How Can I KNOW If God Has Saved Me? - Part 1

• Examine Yourselves, Prove Your Own Selves - This is a very important question that we should all seriously consider, “How Can I KNOW If God Has Saved Me?”. This question gets to the essence of what life is all about. God tells us everything we need to know with regard to His salvation plan for mankind in His Book, the Bible, and God explains that assurance of our salvation is indeed possible as 1 John 5:11-13 explains. We must realize that God does ALL the work of salvation. The Bible teaches that we cannot save ourselves. No church, no religious ritual, no person, and no human effort can save us. Only the work done by the Lord Jesus Christ at the cross and by the Holy Spirit in our hearts can save us. Believing, or having “faith”, in the Lord Jesus Christ is the result of salvation – not the cause of it. Rom 5:10 declares that if God has saved you, your spiritual war with God has ended: “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life”. In other words: If God has saved you from Hell, the Lord Jesus Christ paid for ALL of your sins with His life so that you now have eternal life, and you made no contribution to your salvation in any way, as Tit 3:4-7 declares. However, if God does not save you before you die or the Lord Jesus Christ returns in judgment, you will face eternal damnation in Hell under the wrath of God as a payment for your own sins. If God has already saved you from eternal damnation, He has put His Spirit within you and resurrected your soul (that is, you became a new creature in Christ); as God stated in the verses Eze 36:26-27 and 2 Cor 5:17. In 2 Cor 13:5 and 2 Pet 1:10, God commands us to evaluate our spiritual condition to determine if we truly have received the gift of eternal life based on what the Bible teaches about salvation. In the next few parts of the study we will ask ourselves several questions based on the biblical evidences of salvation to help us “examine” the state of our souls. Starting with this part one, may God cause each of us to seriously examine our self in the light of His Word to discover whether we are indeed a child of God or not. If we are not (or are not sure), wonderfully today is still the day of salvation; and we can cry out to God for mercy, read His Word, and wait (trusting altogether) on Him.

1 John 5:11-13 “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”

Tit 3:4-7 “But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Eze 36:26-27 “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”

2 Cor 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

2 Cor 13:5 “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”

2 Pet 1:10 “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:”

• Do you recognize Jesus Christ as Lord, God and your Savior? as one Triune God? - In Rom 10:10 we find this statement: “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”. God has much to say about a person who merely pays “lip service” to God and does not seek Him with all his “heart, soul, mind, and strength”. The word “Lord” here, actually conveys the idea that Christ “has lordship over” or “exercises dominion over”. We must never forget that one can only do this when one has become saved – or born from above since by birth and nature we have a sinful and wicked heart, as Jer 17:9-10 describes: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked...”. Salvation is a matter of the heart as Rom 2:29 teaches: “But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, ...”. This is very apparent in Luke 6:45 “... of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh”. Salvation takes place spiritually in man’s heart, or soul, by the Word of God as well as by the will of God, which is what Jam 1:18 states, “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth...”. Both man’s belief, or faith, and confession are the results of salvation and are never the means of salvation.

1 Cor 12:3 “Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.”

Col 1:14-16 “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: 15Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:”

Isa 9:6 “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor [Holy Spirit is the Counsellor], The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

Tit 2:13 “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;”

Php 2:10-11 “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Rev 19:16 “And he hath on his [Lord Jesus Christ] vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

• Do you have the Authority of the Bible? - Do you believe that “All Scripture” is from the mouth of God? and are you humble enough to be corrected with the evidence of Scriptures, if you were under wrong understanding? Do you find that you have a strong desire to grow spiritually by reading and studying the Word of God, the Bible? The most important fact we need to come to grips with when studying or reading the Bible is that it is God’s holy, inspired, and infallible Word. It is the supreme authority for every believer, as we learn from 2 Pet 1:21, “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost”. 1 Cor 2:12-13 provides the most significant principle for studying the Bible, which is "comparing spiritual things with spiritual” – comparing Scripture with Scripture, namely that we are to use all of the Bible and only the Bible as the indwelling Holy Spirit guides, to find truth. As we do this we must keep in mind that all of the Bible is written from three distinct vantage points: 1. Historical accuracy – recording actual people, places, events, and conversations, 2. Moral teaching – highlighting a moral command to be followed, 3. Spiritual meaning – the mysteries of the kingdom of God – pointing to some facet of the Gospel (incidentally, this is the most difficult level to ascertain, due to the intense amount of study and prayer that is required). The Bible is thus to be trusted implicitly given its divine authorship, as the sole authority in the life of the child of God. Rom 10:17 explains, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

2 Tim 3:16-17 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

2 Tim 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

1 Cor 2:12-13 “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14But the natural man [unsaved] receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Psa 119:97 “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.”

• Do you Fear and tremble before God and His Word? - By nature none of us have this fear of God as we learn from verses, such as Isa 29:13, “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men…”. This is a similar statement to what we find in Mat 15:9 where the Lord Jesus declares, “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men”. Genuine fear of God – like genuine worship of God – must be done according to God’s Word “in spirit and in truth”. Those whom God has saved, or reconciled, have a deep fear and sensitivity to God’s Holy Word, the Bible, because they are fully aware that His Word is an extension of God Himself. Everything in the Scriptures shows us that God is not to be trifled with or lightly esteemed, as we understand from a passage like Mat 10:28, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him [God] which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell”. The child of God fully comprehends the ominous warning of Gal 6:7, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” and trembles as he recognizes that God works in him “to will and to do of his good pleasure”, as Php 2:13 teaches.
  

Isa 66:2 “For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.”

Heb 11:7 “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”

Php 2:12-13 “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

Psalm 111:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.”