The Essentials of Christian Living

Preface
Dear brothers and sisters, I greet you all in the name of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. I am nobody before the Lord and you, to teach about the topic of
Christian living, as I myself am a Christian like you, called to the Glorious calling
of being His follower, being continuously saved through the works of His Spirit
in me, who oftentimes reminds me of the work that The Son of God did for me
on the cross of Calvary.
It is only by the grace of God, I am called to this calling of making observations
from the inspired Word of God in this book and to provide a certain insight to
the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I hope that through this book, His name might be greatly Glorified and Magnified
and many of you might clearly understand the calling to which He has called all
of us into. The calling of being followers of Jesus Christ and that we might walk
in the calling in which He has called us into. God willing, this we will do. God
bless you!
Introduction
“The world is not looking for a new definition of Christianity, it is looking for a
new demonstration of Christianity” – Leonard Ravenhill
We are living in an age where the meaning of the word Christian is most
distorted. Most have lost the meaning of what it is to be a Christian. I recently
had a conversation with a man in his 30’s, he defined the word Christian as
follows, “There are two types of Christians – The Catholics and the Protestants.
The Catholics worship Mary, Jesus, saints and is under the Pope and the
Protestants worship the cross that is inside every Church”.
Sad that it might be, it is the truth that the world has lost the meaning of who a
Christian is because of our conduct as Christians. The world lost the meaning,
because we aren’t demonstrating Christ to the world, rather we are becoming
as the world is and at times far worse.
When we ask a person from the Church today, what it means to be saved, most
will reply “so and so preached and I believed, and I was saved.”. Saved? Saved
from what? Saved from bitterness, impatience, rebellion against parents,
adultery at heart? What are we saved from? Why did The Lord come down to
earth in the form of a man and die for you and was raised up again on the third
day? Is it because that we can confess that He is Lord and live a life of rebellion
against God, that we had always lived? Or is it because we are called to live a life
of humility before our Lord and let Him work the work of Salvation in us?
2 Chronicles 7:14 – “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble
themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then
will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
God is merciful. He requires only one thing from us. Humility. Shall we therefore
learn how to humble before God and walk in the Glorious calling that He has
called us into so that by Grace we will be saved through faith (and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God: - Ephesians 2:8-9).

There are essentials to the Christian living that are to be present to live a Christ
like life and testify about Christ to others successfully.
Unfortunately, a lot of believers do not understand the fundamental principles
of the Christian faith. This leads to ambiguity in fundamental doctrines and a
frustrated Christian life. The author of the book, Hebrews describes the
principles of the doctrine of Christ as follows.
Hebrews 6:1-2 - Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us
go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from
dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying
on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
We will be dealing with 6 parts in this book, which is intended to be a manual
for all believers in Jesus Christ, to understand the fundamentals of our faith
and to walk in it. These parts are as follows: -

1) Repentance from dead works

2) Faith toward God
3) Doctrine of Baptisms
4) Laying on of hands
5) Resurrection of the dead
6) Eternal Judgement
Lets make this journey together in understanding the fundamental values which
makes a Christian. Before going deep dive into these doctrines we need to
understand that Salvation is the work of God. What is written is just a small part
of what the Bible says in helping us to understand the requirements of God. It is
not a manual for Salvation, but a manual for people to understand ourselves and
God in the right sense, so that we can pray right before God.

Part 1 - Repentance from dead works

Repentance is the expression of a sinful man who agrees with The Holy God to
establish and sustain a Holy relationship, through God’s work in Him. The terms
of this agreement are laid down by God in His inspired Word of God. All I will be
doing is to provide the terms in which He expects repentance to be done. The
following are the overview of the terms that God had laid for us, that we are
going to discuss in this chapter.
a) Repentance is done by first understanding that we are wrong, and that God
is right.
b) Then we understand what God had done for us through His Love and
faithfulness in Jesus Christ.
c) There are also requirements for repentance according to the Scriptures. Most
people do not repent according to the Scriptures and hence face major issues in
witnessing the Salvation of God in our lives, because we do not repent according
to His terms.
d) The fruit of genuine repentance will be discussed as the final chapter of this
part.
Let’s proceed in understanding repentance and God willing let our hearts be
changed at the end of reading this chapter and let us repent right, according to
what the inspired Word of God has laid for us.
Chapter 1 - Issues of the heart
Proverbs 4:23 – “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of
life.”
The meaning of the word repentance in Greek is “think differently”. Why should
we think different? When everything is right, there is no need to think different.
When there is an issue where we have no other empirical and coherent solution,
we are pushed into a need of thinking different so that we can have a solution
to our current problems.
Every human has his / her own problems, the question is whether we
understand our fundamental issues of our heart in the first place which gives
rise to the major problems that we see in our day to day lives.
All problems in life is attributed to these fundamental issues of our heart. What
are these fundamental issues? These issues are of pride, lack of self-control, lust
etc. How does it manifest? It manifests as forms ranging from as simple as
competition to prove who is greater in school or checking out a girl with an
intention to be promiscuous with her, to being as hideous as, being a dictator or
cheating on one’s wife.
Romans 3:10 – “As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one:”
The one thing common about all humans is that we are not good people. There
is a moral wreck that has taken place inside of us and it is not getting any better.
Now, many might ask this question that, is the Bible saying that everyone is bad,
even the one who is doing great social works or the ones who are doing
benevolent acts? The answer is yes. Everyone in their own eyes are right, but
God searches the heart of men. The intention of a good work is more important
to God than the good work itself, by this standard, we are all proved guilty.
Jeremiah 17:9 – “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:
who can know it?”
Such is the commonality of the wickedness in the human’s heart and the
deception that it generates. No man’s heart possesses the knowledge of the
perfect moral Law, and adding to the issues, everyone thinks in his / her heart
that he / she is right, defining his / her own moral law. We all have set for
ourselves, a moral law to govern our lives, floating in the deception that what
law we hold to ourselves is perfect and there is no other law is which more
perfect than it.
Proverbs 21:2 – “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD
pondereth the hearts.”
Take for example Eve. She thought that the fruit was looking good and she that
it can make her as God, knowing good and evil. This was right in her eyes, but
not in the eyes of God. The LORD saw her heart and only found disobedience in
it. We set our laws and standards, but it is The Lord who ponders into our hearts.
Now, there is much darkness present in understanding what is right and what is
wrong for we do not have an absolute point of reference of what is right and
what is wrong. Praise be to The Father God, for there is much light given to this
world of much darkness through His Son and The Holy Spirit.
How to pray:-
How can we pray to a Holy God with a wicked heart unless we confess our
wickedness and forsake it?
1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Let us go before God and start practicing the teaching that we have understood
that we might learn to seek The Lord with all our heart.
Points to remember when you pray:-
1. Isaiah 1:18 – “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD:
though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” We do not initiate our act of
us asking for redemption from God. It’s God who is the author and finisher
of our faith. It’s He who had called you according to His own good
pleasure, so that you might be hear and you might be believe. Hebrews
12:2 – “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith..”.
2. John 6:44 – “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws
him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” Look back at your journey
and consider for a moment and see God drawing you towards Jesus. It’s
not an accident that you have come seeking for Him. It’s He who calls and
He who draws us.
3. “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to
forgive sins”. The one who has called, has the power to forgive your sins.
That’s why He has called you and drew you to Him, that He might forgive
you.
4. John 6:37 – “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one
who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”. When you ask for
forgiveness to Jesus, you should know that He will not reject you. It’s a
promise from Him. You sin is not bigger than Jesus.
5. John 3:21 – “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his
deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”. We should
pour out our hearts knowing that God is not man that He can be fooled,
but He knows our hearts, even before we pour it to Him and He expects
 plain confession and nothing else. When we do that we know that our
deeds are manifested to be made in Truth (God).
6. 1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” When we confess
our sins, God forgives.
7. Isaiah 23:25 – “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions
for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.”. He wipes out your
transgressions not because your were good, but because you confessed
that you are a sinner and your heart is in sin.
8.
9. Go before the Lord and speak everything that you are and whatever is in
your heart. Do not withhold, surrender it all to Him.
The key to your deliverance is establishing an honest relationship with
God.
10.Do not hide the hurts that you had. Tell it alongside with the hurts that
you did to others.
11.Ask for forgiveness to God.
Chapter 2 – Holiness of God
Man and his fall - God’s Holy Creation and the devil’s distortion
Pslam 22:3 – “Yet You are holy, O You who are enthroned upon the praises of
Israel.”
“When we understand the character of God, when we grasp something of His
Holiness, then we begin to understand the radical character of our sin and
hopelessness.” – RC Sproul
In the previous chapter we saw the heart of man and who he is. Now we are
going to see, who God is and how Holy he is. A greater conception of The
Holiness of God ultimately leads into a radical change in our lives. The Holiness
of God is to be the most emphasised aspect of God in our Christian lives, the
knowledge of which is a pre-requisite, every time we repent.
In the ages of old, when men were in darkness with no light present amongst
them, God called Moses to give the Law to the Israelites. The law of God, shined
as a light amongst a dark nation. He gave the moral Law to showcase to all sinful
people, how holy did God make man as and how wicked their hearts was.
Man was indeed originally made Holy. That is why it is said that God made man
in His own image and likeness. However, the fall was so great that, today when
we see the commandments, we understand that we resemble a distorted
shadow of who man was made to be originally.
This distortion happened from the point man and woman ate from the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil. That is when we started to have our own law
and started to define our own standards of good and evil.
When men say that, any man can have their own standards of good and evil and
that there is no absolute standard of good and evil. Any random person can then
say that he is going to drink poison, because he thinks that, it is good for his
health. Now, what you say about that person? We can safely say that his body
is going to be affected because of the laws of the body that we understand
through biology.
Now, as there is a law that governs this physical world, there is a law that also
governs the heart of a man. When we do not live by that law, we are bound to
face damages in our lives. That is why in the Bible it is mentioned that, the wages
of sin is death.
Now, the Law of God is written in our conscience, that is why, though wicked we
do have a sense of what is right and what is wrong.
Romans 2:15 – “in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts,
their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else
defending them,”
However, our conscience is seared with hot iron, having heard and believed the
lies of the devil through the world from a very young age. We now have many
opinions that has silenced the conscience and made it weak. It is very critical to
know that we had led an ungodly life for years together before we got saved,
giving heed to the doctrines of devils and searing of conscience with hot iron.
1 Timothy 4:2 – “Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with
a hot iron;”
Thanks to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that we are in the process of being
saved. We now understansd that we have partial Truth today through our
conscience. Therefore, the Lord had provided us with the Law through Moses,
so that we might understand what we have lost through losing the sensitivity of
the conscience.
Now there are two types of Law, one is the sacrificial and the other is the moral
Law. The sacrificial Law was a shadow of what The Son of God did on the cross
of Calvary. Hence the same was already fulfilled. The moral Law however is even
applicable today. This is the Law that was originally kept by God in man’s /
woman’s conscience before the fall.
When Jesus had come, He placed the Law at a much higher level than what
Moses had kept it. Moses kept the Law on the level of doing. Jesus, however
raised the bar and focused his teaching on the intent, saying that our hearts
need to be perfect in the sight of God. If any thought in our heart is contrary to
the intent of the Law, then we had already broken the law.
For example, the Law from Moses had it in it that “You shall not commit
adultery”. Jesus however said that “if a man looks at a woman to lust after her,
he has already committed adultery”. The perfection of our heart that God is
expecting of us, is kept on a much higher level than what is present in the Law
of Moses and that growing perfection of our heart is the evidence of our
Salvation, that God performs within us after we genuinely repent of our sins.
The end of the moral Law is that people might know the Truth, who is the only
begotten Son of God. Knowing God means knowing His heart and what He thinks
about specific matters which concern you and me. This is the relationship that
God expects of us with Him, to know His heart and obey His will. Therefore, The
Law is good and is to be obeyed.
The Creator’s Holiness
Fear of The Lord
Genesis 20:11, Deutronomy 11:25, Deutronomy 14:23, Ecc 12:13, Deutronomy
31:6,
We understood that the law was meant to reflect how a perfect man should be.
The holiness in which the man was made, depicted in what Jesus explains, is just
too steep for any human to keep. If we are just an image of God and the standard
of Holiness is so high, how much more Holy is our creator!
The Bible says that the “wrath of God” is upon all men who have not believed in
The Son of God. Yes, when we do not believe in The Son of God, God is very
angry, and we already are condemned.
God is a righteous judge. He judges people. Never for a moment think in your
life that you can do what you want in life and can get away with it. God judge’s
peoples heart and actions. He watches everything that is and one day you would
need to give account for everything that you ever did.
This is exactly how God’s court will be. God is the judge; you and I are the
accused and we stand before Him guilty. Satan who is the adversary, accuses us
day and night. We do not have an advocate in this court except for Jesus Christ,
who died for the sins of the world. Therefore, those who do not put their trust
in our only advocate, are already condemned.
No man has seen the face of God (except our Lord God Jesus Christ) because
God is Holy and an unholy man will die when He sees the face of God. Such is
the level of Holiness of God.
Chapter 3 - God’s Love and Faithfulness
Now, knowing that The Commandments of our Lord is towards perfection of our
heart and that we know that our hearts are not perfect, how is it that our hearts
can be transformed? God, knowing that in and by ourselves, we cannot
transform ourselves, and hence He gave His Son Jesus Christ on the cross, so
that the sinful condition of our heart might be transformed into moral
perfection.

Knowing God and Glorifying Him is the sole purpose of our lives.

1) God grants repentance

2) The reason why He grants repentance is that we might know the Truth
3) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to
the Father except through Me.
4) John 8:32 – “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free.”
5) True statements always lead to the Truth.
6) John 3:20 – “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not
come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”
2 Corinthians 7:8-10 – “For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not
regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you
sorry, though only for a while. Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but
that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner,
that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces
repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the
world produces death.”
Luke 3:8 – “Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to
say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That
God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”

The fruit of repentance is salvation. Salvation can only be brought out when we
stand in front of God and confess as to who we are.