Being Sure of Your Salvation
Dear Friend,
AsI understand it, you are convinced of your salvation because of the commitmentyou made to the Lord Jesus Christ many years ago. That could well be. WhenJesus Christ saves, He does it for eternity. However, some of your relativesdoubt your salvation or are convinced you are not saved. This is the mainreason for my letter.
Iwant to give you a list of biblical parameters that will help you know for acertainty one way or the other. The same will help others know of yoursalvation, but not with the same degree of certainty. I can be sure of my ownsalvation. I cannot be sure of someone else’s salvation in the same way.
However,I can doubt someone else’s salvation without being guilty of “judging.”Here is why.
1Corinthians 5:12 says, “What business is it of mine to judge those outsidethe church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge thoseoutside.”
Theparagraph on judging is in Matthew 7:1-5:
Do not judge or youtoo will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged,and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look atthe speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank inyour own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out ofyour eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, firsttake the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove thespeck from your brother’s eye.
Theteaching here is not against judging, but against unqualified judging.In order to take a speck out, you must know one is there and your owneyes must be in good order. Later on in the same chapter, Jesus said, “By theirfruit you will recognize them.” We are required by Jesus to be fruitinspectors.
Twomore texts before we get to the means of know you are saved:
Nevertheless, God’ssolid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knowsthose who are His” and “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord mustturn away from wickedness.” (2 Timothy 2:19)
And this is thetestimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Hewho has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not havelife. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son ofGod, so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:11-13)
Godknows, and you can know!
Hereare several biblical means of knowing.
1.Love for the brothers. 1 John 3:14 and 1 John 4:20: “We know we have passedfrom death to live, because we love our brothers.”
Lovingour brothers is not the means of passing from death to live. It is ameans of knowing that we have already passed from death to life.
Non-Christianslove non-Christians.
Christianslove non-Christians.
Ittakes a Christian to love a Christian.
Oneof the first evidences of new life in a newly-converted person is he delightsin being with other Christians. He could not stand being with them before hisconversion. “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar.For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love Godwhom he has not seen.”
Thislove for our brothers in Christ is an assurance of our salvation. It is also anassurance to others that we are Christians. Jesus said it this way inJohn 13:34-35: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have lovedyou, so you must love one another. All men will know that you are Mydisciples if you love one another.”
IfI do not love my brother, all men have a good reason to doubt that I ama follower of Jesus.
2.Change of character. Galatians 5:19-24:
(List 1) “The actsof the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfishambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like. Iwarn, as I did before, that those that live like this will not inherit thekingdom of God.”
(List 2) “But thefruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is nolaw. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with itspassions and desires.”
Thequestion that needs to be asked is this: Do the characteristics of list 1describe me the best, or do the characteristics of list 2? If the first listdescribes me the best, then I am not a Christian, and I will not inherit thekingdom of God.
Whatabout my conversion experience? If my experience does not get me out of list 1and into list 2, then my experience was spurious. Jesus does a better job ofsaving than that. You may say, “Then there are not many real Christians.” Thatis a true statement. Real Christians have been saved out of the works of theflesh into the fruit of the Spirit.
3.Spiritual understanding. “The man without the Spirit does not accept thethings that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, andhe cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor.2:14).
Didthe Bible become understandable to me after my conversion? Yes, it made muchsense. Did it make sense before my conversion? No, and I had read it daily foreighteen months.
4.Obedience to God. “We know that we have come to know Him, if we obeyHis commands” (1 John 2:3). Our increased obedience is an evidence that we havecome to know Him. if I have not become more obedient, then it is doubtful thatI have been saved.
5.Increased discipline from God. “In your struggle against sin, you have notyet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten theword of encouragement that addresses you as sons: ‘My son, do not makelight of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you,because the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone Heaccepts as a son.’ Endure hardship as disciplines; God is treating you as sons.For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (andeveryone undergoes discipline) then you are illegitimate children andnot true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us for alittle while as they thought best, and we respected them for it. how much moreshould we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! … God disciplines usfor our good, that we may share in His holiness. No disciplines seemspleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest ofrighteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews12:4-11).
Thistext says several things. 1) I should resist sin to the point of death. 2) If Ido not resist and do sin, God will discipline me. This discipline will be a) anencouragement, b) painful, c) for my good, my holiness, righteousness, andpeace, and d) proof of my sonship.
IfI do not get disciplined for sin, it will be proof that I am not a son of God.
Thereare two normal ways God disciplines us: our conscience (Romans 13) and thepolice (also Romans 13). If our conscience is not sensitive and we donot get caught by the police, then it is evidence that we are not Christians.
Hereis a review:
· We must judge those inside the church, those whosay they are Christians. We must be spiritually qualified to make thejudgement.
· God knows who the real Christians are.
· Christians must depart from wickedness.
· Evidence of the new birth: love for Christians;change of character; spiritual understanding; obedience; discipline.
Ifyou have a love for the saved people, a longing to be with Christians; if yourcharacter has changed from the works of the flesh to the fruit of the Spirit;if you understand spiritual things (i.e., the Bible makes a lot of sense); ifyour obedience has increased; and if your conscience is very sensitive onlittle things as well as big things, then you are clearly a Christian.
Ifthe opposite is true, then you should doubt your salvation.
Thereis one other possibility. “But if anyone does not have them [the fruit of theSpirit] he is nearsighted and blind and has forgotten that he has beencleansed from his past sins” (2 Peter 1:9). If that is the case, thenconfession of sin is necessary, as in 1 John 1:9. “If we confess our sins, Heis faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from allunrighteousness.”
Also,we have this teaching in Hebrews 5:
In fact, though bythis time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you theelementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyonewho lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teachingabout righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use havetrained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (vv. 12-14)
Ihope this gives you a description of a basic Christian life. I would love tohear from you.
In our Lord Jesus Christ,
Jim Wilson
How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships
