Read the article and/or go to the bottom and watch the video
The first question is not: How can I be sure of my salvation? Your first question needs to be: Am I saved? What does it mean to be saved? It means to spend eternity in Heaven with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. The other choice is to spend eternity in Hell, being punished constantly. Not really a good choice, is it? So, let’s deal with the real question first- How to become a true believer in Jesus and be a Christian for eternity? To be an eternal Christian one must confess their sin, believe that Jesus died for their sin, give their life to serve Jesus and God, believe that Jesus rose from the dead and lives now with God in Heaven and then to pray to God to receive His Grace as a gift. There is nothing you can do to earn your salvation. It is totally a gift given to you by our Creator- God.
Having confessing Jesus as your Savior, you now can ask the other question about being sure of your salvation. Here are a few of those question: Am I going to Heaven? Can I know for certain that when I die, I’ll be with the Lord? Is there any way to be sure I’m really a Christian? Can we be assured? Many have been in church all their lives. Some have had a faith experience when they were a small child, but over the years doubts have crept into their hearts and they have begun questioning the reality of their salvation. To amazement, most of those who asked these questions were church going people. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, observed, “My experience in counseling thousands of students and laymen through the years since I met Christ personally ha convinced me that there are literally tens of thousands of good, faithful church-goers who have received Christ in prayer, but who are not sure of their salvation”. Mr. Bright is NOT saying that most or many of these people are not saved. He is saying they are just not sure of their salvation.
Perhaps during their Christian experience, they’ve allowed some sin to root in their lives and now they doubt if they were ever saved in the first place. Some have gotten away from a close relationship with God. Others experience doubts while going through difficult periods of life. There are times when a person’s doubt may be traced to a false teaching they have heard on radio or on television, or from a “friend”. Many Christians are saved in childhood or many, many years ago, but can’t remember the date or occasion. When our bodies are sick, sometimes our souls catch the disease. It is easy to become disillusioned when our dreams are dashed, our families or our finances are in crisis, or our spirits are low. Do you ever feel that way or in a way like that? If you ask them if they are going to heaven, their answer will likely be something like, “I certainly hope so”.
Tony Evans, who our men are doing his study “No More Excuses”, observes, “A great spiritual malady permeates the church of Jesus Christ today. If I were to give it a name, I would call it ADD: Assurance Deficit Disorder”. When a person has ADD, it is almost impossible to live the Christian life as vigorously as we should. We have a difficult time praying. We seldom witness. If we are not sure of our salvation, why would we want to share it with anyone else?
On this case sermons may make you feel worse, not better. The peace of God, so richly promised in the Bible, doesn’t seem at home in your heart.
Well, I can tell you as plainly as I can that you can know you are saved, for sure, for certainly; you can have security. You can have absolute confidence in your eternal hope. The Bible tells us can be certain of our relationship with God and our heavenly home. We can be persuaded. Near the end of his life, the apostle Paul used the word persuaded again when he wrote, “For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I believed and persuaded that He is able to keep what I committed to Him until that Day? (2 Timothy 1:12) We can live beyond the needling torment of doubt. Assurance of salvation is not only possible, it is what God longs for us to posses in our minds and hearts. He does not want His children (all believers) to live in insecurity, uncertainly, or uneasiness about His love for us or His ability to keep us to the end. We can know what we believe, for we can know Whom we have believed.
The words assure, assuredly, and assurance are basic terms in the New Testament’s vocabulary. Here are some verses that use these words.
Jesus said to (the thief on the cross), “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise”- Luke 23:43
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life”. John 5:24
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.” John 6:47
“For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in mu h assurance.”
“Continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of.” 2 Timothy 3”14
“We desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end.” Hebrews 6:11
“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” Hebrews 10:22
“By this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before Him.” 1 John 3:19.
The Bible uses terms like persuaded, assurance, and knowing, so we can be persuaded, we can have assurance, and we can know for sure. It has been quoted (unknown author), “God wants us to have a “know-so” salvation. Figuratively speaking, He does not want us to be a question mark, all bent over with our head hung low. Rather, He wants us to be an exclamation mark, standing erect with head held high, strengthened by a God-produced confidence in our faith with Him.” While the entire Bible stresses certainty assurance, there is one section of Scripture that stresses this theme as its central theme- the letter of 1 John. The Gospel of John and 1 John both end with similar statements, giving their respective thesis statements or declarations of purpose.
- The Gospel of John was written “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31)
- The book of 1 John ends by saying “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13)
The Gospel of John was written so we can believe and have life. The letter of 1 John was written that those of us who believe can know we have eternal life. The key word is “know”. As Steven Lawson wrote, “The greatest thing in all the world is to be saved. The second is closely related. It is to be absolutely sure that you are saved.”
Apparently, there were some in John’s day who read his Gospel and trusted Christ as their Savior, but they still harbored lingering doubts about their eternal destination. That is one of the reasons John wrote his first epistle, 1 John, to show those who believed in Christ that they could know they were saved. As we read through 1 John, we notice a five-fold argument for assurance of salvation. Five times in 1 John we see the phrases “born of God” and “begotten of God”. On each of these occasions, we have a different piece of evidence to reassure us of our hope. Every time Joh uses a phrase about new birth, he gave us another test to prove our salvation. These are five of the birthmarks of the Christian.
THE BIRTHMARK OF CONFESSION (1 John 5:1)
“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God”. Before you can have assurance of salvation, you have to believe and be saved. You have to confess Jesus Christ as Lord. That is the key- you must confess Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. In John 3, Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again”. We are born again when we repent of our sins, trust Jesus Christ to save us, and confess Him as Lord of our lives. Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved”. This verse does not say “you might be saved” it says emphatically, you will be saved. We are saved by God’s grace through faith; it’s not of our good works but of Christ’s eternal work on the cross. As stated earlier, Jesus said in John 5:24 all who believe in Jesus will assuredly have everlasting life. Additionally, we have the witness of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God”.
THE BIRTHMARK OF CHANGE 1 John 2:29
The second birthmark is a changed life, as seen in 1 John 2:9, “Everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him”. When Jesus truly saves us, it makes a difference in how we think, act, speak, and conduct ourselves. The Bible states, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17) As we begin learning to practice righteousness, our habits change. Many times, the changes are dramatic, but there are always changes.
We will not be sinlessly perfect while we’re on this planet; but if we’re Christians, we need to behave like Christians. If we say we’re saved but nothing has changed about us, something is wrong. We are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works, and the Gospel is a transforming agent in our lives. In John’s epistle he was saying, “Do you want to be sure that you have been born again? Take the brief test- what do you believe? And take the behavior test-has your life changed as the result of your belief?”
THE BIRTHMARK OF COMPASSION 1 John 4:7
Those who are truly saved also bear the birthmark of compassion. How can we know you are a Christian and saved? It is by what we believe, by how we live, and by whom we love. Love is the reoccurring theme in 1 John, and the apostle leaves no doubt about how it permeates the lives of true believers in Christ. John wrote, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God of God and knows God…We know that we passed from death to life, because we love the brethren” (1 John4:7) We know we are saved by our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. The early Christians say they love one another and are ready even to die for one another. There is a popular hymn that says the same type of thing- “They know we are Christians by our love.”
The epistle of John contains some of the richest words ever written. The word love occurs 26 times in this letter, as we read verses like, “He who loves his brother abides in the light…Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!…For this is the message that you heard from the beginning that we should love one another…He who does not love his brother abides in death…By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us…Whoever has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in Him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth…Love one another…Let us love one another, for love is of God…God is love,,.This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us…If we love one another, God abides in us.”
This is the “brother” test. Do you love your brothers and sisters in the family of God? Those who are truly saved are those who enjoy and bless the household of faith, the family of God.
THE BIRTHMARK OF CONFLICT 1 John 5:4
A fourth sign of being truly being saved is conflict. According to 1 John 5:4, “Whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world- our faith’. The word “overcome” implies a struggle. We are faced with an adversary whom we must overcome. Our adversary is identified in 1 John 2:14: “I have written to you , young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have to overcome the wicked one.” This is Satan! When you genuinely born of God, you’ll be growing to be an overcomer as you deal with the temptations around you- the world. You make progress in gaining more victories and losing less battles as you grow stronger in Christ and in the power of the abiding Word of God. Romans 8:37 says, “In all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us”. And in 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, “Now thanks be to God who always lead us in triumph in Christ”. We can claim those promises as our own in struggle against temptation. We have His help. His commands are promises in reverse, for every command comes with His enabling strength to obey it.
The Birthright of Conduct 1 John 5:18
The final point is we can see evidence for the validity of salvation in our desire to conduct ourselves in a way that pleases God. According to 1 John 3:9: “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin; because he has been born of God”. The point is repeated in 1 John 5:18: “We know that whoever is born of God does not sin, but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.” This does not say that anyone who is born of God never sins. James 3:2 , “We all stumble in many things”.
What then did John mean. In using the word sin in these passages above, John was talking about ongoing rebellion against the laws of God. In 1 John 3:4: “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness.” John was concerned about ongoing conscious and intentional violations of God’s laws. He was talking about a lifestyle of rebellion. Each day we all sin, omitting things we should do and committing things that we should not do and displaying wrong attitudes. When we sin and become aware or our sin, we come to the throne of grace in confession, asking God to forgive us as we forsake our sins. John made this clear when he wrote “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is exactly what King David did every time to earn him the praise from God of a “man after My own heart”. When we are truly born of God, we have God’s seed in us and we inherit His nature, which is in direct conflict with all sin. With God’s seed in us we will never become comfortable with sinning.
His grace is inexhaustible and His salvation is irreversible. So, make sure you have confessed Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and then trust Him with your eternal future. He will never leave you or forsake you. He will never drop you from His Book of Life and He will never turn His back on your need. Nothing can separate you from His love, and of that you can fully be persuaded (John 10:28-29). His word was given that you might know Jesus Christ as your Savior and that you might know that you have eternal life. You can have this assurance because of your conduct everyday. This includes ongoing obedience to all of God’s laws and Jesus’ commands.