2 Corinthians 13:5 says that we should
Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.
So how do you make sure that you are not disqualified? How do you make sure that you are not in that number of many church-going people who will say to God on Judgement Day
….Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then (he) will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’(Matthew 7:22-23)
How do you know you are saved?
Well first of all, you should be displaying (or starting to display) the fruit of the spirit which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)
If you are continually displaying immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness and carousing, then this is a good indication that you are not saved and as it says in Galatians 5:21, those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God
The books of 1 and 2 John also give you a list of things to look out for ’so that you may know that you have eternal life.’ (1 John 5:13)
- You will not walk in darkness. If you do, then you do not practice or live by the truth (1 John 1:6)
- You will have fellowship with other christians (1 John 1:7)
- You recognise your sinful nature (1 John 1:8,10)
- You confess your sins (1 John 1:9)
- You obey and keep his commandments (1 John 2:3,5 ,1 John 3:24, 1 John 5:2)
- You will not hate your brother or sister but love them (1 John 2:9,11 , 1 John 3:10 and 1 John 4:7-8,12-13, 20-21, 2 John 1:5)
- You will not love the world or the things of the world (1 John 2:15)
- You will do the will of God (1 John 2:17)
- You believe the divinity of Jesus Christ and that he has come in the flesh (1 John 2:22 and 1 John 4:2-4,15, 2 John 1:7)
- Biblical truth will be abiding in you (1 John 2:24)
- You understand the righteousnes of Christ (1 John 2:29)
- You will be practicing righteousness (1 John 2:29)
- You will not habitually practice sin (1 John 3:8,9, 1 John 5:18 )
- You will have compassion for those in need (1 John 3:17)
- You believe that Jesus is the Christ and is the Son of God (1 John 5:1)
- You abide in the doctrine of Christ (2 John 1:9)
Now am I saying that if you are missing any of these then you are not saved? Of course not. It is not about perfection but about direction. You should be moving in the direction of doing the things above. This is called progressive sanctification where God is doing an inward work in you.
Other questions to ask yourself are:
- Am I growing in holiness?
- What is my relationship with sin?
- Do I have a struggle with sin or do I justify it? (Read Romans 7:7-25)
- Do I hate it more and more or do I try and justify it?
- Do I have a love for Gods word, the bible?
- Do I hunger and thirst for righteousness?
- Do I embrace biblical correction from someone else?
- Do I have a concern for the lost?
If the answer to the majority of these questions is no, then I would seriously doubt your salvation and I would urge you to repent of your sins and put your trust in Jesus Christ and in him alone. For more information click here. If you are a new christian and struggling in your daily walk, click here.
I will leave you with a video from Paul Washer on this topic
Selah!!
Thank you so much for posting this Mark. I am posting things like this in my sidebar so that they are permanently visible. I will definiteyly be adding your link to my sidebar. Bonnie
Thankyou Bonnie
very interesting.
i’m adding in RSS Reader
It all comes down to being conformed to the image of His Holy Son. If you can look at yourself and see a reflection of Jesus, without making any excuses for what you see… then you shouldn’t be overwhelmingly surprised at what you hear at judgement.
I completely agree with your post.
A (slightly) different take is in my blog, here:
http://pauljub.wordpress.com/2008/03/12/can-we-lose-our-salvation/
Nevertheless, the message is the same.
God bless,
Paul
I love the blog, man. Keep spreading the true message!
Thanks Claude
i will not go as far as argueing with you about this, but i myself acepted jesus as my savior in 12/2006, i have since read his word and hunger for it daily. i feel the spirit within me at times when i wonder and he convicts me accordingly. when i say wonder, i meen when i get angry, and show outburst of such, which always and immediatly begin to bother me ,and i ask for forgiveness, and i realize as paul said that i am and will be of the flesh untill the day i meet my lord. i dont doupt that i am saved. i know that the spirit now dwells within me. I too fall short of the glory of god. and know that even though i hunger and search his word, I know that i am drawing nigh to god minute by minute. i realize that my walk is a srtuggle, but i yearn to be more like christ daily. i will not accept your theory that my showing outburst of anger meens that i am not saved. i will say that it means i have a ways to go before i become mature in christ, but dont we all. i truely belive one will not be mature in this world. only when we arive in heaven, will we begin to become mature
Fred, everything you have said gives me every indication that you are saved because of your attitude. I have edited the post to say that if you are ‘continually’ displaying the fruits of teh flesh (thanks) but I did have on the post
‘Now am I saying that if you are missing any of these then you are not saved? Of course not. It is not about perfection but about direction. You should be moving in the direction of doing the things above. This is called progressive sanctification where God is doing an inward work in you.’
I sometimes display the fruit of the flesh also but like you, i yearn to be more like christ daily and am daily trying to crucify the flesh.
Thankyou for your contribution
And then (he) will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Q: What is that “lawlessness”/iniquity that disqualifies this class of people from entering God’s heaven?
I would appreciate some feedback…
Basically lawlessness is sin for that is the definition of sin. The transgression of the law
That is why that apart from Christ, we would all be disqualified
I thought that Matthew 7:22-23 applied to people who tried to work out their salvation through works alone rather than through Faith in Jesus Christ.
Did I say something contrary to this?
lol. I believe I may have misread. (My bad.)
Below the part where you say “other questions to ask yourself”, it might be good idea to say “If the answer to the majority of these questions is negative or differs from that of a Christian lifestyle” due to one of the questions not being answerable solely via a yes or no. It’s no big matter,but the wording’s been on my mind.
I’m really glad I was led to this site with questions I have been having. Your questions helped me overcome some doubt that i’ve been getting attacked with. I knelt down and poured out my heart to our Lord after reading a book called “fireproof” And I realized how lost i had become, from adultry to horrid lusts and imaginations, spending all my time playing fantasy games (and I mean all my time when I wasn’t working). Asking and pleading God and my wife to forgive me for what I had done and was going to do. From cussing like 2 sailors or telling people what the Lord did for me. From drug use where there was absolutely no groceries for my kids. He pulled me out of that, it still wrenches my heart and feels like I’m having a heart attack when I think about my past. He gave me hope, tho sometimes I still doubt because of my sin. I’ve gone from reading tons of fantasy to getting excited while reading the Bible. Man our God is good. I’m still new to the real Christian walk and I deeply desire to hear from Him constantly, and when I do hear from Him its just I don’t know I cant explain it. I’ve gone from being a person that people avoided cause they never knew how I was going to treat them to people saying I wish I was more like you. Patience, wow what a concept, and peace? who would have known, me taking things with a grain of salt…I went from absolutely hating people to wondering when I pass them if they are saved and if theres anyway i can reach them. Praise God Praise God Is He wonderful or what. I’m sorry its so long I’m so excited that this doubt has left me that I was feeling while I was searching for “how do you know your saved”. Thank you very much for helping me.
Mike, thankyou for your comments. Its very encouraging to know that in my little small corner of the world, that I can make a difference and also encourages me to keep doing what I’m doing. Stay in the word and I pray that you and your family will grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ
There is only one problem I see in the opening part of the website. I find that both extremes are true. A thing can not be both white and black, right and wrong.
That is a logical contradiction, and even God cannot reconcille that. What I’m talking about is that I find myself with both traits you refer to. I quote:
“Well first of all, you should be displaying (or starting to display) the fruit of the spirit which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)
If you are continually displaying immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness and carousing, then this is a good indication that you are not saved and as it says in Galatians 5:21, those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God
I am guily of both of these paragraphs, sometimes in the same day, or even in the same hour! One cannot be immoral and immoral. There are times that I do feel peace, love and joy, etc. and others that I am immoral, angry, sensual, etc. So you can see the source of some serious confusion.
It leads me to think that in fact, no one can know if they are saved at all. If we can admit that we are sinners, living in the flesh, and all that, and at the same time say we are striving for Christ, living in the spirit, and so on, then we are borderline schizophrenic. No one can be both saved and unsaved. We as humans cannot free ourselves from sin. And I don’t mean this in the sense that Jesus frees us. what I’m saying is we all display qualities of saved and unsaved all the time. Who are we to think that we might be able to know what God thinks of this contradition. Who are we to say God has forgiven us. We just don’t know that. The best we can do is beleive we have been forgiven. But just beleiving something does not make it so. I am not saying that any sin is to great for God to forgive. What I’m saying is it is God’s choice whther to forgive or not, not ours. We cannot force God to forgive us because we plead that we beleive in Christ. No one knows the mind of the Father, certainly not us. Since we have been chosen before the foundation of the earth (or not chosen) it has little to do with what you think, do, or beleive your fate to be. You either saved or not saved, and it ain’t up to us.
Mark, the bible makes it VERY clear that you can KNOW (not hope) that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13). Also when I said ‘If you are continually displaying immorality etc’ the keyword is CONTINUALLY. As you get closer to God, your areas of sin should be geting less and less (not saying that you can be perfect). You say that noone knows the mind of God but God has revealed his mind in the bible. He gives us the conditions by which we can know that we are forgiven through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Also remember that we are not moral and immoral at the same time. Are nature is totally depraved and we depend on the righteousness of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit sanctifying us daily. God has not just left us in the world guessing through life. The bible is God’s manual and gives us clear instructions
Alan,
Thanks for responding. I really do appreciate it as this is an area that I struggle with. You are correct, the duality of even my nature has lessened with time trying to live for God. I’m not sure about not being moral and immoral at the same time though. As I said, you can have a wonderfully spiritual experiance or blessing one minute, and then the next minute fall into temptation and sin. So perhaps your right, not at the exact same moment in time can you be good and bad, right and wrong, righteous and wicked. but you sure can do both within a few seconds of each other!
But overall, I think your answer here is well thought out and Biblical, and I have nothing but respect for you and your website here. I know I struggle with patience, and as I am fond of saying to friends, “I only have 80 years or so, i don’t have eternity to get this” I know there can be points made for and against this statement, but I just want so bad to have the faith and the heart of some of my brothers and sisters in Christ, and I just don’t. So, if it is the working of the Spirit that provides this faith, love, hope and blessings in lives, and yet I don’t have these things, then the inevitable result of the line of thinking is that I am not meant to have these things. I know, people always say God works in His own time, to His own purpose, and I can accept that. But, it sure feels like if He was going to do these things in someone’s life, what is the reason to wait? especially when the person yearns for Him. I’ll look forward to a continuing dialogue on this (and some other parts of your site)
Thanks again my brother in Christ,
Mark, it takes time. Stay in Gods word, stay in prayer and stay in fellowship and you will see that in time, the sins will begin to drop off
Im only 13 years old and i dont know if im saved. I really want to. I do beleive in Jesus and that he died on the cross to save my sins and i ask for forgivness and pray daily. I feel really bad when i do something wrong . I really really want to be saved.
Andrea, your words seem to suggest that you are on the right track. Take ‘the test’ above to see if you truly are saved. Also look at http://realchristianity.wordpress.com/a-message-to-non-christians/
Let me know how you get on
Alan,
I really like this article. It’s a great in-a-nutshell explanation of these principles. I’m glad I found this. Since I became a Christian nine years ago, I have had many personal and spiritual struggles. I have often wondered if I was really saved on that day, or if I simply fooled myself into thinking that I was. The pastor of the church I attended at the time convinced me that all I had to do was get saved and my troubles would be over (this wasn’t my only or even primary motivation, mind you; I wanted forgiveness from God). The church leadership had gotten into the so-called prosperity gospel of Osteen, Warren, and the like (an all to prevalent false teaching here in America). My family left that church not long after. We have yet to find a permanent church home, because of the prevalence of such teaching in our area (we simply refuse to be part of such things).
My question is twofold:
1. If I myself can’t recognize the growth that is indicative of a maturing Christian, but other Christian people say that they can, then are those opinions that I can trust? I know that sometimes it’s hard to recognize change in yourself until others point it out (like if you go a long time without shaving, you may not realize how long your beard has gotten until your mother tells you that you need to shave).
2. When you say that one of the indicators is continual sin, do you mean the mere fact that sin exist in your life, or that you fill your entire life with sinful things without any repentance or need for God’s forgiveness? When you say “sin habitually,” do you mean someone in the state I just described, or someone that sins at all, even if they ask for forgiveness. I read what Paul is saying about sin in Romans 7:15-20, and I think that he is saying that sin will always exist, even for the believer, but that it’s how you react to it (either continuing to immerse yourself in it or trying to run from it).
I often wonder if I missed the boat somewhere along the way. I hate that I commit any kind of sin, and I make a concious effort to not do these things. I worry about what that does to my relationship with the Lord. I try to pray for forgiveness and guidance every day, but I sometimes wonder if God is angry at me or if there is something that I need to do. I know that Jesus is his son, and that he died to save us. I’m just not sure if I’ve gone about things the right way. I don’t doubt God and his word, but I do doubt myself. I’m ready to find peace from this worry. I’m just having a hard time finding it.
I like the site. Keep up the good work, and God bless you.
Thank you,
Ryan
Kentucky, USA
Ryan, I will try and answer your questions the best I can.
1. We should value the opinions of godly men and women but at the same time, the bible makes it clear that we should also examine oursleves meaning that we should take the biblical ‘test’ as above regularly
2. We will always have sin so I do not mean it should be non-existant. When I say sin habitually, i mean making sin a habit and living in it with no hatred for it. The sign of a true christian is not that he doesnt sin, but he hates it when he does. He has a new relationship with sin. We may struggle in certain areas but we hate it when we do as in Romans 7 when Paul calls himself a wretched man so you are right when you say its about our reaction to sin. Your last paragraph is a good indication of your hatred towards sin. The funny thing is, the closer you get to God, the more sin he reveals in your life because you are being conformed to Christs’ image so be encouraged
I hope this has helped you
Alan, thank you for your post! I grew up in a somehwat religious family, but I generally turned away from the Word towards the last part of high school and throughout all of college.
After years of sinning throughout college, I feel completely hopeless. I have no direction and sometimes I want to give up. I don’t know who to ask for help, and I realize that many of the people I thought were friends are nothing more than drinking buddies. Is my despair a method that God is using to call me back?
In any case, I appreciate your post because it gives me hope that I can find peace in my soul by truly becoming saved. What do you suggest as a first step for a backsliding Christian?
My advice would be to start from scratch. Read my message to non christians at the the top of this page. I’m glad that I have been of help
This is awesome, I love it
You’re so aweseome Alan Higgins… Keep up the great job! I just love reading this blog! God bless you Alan!
Thanks,
Faia
Many Blessings
Alan,
Thank you for answering my previous questions. If you don’t mind, I have a couple more that I would like to throw your way.
1. This is just something that I have been wondering about. Let’s say, for example, that a person has experienced a moment of great tragedy or some other great trauma in their life. I’ve known such people who, in the heat of such a moment, have had cases of what you could call “temporary unbelief.” How would you respond to something like that?
2. I’ve recently been reading some of your “True and False Conversion” posts. I’ve seen some of the comments about alter calls and sinner’s prayers. Now, I did pray for salvation during an altar call (there were several deacons and church workers made avaliable for prayer during that time). I, however, did not say a formulaic prayer at that time. Someone did pray with me. In fact, I’m not sure if I ever said a word during that time. I ask this because I have often been worried that I didn’t do something right and that I need to truly be saved. Reading your posts haven’t really given me any comfort. Does it seem to you that I did it the right way, or do you think that I need to go ahead and be saved?
I hate to be such a bother, but you’ve given me the best answers that I’ve gotten from anyone in quite a while.
God bless.
1. Ryan, I would say that EVERY christian have times of temporary unbelief so that is not unusual at all.
2. I do not believe that it is a biblical model to say ‘the sinners prayer’ but as Paul Washer said people have still got saved by doing it because God in his mercy has done it in spite of it not because of it. If you ‘did it the right way’ or not, I cannot say but that is neither here or there now. You are alive today and the bible says that we should make our election and calling sure. So as I said before, just start from scratch. Think about your sins, then think about your saviour and what he did by taking the penalty that you should have incurred, repent of those sins, turn from them, and then put your trust in Jesus Christ and in him alone for our salvation.
I hope that helps and Ryan, you are not a bother at all. It is a pleasure to help you