How Is Someone Truly Saved?

How do you know you are truly saved? As Christians this is a question we should all ask ourselves. Particularly during times such as these when there is seemingly so much uncertainty in the world, we should ensure we take the time and examine our own hearts and minds and ask ourselves if we truly exhibit what it is to be a follower of Christ. Questions such as ‘Why we truly call ourselves Christians?‘ and ‘Am I really exemplifying the life of Christ in our daily living?‘ or ‘Am I still a slave to sin?‘ should be at the forefront of our minds.

In today’s blog I want to talk about how we know when we are truly saved and are ready for eternity with our Heavenly Father. Before I get into it I want to thank Pastor Robbie from Hope Bible Church who preached this message a couple of weeks ago. All I can say is that this message really touched my heart and got me thinking, how does anyone truly know.

Firstly, as a Christian, you must believe and understand that salvation is by grace through faith alone (Ephesians 2:8-9). This verse is so clear in stating that salvation is not our own doing and that God’s grace is preeminent in every aspect of salvation. For many years I struggled to fully understand this and found myself trying to work my way up to heaven as opposed to having faith that Jesus paid for it all through the cross. As my walk with God blossomed I truly began to understand this scripture and realized that we cannot add to our salvation; Jesus Christ did all the hard work and heavy lifting for us through His death on the cross and subsequent resurrection. At that moment death was defeated and we had the opportunity for a direct relationship with our Heavenly Father through His Son. Jesus made salvation possible for ALL of us. This, I believe, dispels a common myth around salvation – it’s NOT by faith and works, IT IS by FAITH ALONE that we are saved. What does this mean? Essentially this means that your salvation has nothing to do with the number of good works you do but has everything to do with your heart’s belief in Jesus and the evidence of that is in the transformation – as you grow in your relationship with Christ your works will become a representation of your faith.

This is an age old battle and this truth has been challenged throughout history by countless so-called Christians dating as far back as the early church. In Acts 15 a group of false teachers from Judea were teaching that unless you are circumsized and followed the customs of Moses you cannot be saved. These were some of the false doctrines plaguing the church in the first century and Paul and Barnabas addressed them continuously.

So…what is the Law? The Law was part of the old Mosaic covenant, the Law served its purpose in that it revealed our sinful nature to us and revealed our need for a saviour, the Messiah, who is Jesus. The sole purpose of the Old Testament (from Genesis to Malachi) is to point the reader to the one who ultimately takes the burden of our sin and gives us the opportunity to be saved, Jesus Christ. Being sinful, imperfect beings it was impossible for humanity to keep the Law perfectly and God’s word says whoever keeps the whole Law yet fails to keep one commandment is guilty of breaking ALL of it (James 2:10). Jesus, who was fully man and is fully God came to fulfill the Law (Matt 5:17). He fulfilled all aspects of law; He fulfilled the moral law by keeping all the commandments and the ceremonial law by being the embodiment of everything the Law points too. He also fulfilled the judicial law by personifying God’s perfect justice (MacArthur Study Bible, 1367).

Even if we tried to add to our salvation it wouldn’t work, the very Word of God says that our good deeds are as dirty rags before the Lord (Isaiah 64:6). The works we, do no matter how well intentioned, simply do not measure up because our God is a Holy God, His holiness is unfathomable, pure, righteous and without sin…He is PERFECT and we are totally and utterly flawed. No matter how “good” we are in human standards it is impossible to measure up. The beauty of all this is God knew us, with all our flaws, even before He created us; He set a plan in place to save us from the yoke of sin. He sent His only begotten Son so that whoever should believe in their hearts and confess with their tongues that Jesus Christ is Lord is saved. Talk about unconditional love friends. That is truly AMAZING!!

So, my dear amazing and loved friends friends, remember that to keep the yoke of the law is crushing and unbearable but the yoke of Christ is easy and light. He bared the overwhelming burden of our punishment and sin on the cross so that our reward would be grace and forgiveness. There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING you can do to contribute to your own salvation, NOTHING, because Jesus did it all. The price for your salvation was the blood of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour.

Mel