What is a Christian?

Many of you who read this ( at the moment I am talking to myself as it is my first post :( ) will have some views on what a christian is, you may be a christian or you may just be minding your own business and stumble across this post *waves*. Wherever you are standing on this question I really want to explain what I think it is to be a Christian, and what the bible says about it. 

I recently watched a very American video on youtube which posed the question 'what is a christian?'. The answers were exactly what was expected- 'a good person' and 'someone who believes in God'. 

The first answer 'a good person' is exactly what a Christian isn't. Romans 3:23- ' for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,' and 'Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins'-Ecclesiastes 7:20.  (Sin is an archery term which means to miss the mark). God has standards that none of us can ever meet, we are born sinful as we are human and we constantly sin. The bad news is that 'the wages of sin is death'- Romans 6:23, oh man! That is the worst news we could possibly hear, we can't change, we can try to be 'good' but we will always fall short of God's standards.

However the verse 'the wages of sin is death' continues......'but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord'. There is gloriously good news, amazing, life saving, mind blowing news. Jesus took all our sin and shame on the cross of Calvary, died the death that we all deserved and rose again on the third day! A free gift, mercy and grace and undeserved love poured abundantly on us.

Receiving the free gift of salvation doesn't involve religious ceremonies or being good, only-  '...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.' - Romans 10:9. That's it! Your salvation doesn't depend on you being good :) wooooooooooooooooooooooooo, thank goodness for that! 

Salvation is free and is a gift from God! How good is that :)   But to be a christian isn't all laughter and happiness- although it often is. To be a disciple of Jesus is to lay down the things that are wrong, sometimes suffer for Christ, be hated, be persecuted. It isn't always easy.  (I don't want to mislead anyone so I'll just tell it how it is).  Salvation cost us nothing, discipleship costs everything. 

So a Christian isn't a good person, a Christian is someone who has been saved by grace because they weren't good enough! 

Hope this helps :) welcome any comments