How Can I Know I Am Saved?

Introduction

How can I know I am saved?

What do I need to do to be saved?

Can I lose my salvation?

Can I have assurance that I will go to heaven when I die?

Soteriology — The theological study of the doctrine of salvation — is one of the deepest and richest theological pursuits, and like other aspects of theological study has elements of mystery which the Church Fathers and theologians have been marvelling at for centuries.

Mystery is not synonymous with contradiction or illogical, it simply means a depth we have not or cannot uncover.

I say this because this is a topic that is so deep we must approach it theologically, but it is also such a critical doctrine for us personally that we must apply it pastorally.

ILLUST - “Pastor, I’m worried I may not be saved; how can I know I am saved?”

Right question!

“The very fact that you are asking the question is an indication that God is at work.”

Because the one in the greatest danger is the one who has never been concerned with the question, “What must I do to be saved.” They have either believed themselves to have always been saved and have a false security or they are unconcerned with salvation at all and have no security.

Today, we want to give CLARITY about what it means to be saved, URGENCY to deal with the question in your own life, and lean into some MyYSTERY in order to gain SECURITY that this question need not be a nagging one throughout your life as a fully devoted follower of Jesus.

Acts 16:28–31 (ESV) — 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” 29 And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Asking the question points you in the right direction

**There is no more important question you will ever ask.**

**Finding it in God’s Word, there is no more important answer you will ever receive.**

Salvation is God’s work, from start to finish.

You cannot save yourself.

Saved from what?

Sin, God’s wrath, hell

Saved for what?

Freedom, God’s glory, good works, heaven.

Only Jesus saves.

(Peter and John before the Council)

Acts 4:12 (ESV) — 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

There are many different religions throughout the world, but there is only ONE way to God an heaven, and that is through Jesus.

John 14:6 (ESV) — 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

There are many religions because we all intuitively know the world is broken from sin and our relationship with God is broken. Religion = reaching after God

There is NO salvation apart from Jesus and believing faith in him.

God does not “grade on a curve.”

Meaning— God does not grant salvation to those who are “close enough”

No one is innocent before God.

I think some of the questions we as Christians ask are simply echoes of questions unbelievers ask, and we fail to realize how a greater understanding of God through the Holy Spirit does not simply answer the question, it flips the question entirely. (we will see this next week as well)

Example: The objection to the exclusivity of Christianity (Jesus is the ONLY way) goes like this:

“Why would a loving God send anyone to hell?” or “How could a loving God send someone like the moms, dads, and children of Tripura to hell simply because they have never heard of Jesus?”

The question begs the moral high ground. The problem is, we are not the standard of morality — God is.

The question is not, “How could a loving God send anyone to hell?” Rather, it should be asked, “How can a just God allow anyone into heaven?”

This is the greater shock!

Until we are willing to accept what Scripture clearly teaches — that no one is innocent before the holy God, then we are not ready to grasp even the question of salvation.

What about the ones who have never heard the gospel?

God loves the lost.

2 Peter 3:9 (ESV) — 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

God provided a way for everyone.

John 3:16 (ESV)

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

(not universal salvation but universal call)

God has sovereignly placed everyone.

Acts 17:26–27 (ESV) — 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

God has clearly sent YOU.

Matthew 28:19–20 (ESV)

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Salvation is made effective in your life through faith in Jesus.

You are not saved because of your Christian heritage.

You are saved because God chose you.

Ephesians 1:4–5 (ESV) — 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

You are not saved because of religious works.

Matthew 7:21–23 (ESV) — 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

You are saved because of Christ’s finished work.

John 19:30 (ESV)

30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

You are not saved because you are a morally good person.

Romans 3:10–12 (ESV) — 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

You are saved because of Christ’s imputed righteousness.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

You are saved by grace through faith in Jesus.

Ephesians 2:8–9 (ESV) — 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

The Holy Spirit? opens our eyes so that we may choose Christ?

The work of securing salvation, presenting salvation, and enabling salvation is first and only God’s work in your life.

Without the work of the Holy Spirit, you would not, on your own, choose Jesus.

Christ will hold you fast.

If salvation is God’s work from start to finish and based on Christ’s finished work on the cross, then it is Christ who holds you and not vice versa.

Can I lose my salvation?

There are faithful brothers and sisters who would answer this question differently and that is because somewhere between God’s complete sovereignty over all human action and the free will of man lies the mystery of salvation.

Some lean God’s complete sovereignty over the security of believer.

Philippians 1:6 (ESV) — 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1:13–14 (ESV) — 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

John 10:27–30 (ESV) — 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

John 5:24 (ESV) — 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) — 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Some lean man’s free will over whether or not they remain saved.

Hebrews 2:1–3 (ESV) — 1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard,

Hebrews 3:12 (ESV) — 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

Hebrews 6:4–6 (ESV) — 4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

God’s omniscience does not necessitate a determinism.

All those God has elected through his foreknowledge to be saved will be secured unto salvation through his sustaining work, a means of which are the real warnings against apostasy.

Ex.

Acts 27:21–25 (ESV) — 21 Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, “Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss. 22 Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. 23 For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, 24 and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ 25 So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told.

Acts 27:30–31 (ESV) — 30 And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, and had lowered the ship’s boat into the sea under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow, 31 Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.”

The warning was the means by which the prophecy was found true.

If you are asking:

**How can I know I am saved?

Recognize there is an indicator in the question itself that points you to the answer.

Have you humbly confessed and repented of your sin and placed your trust in Jesus’ atoning work for you on the cross?

Has there been evidence in your life that you are becoming more like Christ - not not meaning perfection - but evidence of the Spirit’s work?

Dear friend, God did not :

Choose you before the foundation of the world

Send his only Son into the world

Lay on his Son the wrath and judgment reserved for you

Account to you the righteousness of his Son that you did not deserve

Send to you the enabling power of the Holy Spirit to give you the evidence, sealing, and sanctifying power

So you could spend your redeemed life in fear of losing something you couldn’t gain in the first place.

ILLUST - It’s like my children spending their lives in fear that they may say or do something that would have me no longer be their father.

Romans 5:1 (ESV) — 1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Then lean into Jesus as HE holds you fast.

Trust in Christ as you have trusted in Christ.

Run to Jesus, and stay there.

He will hold you fast.**

PRAY

Benediction

Jude 24–25 (ESV)

24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.