Am I Really Saved?

How Do We Know We Are Truly Saved?

 

The book of 1^st John was written to give the true Christian assurance of salvation

 

1 John 5:13 – I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of

God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

 

•  The book of 1^st John gives a series of tests to reveal if someone is a true or false convert.

 

Test #1                        1 John 1:5-7 – …God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

            •  The true believer’s life will not be characterized by habitual sin (walking).  True Christians do sin, but it isn’t the normal pattern (walk) of their life.  True Christians walk habitually in holiness (light).

 

Test #2                        1 John 1:8-10 – 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. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

            •  Someone who denies their sinful condition cannot be saved.  A true Christian’s life is marked by continual confession and forsaking of sin.  Confession means to say the same thing about sin as God does; to acknowledge his perspective and come into alignment with it.

 

Test #3                        1 John 2:3-4 – 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.

            •  A Christian who is genuinely born again will be in the habit of keeping God’s commands.  Do you even know what God’s commands are?  How can you keep them if you don’t know them?  We need to read our Bibles everyday!

 

Test #4                        1 John 2:5-6 – …This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

            •  True born again Christians will try to imitate Christ likeness in their daily life.  No one does this perfectly as 1 John 1:8-10 tells us, but Christ likeness ought to be the goal of our life.

 

Test #5                        1 John 2:9-10 – Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.  Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.

            •  Habitual hate or a lifestyle of hate is what is indicated here.  Someone who claims to be born again, yet their life is characterized by hate shows by their action that they have never been born again.

 

Test #6                        1 John 2:15-17 – Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

            •  The term “world” speaks of the satanically influenced world system.  We must not be characterized by a love for the things God hates (cravings of sin, lust of the eyes, boasting over accomplishments).  Being born again means that God puts his spirit in you and he gives you a new heart with new and right desires.  We all still sin while in this body, but the true believer is warring against sin, and hates it.

 

Test #7                        1 John 2:23 – No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

            •  Whoever denies the true divine nature of Christ as it is presented in scripture or his place as Lord and Savior in their life is an enemy of Christ, and does not have the Father.

 

Test #8                        1 John 3:8 – He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.  The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

            •  once again John is speaking about a habitual lifestyle of sin.  For example, someone who is living in continual sexual sin, lies or steals habitually,  or someone who gets drunk every week (the list could go on and on).

 

Test # 9                       1 John 3:14 – We know that we have passed from life to death, because we love our brothers.  Anyone who does not love remains in death.

            •  Do you care deeply for other Christians and love to be around your Christian brothers and sister?.  The true Christian will be given a love for the brethren from the Holy Spirit.

 

Test #10          1 John 4:6 – We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us.  This is how we recognize the spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

            •  True Christians will see the Bible as their sole authority and reject falsehoods that do not align themselves with sound apostolic teaching on essential doctrine.

 

Test #11          1 John 4:15 – If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.

            •  “Acknowledge” doesn’t mean mere mental assent or agreement.  It means agreeing with the scripture that Jesus was God in the flesh and receiving him as Lord and Savior.  He will the grant the believer His Spirit and transform the new believers life.