Therefore, I conclude this first part of my answer as to ‘Who is a Christian’ with the following verses: ‘Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor male prostitute, not homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor thieves nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.’ (1 Corinthians 6: 9-11) Therefore a Christians is a walking miracle! No other religions can convert such sinners into new creatures in Christ pure and spotless! True religion is not something that men can handle, it cannot be controlled by human prowess, piety or good works, faith in Christ is worked out in a believer by the Holy Spirit, with Him comes the ability, the power the authority to do those things, and keep God’s children safe! As Jesus said: ‘But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1: 8) It is obvious that this promise is for all disciples throughout time and space! Not just, what is called the priesthood. We are witnesses to this deep change by the way we live and by what we preach! we are one body and we act as one in Christ! There is no clergy and laity!

It is obvious that some sins are worse than others, but all need forgiving. Paul distinctly makes that difference, but to all those that, by his ministry, came to know the Lord as their Saviour, and were baptised in water and with the Holy Spirit, he says: ‘But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.’ It is a done thing. When prince Charles was born, he knew nothing about who he was. He grew for few years before he started to realise who and what He was. He was born to be king, yet he lives as a prince and will do so until his mother, the Queen Elisabeth the Second, abdicates or dies. Then only will he be King, Charles the Third! So, Christians live what they are already, sons of God, but it is only when Jesus comes that they will inherit their full inheritance, and be like Jesus, in a new eternal body, for they shall see Him as He is!

But they are already washed, sanctified, justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.’ Therefore, Christians are not some angelic being descended from heaven, as some self- righteous persons would want us to believe! All men have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and their bodies bear the marks of the fall. Prone to even sins, they get sick, suffer pain they even pass away out of this life! into the presence of the Lord. But on the day of the resurrection, they will all enter into their own glorified body, and be with Christ, in God’s house forever!

The Scriptures teach that this infilling of the Holy Spirit is a special guarantee of something bigger! The apostle Paul writes: ‘But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ (uncertain – changeable) For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not ‘Yes’ and ‘No’, but in Him it has always been ‘Yes’. For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘YES’ in Christ. And so, through Him the ‘AMEN’ (so be it) is spoken by us to the glory of God.’ In other words, their message was not a series of ambiguous, uncertain statements. Sometimes positive at other time negative. You can be sure said Paul, that what we preached about Jesus Christ is not just ‘may-be - ifs, subject to changes, but it is positive, unchanging, forever. What God has promised, He has fulfilled, and He will do so to the very last promise, through Christ Jesus! I have known Christians that have sunk into deep distress brought by doubts. I know of one who said, years after he was saved, and said: ‘God cannot forgive what I have done’! And yet the Holy Spirit brought Him out of it into victory! All the time, I do not know how long he felt like that, in reality nothing changed for he was in a deep hole, but still saved, the truth of God did not change concerning him. He was not saved again after his great doubt, and trial, for God did it before he was born, and His word do not change!