How do we know that we are saved?

RIVERSIDE INDONESIAN FELLOWSHIP
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How do we know that we are saved?

Riverside Indonesian Fellowship
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2010 · 24 October 2010

We are trying to introduce the theme of 2 Peter 1:5 through 11. The theme here is the matter of the certainty of salvation. The larger subject that Peter is dealing with here is our precious faith which he began to teach about in verse 1. But starting in verse 5 he is concerning himself with this matter of the certainty of salvation.

Peter is concerned that people not forget that they have been forgiven. He is concerned that they be sure about God's calling and choosing them. Peter wants them to experience the abundant inheritance that is theirs through entrance into the Kingdom by way of Christ. It is a matter then of assurance that is on his mind.

So we simply ask the question: how can we as believers enjoy the assurance of salvation? How can I be sure my faith is saving faith? How can I be sure my life is new life in Christ? Obviously this is a vital matter for our joy and for our peace as Christians.

A number of the New Testament writers are very concerned about this matter of true salvation, as was our Lord Jesus Himself. And John dedicates actually the entire first epistle to this subject. In 1 John 1:4 it says, "These things we write so that our joy may be made complete." The purpose of the writing of this epistle is that we might rejoice in the confidence of true salvation.

At the end of 1 John 5:13, he sums it up with this, "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God in order that you may know that you have eternal life." There is the theme of this epistle. He is saying that full joy is a part of confidence when you know you have eternal life. So John gives us instruction that we might know that our salvation is genuine.

1 John is a simple place for a Christian to start examining this issue. But it is also a very deep profound and difficult epistle to interpret clearly. One thing, however, that is apparent throughout the epistle is that there are clearly given tests for a person to take to verify a valid salvation. If someone was questioning their spiritual condition and wasn't sure whether he really possessed eternal life, this would be the place to start.

Let us just look briefly at all these questions. First: Are you enjoying fellowship with Christ and God? That test appears in 1 John 5:1‐5, “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
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Now here John gives us a second test: Are you sensitive to sin in your life? We find this in 1 John 1:5 through 1 John 2:1, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. 1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

Here comes John’s third test: Are you obedient to God? Is it a pattern of your life to obey? All Christians stray at one time or another, but in general would you say that you are obedient?

This we find in 1 John 2:3–5, “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.”

Then the fourth query and test that we noted: Do you reject the world? To put it another way to use the very terminology John uses, do you love the world? Do you love the system of this world? Or do you understand that you will never find true satisfaction in it?

That we find in 1 John 2:15‐17, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

The fifth test that John gives us is: Do you love Christ and eagerly wait for His return? That we find in 1 John 3:1‐3, every one who has this hope purifies himself. “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

And then we find number six in our little list: Do you see a decreasing pattern of sin in your life? Let us look at 1 John 3:5‐ 10, “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.

8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. 10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.”

Number seven on your list: Do you love other Christians? And this will move us back to the section that we passed over on purpose, one of the key sections that we should spend some time on.

And that's back in 1 John 2:9‐11, “The one who says he is in the light," that is the one who says he is a believer, who says he possesses eternal life, who says he knows God, who says he's saved, who says he's converted, "and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now."

The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. That means that if you're claiming to be in Christ, your life is going to show some of the patterns of Christ. And certainly loving your brother would be one very basic pattern. To be saved, to be in fellowship with Christ is to experience and express love. So it is not the people who claim to be Christians but it is the people who love the brothers.

Verse 10‐11 says, "The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and doesn't know where he's going because the darkness has blinded his eyes." In other words, if you claim to be a Christian but do not love your brothers and sisters in Christ, your claim is a sham.

John says in 1 John 5:1: If you love God you'll love His children. That's just basic. Jesus went so far as to say this in John 13:34, "By this shall all men know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another," Loving one another means serving one another in humility. It is not primarily an emotion, it is not primarily a feeling, it is primarily a responsibility of sacrificial service and humble sensitive caring.

Love in your life means you have crossed over, you have crossed over in to divine life. People who are characterized by continual hatred which could be translated not so much as an angry hostility but in a selfish approach to life, do not know God. People who continually focus on themselves and could care less what happens to anybody else are the children of the devil, characterized by hatred and murder.

Love is defined as sacrificing for others. Do you get joy when you come across a person in need and you're able to give them money, a commodity, time, prayer, care to meet that need? Do you have a desire to take the supply and the resources God has given you and apply them to someone else in the family of God? That's evidence of love.

It doesn't mean that all of us are able to say, "Well if someone was going to kill me if I didn't make a loving sacrifice, I don't know whether I'd be able to pass the test." If you're a true Christian when the hour came, believe me, God would give you the grace to do it. The question is, in the circumstance I'm in now with the opportunity I have now, do I express love sacrificially?

In 1 John 3:17, he gets very particular, "Whoever has the world's goods," and here's how he defines love. You have the world's goods, that is commodities, clothing, housing, food and sustenance, and behold your brother in need and you close your heart against him, John asks a simple question, how does the love of God abide in you? How could you possibly be a Christian?

1 John 3:20, "In whatever our heart condemns us for God is greater than our heart and knows all things." What does that mean? Listen to this, your heart may put you on a guilt trip, your heart may do its greatest effort to make you doubt. You see, the fallen flesh can do that. Satan may work in you to condemn you before God but in whatever your heart condemns you, if there is love in your life your heart can be assured and at peace. God is greater than our heart and knows all things.

That's good news, isn't it? You may doubt your salvation but God doesn't. If it's real He knows. And even though your heart condemns you, God doesn't. God knows you're a true believer. You may be struggling with your eternal security and you are not alone.

And the word of John in this text is to examine your love for other Christians and see if it doesn't show itself as deeds of kindness and sacrifice. And if that's characteristic of your life, be soothed and be pacified, for no matter what your heart may do to condemn you, if you have those expressions of love in your life, you can be sure of your salvation.

You remember Peter? He kind of dealt with this when he faced Jesus after he denied Him three times in John 21. And what did Jesus ask him three times? "Peter, do you love Me? If you love Me then show it by feeding My lambs, then love My lambs, love My people." Finally in some desperation Peter says, "Lord, You know I love You."

Number eight in John's list of tests: Do you experience answered prayer? 1 John 3:22‐23 says, "And whatever we ask we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another just as He commanded us."

You can know you're a believer when you begin to receive what you ask. If you abide in Him and He abides in you, you keep His commandments. If you keep His commandments, He'll answer your prayers. If He answers your prayers, guess what? You belong to Him.

The end of verse 21‐22, "Even though our heart condemns us we can have confidence before God and whatever we ask we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight and that is evidence that He abides in us and we in Him."

Go over to 1 John 5:14‐15 and John says, "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us, and if we know that He hears us and whatever we ask we know that we have the request which we have asked from Him." If you belong to Him, He'll answer your prayers. Answered prayer is a sign you are His child.

Have you prayed for someone and seen them come to Christ? Have you prayed for someone who had a great trouble and a great need in their life and God used some means to turn that in to blessing and joy? Have you sought God about a lack in your life and have Him fill it? Have you asked God for enabling grace to present the truth on some occasion to an individual or a group and He gave you the grace to do it?

Number nine, can you discern between spiritual truth and error? It seems fairly obvious but let's go to 1 John 4:1, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out in to the world. By this you can know...here's the way to test them...every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God."

In other words the test for every spirit is to acknowledge the reality of Christ that He is the Savior, and also that God the second person has literally come in incarnate human flesh. That proves that that spirit comes from God.

Every false religious system that I know of violates that test. They will always undermine the truth about who Jesus Christ is. 1 John 4:3‐6, "Every spirit that doesn't confess Jesus isn't from God, it is the spirit of the Antichrist of which you have heard that it is coming and now it is already in the world, 4 you are from God, little children, and have overcome them because greater is He that is in you than he who is in the world.” 5 They're from the world therefore they speak as from the world, the world listens to them. 6 We're from God. He who knows God, listens to us."

If some guy came in this pulpit and taught error about Jesus Christ, it is our response that would separate the believers from the unbelievers. True believers would say, "That's not true." You know that because God has given you the truth. You have an anointing from God to discern. That's the indwelling ministry teaching of the Holy Spirit.

Last point, Have you been rejected for your faith? Look at 1 John 3:13, "Do not marvel, brethren, if the world hates you." Have you experienced animosity, hostility, rejection, bitterness, alienation even persecution? If so, that's a sign of your Christianity. Listen to Philippians 1:28, Paul says, "In no way be alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them but of salvation for you."

Be assured, dear friend, there's no reason for you to go through your spiritual experience in the dumps and yet very rarely does anybody ever teach about this most important theme. Let's bow together in prayer.



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