If you are a Christian, it means that you’ve been forgiven of your past sins. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16), says that you are saved——forgiven. Think about that. “Their sins and iniquities will I remember against them no more” (Heb. 8:12). That means that when you complied with the conditions for salvation, every blight on your character, every mark on your soul, and everything you ever did that was wrong, is washed away in the blood of the Lamb. It’s as if all those bad thoughts, all those bad words, all those bad things you did never did exist. That’s wonderful! And hard to realize. When God forgives, He forgets.

If you are a Christian, it means that you are in fellowship with God.

“If we walk in the light, as he is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another.” Having contact with men of repute is a great honor. If you know some famous person, I will be impressed. But what about someone who knows God? Now, that’s special. “Hereby do we know that we know Him if we keep his commandments” (1 John 2:3). The Christian has a special relationship with God, the Father. He knows them that are His; and He is known of them. That, dear friends, is a blessed thought, one worthy of consistent and thankful consideration. True, it might be special to know some special person, but to know God is to know the Creator of the universe. How about that?

If you are a Christian, it means you have special assurances. You are assured that He hears when you pray (1 John 5:14). You are assured that He will provide a way of escape for every temptation with which you have to wrestle (1 Cor. 10:13). You are assured that He will ever be nearby when you need Him (Heb. 13:5). You are assured that He will walk with you when it is time for you to leave this world (Psa. 23:4). And these are only a few of our blessed assurances. Truly the Christian has so much for which to be thankful.

If you are a Christian, it means you have a hope to which to cling, no matter what life brings. “If in this life only we have hope in Christ Jesus, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Cor. 15:19). This life has little to offer regarding hope; but the Christian has a higher hope, “an anchor for the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth in to that within the veil…” (Heb. 6:19). That hope is “a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” and it is pertains to “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, reserved in heaven for you…” (1 Pet. 1:3-4). The Christian’s hope is his vital and unending connection to eternity. It sustains him in all matters and keeps him on course at all times. Oh, blessed thought!

And finally, if you’re a Christian, it means that you’re on your way to heaven. That means, just as the song says, “this world is not my home, I’m just a passing through.” The Christian is a sojourner, a pilgrim. He is just living here while he prepares to go to his real place of abode. He works here, he pays his taxes, but he looks heaven- ward, to his real home. “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (1 Pet. 2:9) is a warning against allowing the world of the flesh to dominate the real purpose for our existence——heaven. Heaven is our home. The local church is our home away from home, as close as we’ll get on time’s side of eternity. We’re on our way, folks; let’s not forget “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), for without Him we are lost and cannot get home.

Are you a Christian? If you’re a Christian all these things——and a hundred more——are yours. Stop and think about that. Thank God for the fact of it. By no means, let it slip away or be eroded by inactivity. Enjoy it. Live it. Love it. You are Christian.

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