Ephesians 1:5 says that we have been adopted into sonship with God through Jesus Christ. As we enter that sonship, we take on a new name: Christian. And we love to march around telling the world we are Christians and that we live with Christian principles and Christian morals and a Christian government and Christian families and on and on it goes.
But have you ever wondered what it means--really means--to call yourself a Christian?
To call yourself a Christian is to acknowledge that you have died to your own self and taken on a new name, the name of Christ. So what if, instead of calling ourselves Christians (an overused term which really has little by way of accurately labeling your belief system) we called ourselves CHRISTIAMS?*
ChristIAm
Think about it. Romans 8:11 says that "the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you", and if Christ is living in me and I bear his name and I have this same power living in me, then I can walk around claiming to have the same authority as Jesus had. Now I am not claiming to be an equal of Jesus, but rather stating that Jesus has given us the same Holy Spirit he had and we have this power living in us to do the same kinds of things he did. Ephesians 3:20 says that Christ is able to do immeasurably more than all we can imagine through the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us. So while it is borderline blasphemy to call oneself a ChristIAm, I think it certainly carries the more appropriate gravitas.
If more Christians walked around with the understanding that they have died to themselves to let Christ live inside them, the world would be a much different place.
*I'll sell T-shirts.
Supposing you walk around with one of these shirts on:
CHR
IST
IAM
or something cool like that, then you would probably get a comment or two like: "Hey, your shirt has a typo on it," to which you could reply that no, it isn't about labeling myself with a set of religious beliefs but rather about a lifestyle change.
I'm tired of being a Christian. I want to be a Christiam
But have you ever wondered what it means--really means--to call yourself a Christian?
To call yourself a Christian is to acknowledge that you have died to your own self and taken on a new name, the name of Christ. So what if, instead of calling ourselves Christians (an overused term which really has little by way of accurately labeling your belief system) we called ourselves CHRISTIAMS?*
ChristIAm
Think about it. Romans 8:11 says that "the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you", and if Christ is living in me and I bear his name and I have this same power living in me, then I can walk around claiming to have the same authority as Jesus had. Now I am not claiming to be an equal of Jesus, but rather stating that Jesus has given us the same Holy Spirit he had and we have this power living in us to do the same kinds of things he did. Ephesians 3:20 says that Christ is able to do immeasurably more than all we can imagine through the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us. So while it is borderline blasphemy to call oneself a ChristIAm, I think it certainly carries the more appropriate gravitas.
If more Christians walked around with the understanding that they have died to themselves to let Christ live inside them, the world would be a much different place.
*I'll sell T-shirts.
Supposing you walk around with one of these shirts on:
CHR
IST
IAM
or something cool like that, then you would probably get a comment or two like: "Hey, your shirt has a typo on it," to which you could reply that no, it isn't about labeling myself with a set of religious beliefs but rather about a lifestyle change.
I'm tired of being a Christian. I want to be a Christiam
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