HOW WE CAN KNOW THAT GOD HAS SAVED US

How do we know that God has saved us? The answer rests with God, who has given us the assurances of His Word. For one thing, Jesus had promised:

·       “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Any who come seeking salvation will find it: "Everyone who calls on…the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:13). We find this same promise throughout the Scriptures:

·       “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:14-16)

Salvation doesn’t require us to perform, but just to look in faith. The Israelites who had been bitten by poisonous serpents had only to look upon “the [bronze] serpent in the wilderness” to find healing. We have the same assurance of spiritual healing and reconciliation with our merciful God when we look upon Jesus in faith. It is God’s delight to show us mercy and love through what He had accomplished on the Cross:

·       …God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:8-10)

Jesus even died for His worst enemies (1 Timothy 1:15-16). He paid the supreme price, and it is understandable that He wants to get maximum return on His investment. Therefore, He made salvation so simple that, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God…” (1 John 5:1).

For some, this assurance is enough. Others may continue to doubt whether they truly believe and have been saved. They may feel that, intellectually, they believe the Gospel account, but they might not have a compelling conviction or sense of believing. However, their very concern is an indication that they have been received by the Lord, since:

·       The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Cor. 2:14)

For the unconverted the things of the Spirit – forgiveness, reconciliation with God, adoption as children of God, salvation, heaven – mean little. Instead, they are laughable – objects of contempt. The fact that someone is deeply concerned about the things of God strongly suggests that God has been drawing them:

·       "No one can come to me [Jesus] unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:44)

If we are crying out for Him, it means that He has drawn us. Coming to the Savior – the light of the world – is not natural for us. Instead, what is natural is to hate the light, as Jesus asserted:

·       This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. (John 3:19-20)

The fact that we are drawn to the light – the truth – means that there has been a spiritual change in our lives. Otherwise, we’d continue to detest God. Quoting from the OT, Paul put it this way:

·       There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." (Romans 3:11-12)

If, instead, we are seeking God, it means that He is drawing us. Without this drawing, “the sinful mind is hostile to God” (Romans 8:7). If we are not hostile to God, it means that He is wooing us or has already saved us.

However, for many skeptics, doubt runs very deep. We wonder whether we can really trust these Scriptural assurances. It’s like walking far out on an ice-covered lake. While we stood on the shore or right next to the shore, we weren’t so painfully afflicted by doubt. However, once we ventured further out on the ice, the dread that the ice might not hold us sets in. We need assurance that the ice will not break and drown us.

We may not grow in confidence of our salvation until we see substantial changes in our lives. Therefore, John has given us several ways that we can reassure ourselves that we are truly saved:

·       We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. (1 John 2:3-6)

Ultimately, John instructs us that if we truly are of God, we will repent of our sins and endeavor to love others. However, this can also become another source of doubt. We wonder whether we truly love. However John explains:

·       This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome. (1 John 5:2-3)

For a long time, His commands had seemed burdensome to me. Why? Because I continually failed to keep them! However, we all fall short in many ways. Ultimately, my hope comes from knowing God. I feel I really know Him and know that He will forgive my sins whenever I screw up:

·       If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:8-9)

Whenever we sincerely confess our sins, we are restored to a state of holiness (Hebrew 12:14-17) and are given a fresh start. This truth about God is so critical to me – a person who has struggled with perfectionism and self-loathing almost from the get-go. It has taken many years for my Lord to bring me to this confidence, but now I am really certain that He thoroughly forgives and cleanses me whenever I cry out to Him.

This assurance had been a long time in coming. There had been many verses that had sowed doubts in my mind, for example:

·       Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14)

I wondered, “Am I holy enough?” However, reading further, I found that holiness was a matter of confession, repentance, and God’s forgiveness and restoration. I also came to realize that holiness is not a matter of attaining to a prescribed level of holiness, but of “striving” for holiness and of putting God first in our lives, by sincerely confessing all of my sins.

I also was reassured by the life of Lot, who had been living a highly comprised life. He had even allowed his daughters to get him drunk to impregnate them on two successive evenings. Yet our gracious Lord regards Lot as “righteous”:

·       …He rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); (2 Peter 2:7-8)

Three times Lot is described as “righteous,” to emphasize the surpassing truth of God’s graciousness. In this regard, the lives of the Patriarchs are very revealing of the grace of God. In many ways, they had been spiritual failures. Even though the Bible tells us that Abraham “believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6), Abraham’s faith had seemingly vanished on many occasions. Even after waiting for the child of the promise for 25 years, Yahweh informed Abraham that his now barren wife would bear a son. However, Abraham resorted to his old ways of passing off Sarah as his sister so that he would be rewarded for her instead of being killed. He even confessed that this had been his way of life (Genesis 20). Nevertheless, God would not let him go but continued to proclaim him as His “prophet.”

Returning to the question: “Do I have enough faith to be saved?”: Hebrews 11 is filled with examples of exemplary faith, which was far from exemplary:

·       By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. (Hebrews 11:29)

However, in the Exodus account, we find that the Israelites had been rebelling against God and had wanted to return to Egypt, yet our merciful God perceived a small measure of faith in them. This should reassure us that the smallest measure of faith is sufficient.

The more I meditated on the Word of God, the more I became convinced that God loved me and would never let go of me. I pray that you too will come to this assurance as you continue to meditate on His transformative Word.