HOW CAN WE KNOW WE ARE SAVED
When a person is born again, he becomes a child of God. His sins are forgiven and he is saved from God's wrath. God wants every child of His to know without a doubt that he is a child of God and that he has eternal life.
We are going to consider three ways by which we can know that God has saved us and made us His child forever.
1. WE KNOW THAT WE ARE SAVED BY THE WORD OF GOD
One way by which we know that we are saved is by the Word of God made real to us by the Holy Spirit. As we read or hear a portion of the Bible, it suddenly seems as though God is speaking directly to us. We see that Christ has already paid the penalty of our sins. We see that we have foriveness of our sins in Christ.
What has happened is simply this: The Holy Spirit has made God's Word real to us. The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God in saving us, and He also uses the Word of God to give us assurance of our salvation after we are saved.
There are many verses in the Bible by which we can know that we have eternal life. The Apostle John wrote, " This is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
"He that has the Son has life; and he that has not the Son of God has not life." 1 John 5: 11, 12
This passage from God's Word tells us that whoever has the Lord Jesus has eternal life, and whoever does not have Him does not have eternal life.
The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to show us that we are saved.
The sure foundation upon which our faith rests is the Word of God, not our feelings nor our experience. Some people are looking for feelings of peace and joy instead of looking at what God says in His Word. Someone may ask, " Shouldn't a person feel happy when he is saved?" The answer is a definite " YES, " but we are not saved by our feelings; we are saved by trusting God's Word. We must first believe God's word, and then we will have the feelings of joy and peace. The Bible says,
" The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace IN BELIEVING.."
Romans 15:13
A woman was using God's word to explain the way of salvation to a young girl. The girl was confused. She said, " I thought I had to wait for a certain kind of feeling or some burst of light or something."
Pointing to the Bible in her hand, the woman said, " Here is all the light you need. " The girl put her faith in God's Word and found the peace and joy she had been looking for.
Our assurance of salvation must always be based on God's word and not on our feelings. Most Christians experience greaty joy when they are firsty saved, but as time passes, these feelings of joy usually fade and may even disappear. Does this mean that the believer has lost his salvation? No, not at all. He has simply lost the joyful feeling that he had at first.
Suppose I misplace a valuable ring;
then one day I find it. Naturally I feel great joy in finding my ring. A few days later, however, my joy will not be as great, and in time it will fade away completely. Yet I still have my ring.
So it is with our salvation. The joyful feeling we had at first may fade or even disappear, but we still have Christ. Regardless of our feelings, we know that we are saved because God's Word says, " He that has the Son has life, "
2. WE KNOW THAT WE ARE SAVED BY THE WITNESS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
When a person becomes God's child, the Holy Spirit comes to live in him. The Bible says, " Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."Galatians 4:6
By sending the Holy Spirit to live in us, God shows us that we are His Children. Every child of God has the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. If we do not have Him , we are not God's child. The Bible says,
" Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ (the Holy Spirit), he is none of His. " Romans 8: 9
One of the things the Holy Spirit does in us is to " bear witness" that we are God's Children. This means that the Holy Spirit inwardly confirm to us that God is our Father and we are His children. The Bible says, " The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. " Romans 8:16
3. WE KNOW THAT WE ARE SAVED BECAUSE OUR LIFE IS CHANGED
When we trust Christ as our Saviour, many changes take place in our life. These changes are so great that a Christian is described as " a new creature in Christ." The Bible says, " Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
2 Corinthians 5:17
We have new desires. In the past we did not care for the things of the Lord, but now we begin to love them. The Bible becomes a new book to us. We want to know and understand God's Word. We begin to talk to God in prayer.
We have a new love, which is actually God's love in our heart. The Bible says, " The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. "
Because we have God's love in our heart, we will be concerned about our unsaved relatives and friends. We will long for them to know Christ as Saviour. We will have a special love for other Christians. This is one way by which we know that we are truly born again. The Bible says,
" We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren..." 1 John 3:14
We have a new heart-attitude. Formerly we did not love God, nor want to ober Him. Now we love Him and want to do His will. Though our circumstances may not have changed, we find that we ourselves have changed. These changes may not take place overnight, but they definitely do take place in the life of a person who is born again. They take place because Christ has come to live in us. Christ Himself is in Heaven, but He dwells in us by His Spirit. The Bible says, " ..Know you not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobates(not true believers)?"
2 Corinthians 13:5
Note: This article taken from the booklet " The New Life In Christ"
Please use King James Version Bible for it is accurate and the only true Bible.
