Jan 19 2009
How Do I Know I Am Saved?
Many today wonder, “Am I saved?” We Evangelicals are prone to answering them with Bible verses. We tell them, “John 6:47 says that the one who believe has eternal life. Do you believe? They you have eternal life.” Or we tell them, “1 John 5:13 says these things were written to those who believe in the name of Jesus so that they’ll know that they have eternal life? Do you believe in Jesus? Then you know that you have eternal life.”
It’s not that simple. Have you ever read “these things” that John was referring to? The rest of 1 John says things like “the one who says that he knows him but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him” and “he who continues sinning is of the devil.”
There are clues to knowing we are saved in the word “saved” itself. How does a drowning man know he’s been saved? It’s very simple; he’s out of the water and breathing.
What do we need to be saved from? It’s more than hell. Paul wrote, “Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death!” He wrote that in Romans 7 after describing the problem of sin in our bodies. We want to do what is right and good, but we end up doing what is wrong and bad. It is this problem Paul cries out to be saved from. If Jesus Christ can deliver us from that problem, then being saved from hell will take care of itself. As Paul writes in Romans 8, “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, then you will live.” Or, back in Romans 2, “God . . . will repay every man according to his deeds. To those who seek glory, honor, and immortality by patiently continuing to do good, [he will repay] eternal life.”
Too many Christians understimate—or, worse, don’t know—the power of the Gospel. As a result, we have created fancy, theological excuses for our lack of power. We call righteousness “right standing with God,” and we say that when God looks at us he sees the righteousness of Christ. The apostle John cuts right through those excuses as though he knew two thousand years in advance that we would be giving them: “Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous just as he is righteous; the one who continues sinning is of the devil” (1 Jn. 3:7-8).
According to Paul, sin will not have power over us if we are under grace (Rom. 6:14). Let us not redefine grace or claim we are going to heaven without it. Rather than using theological arguments to claim we have a grace which produces no change, no evidence, and no power, let us repent and obtain the true grace that brings salvation. According to Paul, when it appears it will, on its own, teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age, and it will produce a people zealous for good works (Tit. 2:11-14).
Let us cry out to God for it. In the next post, I will show exactly what’s missing from our Gospel that prevents this from happening.
I agree, I think. I think you are saying, as Christians, we tend to overlook our sin, to take it lightly, to not even realize our lifestyle, our decisions, our choices, reveal whether we are saved or not.
The Christian life is a battle. If we are not in a battle, we have never entered the war. In other words, ‘faith without works is dead’. But, more of the passage you were quoting in Romans 6 clarifies the sin which remains.
“For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body. . .and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (vs 10 - 14)
In other words, I agree, a Christian cannot, must not, serve sin. Sin’s power over the Christian was crucified on the Cross. However, to say we have no sin - to say we are not fighting against sin - is to swing the pendalum too far in the other direction.
Thanks for the challenging thoughts!