year, can I honestly see evidence that Christ is changing me?
The evidence of genuine faith is not perfection. It is repentance and direction - a life that is increasingly shaped by the One who sits on the throne of our hearts. Spend time with Jesus Christ and get to know Him - pursue Him above all else.
Before you continue…
Before you explore the rest of this site, don't rush past this question.
Instead, take some time to come honestly before God and pray through what you've just read.
Ask yourself:
- Why do I call myself a Christian? Am I becoming more like Jesus?
- What sits at the very centre of my life?
- Who am I really following?
- Am I merely reading the Bible, or am I putting it into practice?
- Would I still follow Jesus if it cost me comfort, reputation, or security? If many of the blessings I enjoy were taken away, would Christ still be enough?
- Am I more interested in Jesus Himself, or simply in what He gives me?
- Do I genuinely love God, or am I simply maintaining religious habits? Does my love for others resemble the way Jesus loved people?
- When was the last time I shared the gospel with someone who doesn't know Him? Who am I intentionally helping to grow as a disciple?
These are not questions to answer quickly. These questions aren't designed to trap you in endless introspection. They are an invitation to bring your heart before God and allow Him to search it. He already knows the answers. The invitation is for you to know them too.
If God did not withhold His own Son but freely gave Him for us, surely He is worthy of our whole lives. He has not called us into empty religion or outward performance, but into a living relationship with Himself. Don't settle for anything less than that.
The New Testament repeatedly encourages believers to examine themselves because it protects us from confusing religious familiarity with genuine discipleship. Jesus offers something infinitely greater than rituals - life with Him.
One day, every one of us will stand before Christ.
On that day, our Christian vocabulary won't matter.
Church attendance won't matter.
Being able to win theological arguments won't matter.
Even having orthodox beliefs, if they never led us to follow Christ, will not be enough.
What will matter is whether we truly knew Him. Not merely, "I knew about Jesus." But, "I knew Jesus, trusted Him, followed Him, and He was truly my Lord."
Perhaps the greatest tragedy is not living far from Jesus, but living near Him without ever truly knowing Him.
It is possible to spend a lifetime around Jesus - reading about Him, speaking about Him, attending church, identifying as a Christian, perhaps even serving in His name - yet never truly knowing Him.
Jesus Himself warned that there would be people who called Him, "Lord, Lord," and yet had never entered into the relationship they claimed to have. Those words are not meant to drive us into despair. They are meant to drive us to Christ. The One who knows every corner of our hearts is also the One who loved us enough to lay down His life for us.
Jesus never hid the cost of following Him. He told people to count the cost. To deny themselves. To take up their cross. To lose their lives for His sake. He never promised that discipleship would be comfortable. But He did promise that it would be worth it.
The question is not whether following Jesus costs anything. The question is whether He is worth it.
The New Testament answers with a resounding yes. In Revelation 5:11–12, John is given a glimpse into heaven itself. Around God's throne stand myriads of angels, "ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands" together with the living creatures and the elders, all declaring with one voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain." If all of heaven is captivated by the worth of Christ, then no sacrifice made for Him is ever wasted. When we all stand before Jesus, we want everyone of you not to say, "Lord, I knew about You…;" but for you to hear the words every disciple longs for, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
Everything on this site is written with that hope in mind - not that you would simply know more about Jesus, but that you would know Him personally, trust Him, obey Him, and become more like Him.