What is the Most Wonderful Part of Being a Christian for You?

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Ed Walsh

Puritan Board Senior
Greetings,

Tonight I asked this question to my wife. She said she would have to think about it. Then she asked me what I would say. I said that the answer was clear in my mind: there was no competition between all the Lord has done for me. This one thing is the very best of all. What do you think my answer was?

More importantly, what is your answer?

After several members give their answers, I will tell you what I said to my wife.
 
Mine?

The "liberty which Christ hath purchased for [me] ... consist[ing] in [my] freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, the curse of the moral law; and ... being delivered from this present evil world, bondage to Satan, and dominion of sin, from the evil of afflictions, the sting of death, the victory of the grave, and everlasting damnation; as also in [my] free access to God, and ... yielding obedience unto him, not out of slavish fear, but a child-like love and willing mind." (WCF 20.1)
 
One of mine would be complete innocence in every way. Though it's not a reality in this world, that's a deep deep longing of mine I eagerly await. I hate sin and guilt!
 
That I serve the King of kings, and Lord of lords, and no weapon formed against me shall prosper! And my King is infinitely good, and kind, and just, and gave Himself to free me from the darkness!


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Until recently I might have said it was the forgiveness of sins.

Maybe now I increasingly think it's the hope ahead of us. To dwell in the house of the Lord for ever, seeing him face to face.
 
Communion with the Triune God.

You stole my fire. I should've known you would do this. :)
But not to be outdone, I will embellish it just a bit.

After 45 years as a Christian learning about God, this wonderfully good God chose to allow me to know Him in the most profound sense of the word. I could say much much more, but I think I will simply say amen to what Alan said. "Communion with the Triune God."
 
For me, the most wonderful thing is knowing God chose me before the foundation of the world. That's really lovely.
I deserve condemnation, but He gave me life in Jesus Christ. What a gracious Father we have.
 
Adoption for me as well. My childhood was marked by abuse, and the same thing that meant so much to me at age 8 when I first heard the Gospel means the most to me still: Adoption into God's own family, with a Father who loves me infinitely, and a Big Brother who keeps me from harm (even to include self harm), and an unimaginable inheritance.
 
My answer probably changes. But for my current season: Belonging to the bride of Christ. I mean this both visibly (warts and all), as well as invisibly. Fellowship with fellow believers who are both young in Christ and older and wiser in Christ. Sharing my failures and successes (granted by the Lord) with one another along with the growth that comes in doing such activities.
 
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My life has been categorized by suffering in certain degrees (we all have this issue of course). I am comforted in knowing that Christ's work in His life, death, resurrection, and ascension has been accomplished and union with Him frees us from eternal suffering. Only for a time, and we shall be with our Lord.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
-Romans 5:1‭-‬5

I think of the Jonathan Edward's quote about believers and unbelievers: "the world is all the hell a Christian is to endure, and it is all the Heaven that an unbelievers shall ever enjoy." This comforts me dearly, and I pray you all the same.

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That Christ is mine and I am his.

"My beloved is mine, and I am his" (Song of Songs 2:16)
"His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem." (Song of Songs 5:16)
"Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ," (Philippians 3:8)
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
"Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory" (1 Peter 1:8)
 
The most wonderful part of being a Christian for me is that the otherwise unreachable and unfathomable love of the creator of the universe is given to me by the grace of the Lord Jesus, and knows no limits but those I place on it by my sin and meagerness of faith. Henry Scougal says it better than I could:

THE WORTH OF THE OBJECT
First, I say, love must needs be miserable, and full of trouble and disquietude, when there is not worth and excellency enough in the object to answer the vastness of its capacity. So eager and violent a passion cannot but fret and torment the spirit, when it finds not wherewith to satisfy its cravings; and, indeed, so large and unbounded in its nature, that it must be extremely pinched and straitened, when confined to any creature: nothing below an infinite good can afford it room to stretch itself, and exert its vigor and activity. What! is a little skin-deep beauty, or some small degrees of goodness, to match or satisfy a passion which was made for God: designed to embrace an infinite good? No wonder lovers do so hardly suffer any rival, and do not desire that others should approve their passions by imitating it; they know the scantiness and narrowness of the good which they love, that it cannot suffice two, being in effect too little for one. Hence love, “which is as strong as death;” occasions “jealousy which is as cruel as the grave,” the coals whereof are coals of fire, which hath a most violent flame.
But divine love hath no mixture of this gall. When once the soul is fixed on that supreme and all-sufficient good, it finds so much perfection and goodness, as doth not only answer and satisfy its affection, but master and overpower it too. It finds all its love to be too faint and languid for such a noble object, and is only sorry that it can command no more. It wishes for the flames of a seraph, and longs for the time when it shall be wholly melted and dissolved into love; and because it can do so little itself, it desires the assistance of the whole creation, that angels and men would conquer with it the admiration and love of those infinite perfections.
 
The most wonderful thing for me about being a Christian is first of all being SAVED!! When I didn't even KNOW I needed saving Praise God! And then the beautiful comforting presence of my Saviour and friend Jesus! 'What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! And then the WONDERFUL GIFT OF GODS PRECIOUS word, the Holy Bible to us! And the ILLUMINATION by the HOLY SPIRIT to understand Gods Word! The most valuable thing in the whole world' says the Archbishop as he hands it to the Queen of our Commonwealth during the Coronation ceremony. How absolutely wonderful is the Bible beyond compare of all things it is to read about our Heavenly Father and our precious Saviours Words of Life to us! The Words of Eternal Life! "All that thrills my soul is Jesus! He is more than Life to me!" These things are so precious to me because I was brought up a strict Roman Catholic ( kept out of scripture classes at the State School I went to for a few years), went to RC schools most of my life, then got caught up in the Hippie movement and an Eastern mystic cult for 13 yrs after that. Coming to Christ at nearly 30 years of age was really coming out of darkness into his Glorious LIGHT! How grateful I am to be living in a Protestant country that preaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Redeemed and released from generations of Catholicism! Hallelujah!
 
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The presentation of the Bible to Her Majesty during the Coronation Service. 'The most valuable thing this world affords'
 

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Well the Lord should have destroyed me years ago but, in His grace, He has relented. For that I am grateful. But I am most amazed at how we are granted access to God, to the thrice Holy God. That a wretch such as I have been brought near by the blood of the lamb. Worthy is He.
 
Meeting the qualifications in order to argue on the PuritanBoard of course! (jk, I truly love this place!)

Great question - it seems to change depending on life situation. Lately, the hope of glory and the benefits it entails helps me release my grip on this world and endure suffering and crushing disappointments. To think of experiencing God's final victory and the purity of the New Heavens and New Earth where we worship God in fullness of joy and happiness, the thrill of perfect fellowship with one another, and the removal of all evil and sadness becomes more precious to me as the years go on.
 
I should have a great, theologically rich answer to this. But my faith is not where it should be.

At present it is this: I find it comforting to be able to look around at the world and have an answer to basic questions like;

1. Why is the world like it is?
2. What motivates people?
3. Where is this all going?

I find comfort in having answers to questions such as these.
 
"That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, hath fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him."

"He lived for you and died for you, he will live with you and die with you." - William Gurnall
 
I’m deeply affected by the miraculous and divine acts of mercy Jesus bestowed upon the sick, lost, needy and afflicted throughout His ministry. I long for that.
 
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