And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (2 Corinthians 5:15)
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)
If you ceased from being a Christian today . . . if you made the decision to not follow the Lord Jesus any longer right now . . . HOW would your life begin to be different? Specifically, what things would you begin doing that you don’t do? What things would you stop doing that you regularly do? How would your dress, your speech, your lifestyle be any different?
Hungry For More . . .
I would be a drug dealer in Guyana/ or into some sort of bad business with lots of women and many kids. Possibly dead by now…
I had no life before Christ. He is my reality,the meaning of all life and my ever present friend and Savior. He gave me my husband Paul and all my fellow travelers on this earth who make life worthwhile. You see there is nothing without Him for it is not I who live but Christ in me the hope of glory. Thank you bro.Frank for this blog
Sis Joy
I would kill myself as I would nolonger have a pupose to live
Hi there – yes, I probably shouldn’t have intruded, sorry! I have lots of Christian friends and one of them mentioned this page in a Tweet, I think, and since I’d been through this, the title interested me.
So I started to read some of the comments above, and my first thought was that it wasn’t nearly as bad as all that for me!
But to answer the question, I don’t think my lifestyle changed noticeably, other than the fact that I saved a lot of time by not going to church, home groups etc, or praying!
I miss some of the social aspects of my Christian life – it’s a wonderful thing to find yourself in an unknown town and be able to find friends immediately at the local church, for example – but as I started to think that God was really rather unlikely, I expected that I’d really worry about life not having meaning, about having no basis for morality, and so forth – some of the issues people worry about above. But for me that certainly wasn’t a problem.
I now feel, for example, that for my life to have meaning, *I* need to give it some. I need to work out why your presence here on earth is going to be a benefit to anybody. And I find that *much* more challenging than assuming it is automatically endowed with meaning from above. I think and hope it makes me *more* attentive to how I interact with others, to charitable giving, etc
Still, I’m getting away from the original topic, but to answer the question, (a) my lifestyle changed much less than I expected, and (b) despite my being very happy in my Christian life before, leaving it behind it was, for me, a positive, and not a negative experience.
Which may or may not be a comforting thing, depending on your point of view!
OK – that’s quite enough rambling from me! Sorry to insert a contrary viewpoint!
Quentin. No prob. You are welcome here. thanks for sharing a bit of your story with us.
I’m not sure my life would actually be that much different – because the thing is, that Christ changes you, so that you are no longer who you used to be. …
Case in point, there was a particularly sinful thing I really “wanted” to do a little while ago, and I was complaining to the Lord that I couldn’t do this thing. And the Lord replied to me, “If you want to, go do it.” I was so surprised…and then, through the lens of that permission, I thought about going to do that sinful thing, and realized that I actually DIDN’T want to do that thing – considering the ramifications that that action would have, and I just looked towards the Lord being completely indignant and was like, “No fair! You’ve changed me on the inside and now even though you aren’t commanding me not to do that thing, I can’t bring myself to do it anyway!!”
So, I’m not sure that if I suddenly ceased to be a lover of Jesus that my behaviors would be all that much different…BUT…things that would be different would be that I would shrivel up and die inside. The source of my hope, wisdom, love, destiny, and desire would all be gone…. I would die from the inside out….and I would begin to make a lot of really stupid – not necessarily sinful, but just really badly thought out decisions without His direction and guidance. Not to mention having no power to bring any change to the people around me.
First two thoughts here at the end of Sabbath… I’d have a quiet, empty house because I’d throw out all the believers who hang out all the time and make a lot of noise about Him. I’d end up in jail for taking revenge on all the donkeys God used to get my attention to get me out of the institutional churches.
I can answer that one.
When I stopped being a Christian, after twenty-something years of being a very dedicated one, all of a sudden the world started to make sense.
And that was something I could never have imagined before…
Hi Quentin, that really wasn’t the question, however, since you stopped by the blog to comment, I have 2 questions for you as follow-ups to what you wrote:
1. how did you come across this blog? (It’s a Christian blog so I’m just curious.)
2. I’d like to see your answer to the original question, but in your case, it would be “what kinds of things did you begin to do that you didn’t do when you were following Christ? what things did you stop doing that you were doing when you followed Him? how did your lifestyle change basically?
I’d pursue Zen Buddhism…or Wicca….and would find meaning in other spiritual paths. I would not abandon my moral code or become hopeless. Life to me is profoundly meaningful simply because it’s life. Life with Christ is profoundly enriched and that meaning given a story framework.
But no, I wouldn’t slide down a slippery slope into emptiness or depravity. Many of my agnostic friends are content and upright people who are hopeful that there is a benevolent Creator on the Other Side. I like their attitude, hopefulness.
Great question…and what about you Brother? How do you answer this?
…just trying to imagine life w/o Christ is challenging…I don’t know how to…I guess maybe have to let go of eternity first, and I don’t know how that would evolve my character…I know I’d probably start living more for myself and less for others, but that’s not set in stone…I’m already aware of many of my world urges, so I hope to fend them off, but I could always own them and run with it…without that perspective of reality, I’d probably feel more like I’m in a game…I’d be more liberal in using the up up, down down, left right, left right cheats in my life for my Self…good question, the more I tried to think of the changes, the tighter the grip my mind had on our reality in Christ…
I think that you should keep putting up questions like this every week. I posted a longer response than the comment box would allow on my blog site.
Thanks for putting it out there for discussion.
Thanks to everyone for sharing their thoughts on this topic.
The greatest and deepest need of my heart is to know that I am loved unconditionally. I wake up every day sensing this need, and every day the Lord completely satisfies my need by loving me unconditionally. From the overflow of His unconditional love (completely satisfying my deepest need) comes my love for Him and others.
If He were not real and I were on my own again, my personality type would cause me to again try to control my environment and the people around me so I would feel safe.
I agree, Kathy…I just can’t even wrap my mind around the thought..it’s like it’s inconceivable.
..the very first breathe of life was breathed into ADAM, and I believe we are still on that same breath of God.
I now understand why/how this question could be used as a self-reflecting question~but if you are dead…there is no “self” to reflect. I don’t want to say this is a pointless question, but I believe it is one that doesn’t even need to be pondered by those who live in Christ. The HOly Spirit is making sure you reflect what is to be reflected..and that is Christ (the person) and resting your whole personality in Him….if you are doing that, you’re good to go! No self-reflecting is needed, but Christ-reflecting is a neccessity.
..just my 2-cents..
What Life? I could no longer breathe. What would be the point if I am dead? To live is Christ, period. Hopefully, Christ could use me in some facet of His purpose, for all things work into His purpose. He uses the dark also. What a grim notion! I cannot truly conceive this thought; I cannot clearly comprehend it.
I suppose my entire view of everything would be only of flesh. My every thought would be of “I” instead of We or Us. This leaves me a rather awkward state of mind. My life does not exist, only Christ. All that I see, think, feel, speak centers on Christ, though of course, I fall short. Perhaps I am not incapable of fathoming this question. I must say, this question helped me to focus on how empty we would be if not for our indwelling Christ!
If I do not follow Christ anymore, I’d lose the meaning to all things again. My strength to overcome will vanish. Heart will slowly grow cold again and self-centeredness will will raised to 100th power.
My wife and I would stop commuting 1.5 hours one way, just to get to the church meeting.
I know this comment will be deleted, so I don’t really know why I’m writing at all, but I fail to see why this is “a penetrating and searching question that every believer should ask themselves”. What relevance does this question hold for ANY believer in Jesus Christ? This smacks of the “what if” questions you get in psychology class, and have no place in the Kingdom of God.
Chuck, for one thing, the question shows each of us what we have laid down for the Lord Jesus Christ (harkening back to His words on “losing your life for my sake.”) And it’s also somewhat of a reflective internal “checking one’s vital signs” on one’s transformation, which isn’t a bad thing to do from time to time. By the way, I’m surprised people are responding. I didn’t expect or even request a response. While it’s fine that folks are responding, the question is designed as a spiritual reflection before the Lord exercise. It’s hardly a “what if” question. Hope that helps.
Oh, your comment wasn’t deleted by the blog manager 😉
The thought of that makes my stomach hurt. I can’t do that. No way can I live without Him. Why would I want to? If the atheists were right, what would be the point? More years, pain, tears, some happiness, but all of it empty? I couldn’t/wouldn’t live like that. No good that I did would be good, for there would be no good. Anyone you helped would eventually die and be no more, so what good would you have done them?
Nope. No Jesus? No way!!
I must admit that when i read the comment by the weary pilgrim it resonated within me. I was thinking that my life would probably not change that much if i were not a christian. I have allowed others to stand on my heart and then say “oh that’s ok your welcome.” When instead i should have said, that heart belongs to God and He has made it clean and new even though it does not always show that. It still matters and if God puts something in or on your heart that it is important to hear it and head it. No matter how hard or way out it may seem
I am a Christian but if I was not I am not really sure how much would change about me. I do believe that we get right from wrong from God. I know this will go against the grain but I think there are good atheist out there. Good enough to save themselves? No because nobody is.
If I didn’t have Jesus I would keep going on with my life as is, except for living overseas as a missionary. I would probably get a “normal” job here in the States and try to earn a lot of money. I would still uphold the law, I wouldn’t get drunk or beat my wife or anything like that.
I believe there are a lot of misconceptions about people who don’t have Jesus. Some of the best citizens are those who are not Christian. Some of the worst may be those who say they are Christian.
Just for clarity, none of us are good enough because if we were we would not need Jesus. Being a Christian still does not make us good enough because if it did we would not need Jesus.
Thinking about this question makes me realize that I haven’t been transformed and renewed as much as I should. Most people I come into contact with on a daily basis probably wouldn’t notice the change. I realize I haven’t make Jesus Lord of my life as much as I should have. Thanks for the reminder.
As painful as it is to say, I really wonder if there would be much difference at all.
I was once really “on fire” for Jesus. But years of ministry, Christian subculture, the demands of other believers, legalism, and life have kind of beat me down. I yearn to know the life of Christ that Frank talks about. I want HIM! However, many days it seems very elusive for me.
This is may not make much sense, but I really love Jesus (at least I think I do). I guess this is why this hurts so much.
I would give no regard to other people. I would be angry and very bitter. There would be no ounce of forgiveness within me at all.
As a Christian, I try to compare things that upset me or situations that seem unfair to The Cross. I think that if Christ died for me when I didn’t deserve it then surely I can find it within my heart to forgive (insert name) for (insert bad situation). Everything shrinks in comparison to the sacrifice that He made for me.
But without The Cross, there is no measure of forgiveness.
Without that hope, there is….no hope.
I’m sure that at some point I would falsely see myself as a “good” person, not needing anything or anyone.
I think I need clarification before I answer. I’m also becoming an Atheist or am I just becoming a deist? I think that will affect my answer.
Hmm…if I ceased from being a Christian today–kinda like an “undo” of being born-again? I’d be like Adam and Eve in the garden when they lost their relationship to God and handed their authority over to Satan. I’d return to a shame-based, fearful existence. I’d have traded His Zoe life–the God-kind of life–for death; peace for turmoil; joy for misery.
I’d be in the world without hope or purpose–living a totally, self-absorbed, self-centered lifestyle.
I’d be on my own–left to my own understanding…my own strength. And man, is that ever scary!
I’d be following the passions of my flesh into every wicked, destructive, evil practice.
I’d be harsh, unforgiving, judgmental, critical, impatient, greedy, lustful, unloving, unkind, and utterly destitute of anything good.
No thank you. Been there; done that. The pig-pen is NO place to live!
My worst day WITH Jesus is far over and above my best day ever was without Him!
As a Christian I am learning that my ‘ego’.. my ‘self life’… that thing that separates me from God has to die and I have to allow Him to live His Life in me and through me.. which seems to be directly related to how much I can let go of and die to this world and self….. As a non-Christian, it’s all about “me” and my agendas and my ideas and my opinions… those things I’m trying to let go of as a Christian. As a non-Christian I would be on the ‘throne’ again and life would be about pleasing me and promoting me. The kingdom of the world (which is external) vs. the Kingdom of God (which is IN us… where we fellowship with Him ). I’m sure my external expressions would become more worldly for out of the heart a man speaks.. if it’s “self” it’s about me.. if it’s Christ, it’s about Him.
but you know, Frank… our lives were terminated with Hiim on the cross and we are now risen with Him and seated in the other realm where He is.
We just gotta learn to live there.. and not here. We’re in this world, but now we’re not of this world… we’re a new species, one in Him.
Hard to imagine, Frank, really. Having been a Chrsitian for many years and enjoyed every minute of it (really! Good and bad times) I have no idea….especially if you work into the equation the withdrawl of the Holy Spirit…sounds horrifying!
If I ceased to be a Christian, I believe I would begin a downward spiral of alcohol and drug abuse, I’d leave my husband and search for cheap thrills in the arms of others, I’d become as self-centred as I was BEFORE I became a Christian. I’d never read the Bible. I would begin the desperate search for myself in pursuits, people, and pleasures, and yet never find myself there.
I don’t want to go there again! It was awful! It was lonely! It was meaningless!
If you mean “ceasing to be a Christian” is to remove the presence of God from your being and to no longer know Him….to be honest, I don’t think I know how to do that. Every fabric of my being is wrapped in Him, so to remove Him would leave me undone I suppose.
I guess if it were earlier in my walk (when I was following religious duties to modify my behavior) I might have a different answer.
Can I ask…why does every believer need to ask that question of themselves?
p.s. I have been reading your book “From Eternity to Here” and I must say, I was unexpectantly catapulted and awakened! My jaw dropped as I read this riveting material and thought to myself “why of course! that’s it! That’s what it’s all about!” It is so deep, I have been having some of the wildest dreams in my sleep since I have been reading it! So rich and meaty!! Thanks Frank!