The New Testament Definition of a Christian

1 John 5:1
“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone that loves Him that begat, loves Him also that is begotten of Him.”

“The action of God in making us Christians is not merely an external one. When God created the world, He did not impart Himself to it. He made it outside Himself. In the ‘new creation’ – the rebirth that makes us Christians – the New Testament teaching is that we do receive something of God’s own nature. We have been made ‘partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Peter 1:4).

We also recognize something in common with people who by nature and birth are different. So the Church is thus in itself a standing testimony of the doctrine of rebirth. In the church you have people of every conceivable temperament and psychological makeup. Yet, they are all one. They have been begotten of the same Father. They recognize this similarity and likeness, the common inheritance they share together.”