The Elements of Being a Christian

1. The word God designates fundamentally the almighty Spirit who is worshiped and whose aid is invoked by men. Religion is, shortly, the reaction of the human soul in the presence of God.

2. Regeneration (being born again) is effected by the living, quickening word of God (the Bible) and the Holy Spirit.

3. Faith is belief in the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is God/man, who fulfilled the law and paid the price of death for the sin of Adam and all born from Adam. This faith is a threshold crossing from being under the federal head of Adam (King Adam, which became, in effect, the Kingdom of Satan) to being under the federal head of Jesus Christ (King Jesus). From darkness to light, from the bonds and curse of the law to the liberty of the law of Christ in the Kingdom of God.

4. There is a fourfold Kingdom of God mentioned in Scripture:

(1) The kingdom of his power, which reaches over all the world. The subjects of this kingdom are all creatures whatsoever. 'His kingdom ruleth over all.' It reaches from the highest angel to the meanest worm that creeps on the earth. It is a vast dominion, comprehending earth, seas, and hell, and all that in them is.

(2) The kingdom of his gospel. This is not so large as the former. It is erected within it, but comprehends the whole visible church, in which God has set up the light of the gospel and Christ's name is known, and men profess subjection to him. 

(3) The kingdom of his grace. This is yet narrower than any of the former, and comprehends only the invisible church; for it is not an external, but an internal kingdom, in which grace, saving grace, reigns in the hearts of those who belong to it; for, says Christ to his disciples, 'behold the kingdom of God is within you.' The subjects of it are believers, true saints, and they only; and they commence subjects of this kingdom in the day of Christ's power on their hearts. This kingdom consists not in outward observances, but inward graces, whereby the soul is conformed to the image of Christ.

(4) The kingdom of his glory. This is the blessed state of eternal happiness in the other world. This kingdom is now a-gathering, but shall fully come at the second coming of Christ.

The above is the cosmos that the Christian lives within.

5. The Christian, in his journey from this world to the world to come, on this spiritual battlefield, is to be awake, and love his enemy. Or, conscious labor, intentional suffering; emulating Jesus. Prayer and gratitude over resentment for everything all the time, also, is the royal state of a Christian, who is a prophet, priest, and king.

6. The word of God will be read complete until parts in relation to the whole understanding of it is attained, understanding law and gospel and the covenants of works and grace.

7. Keeping the eye on the unseen things of God and away from the temptations and illusion of this world.