Security not Taken for Granted

Do you question your salvation? Should you?

 

I recall hearing preachers, when I was younger, talking to people about their conversion. A person would walk the aisle at a church and pray with the pastor after a service. The pastor would then announce to the congregation that we had a new believer in our midst. Then, the pastor would look the young man or woman in the eye, tell them to write down the date of when they believed, and never, under any circumstances, allow themselves to question whether or not they are saved.

 

On the one hand, the pastor was doing something right. The pastor knew that, if a person is genuinely saved, genuinely converted, genuinely rescued by Jesus Christ, nothing will ever change that fact. We do not earn our way to God. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. So, if we are saved by Jesus, we become his and no force on earth, including us, can take us away from Jesus. Salvation is eternal, and Christ does not lose those he saves.

 

But, there is also a problem with authoritatively telling a person never to allow themselves to look back at an emotional event in their youth and question whether or not they are saved. Look at what Paul wrote to the Corinthians.

 

2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

 

Paul called on the people of Corinth to look at themselves and test themselves to see if they are really in the faith. No way was Paul wanting them to look back for a date when they prayed a prayer with a pastor. Instead, Paul was asking them to examine themselves at present to see if they are saved.

 

What then should we do? Should we ignore our past? Should we doubt our salvation and never have confidence? No, that is not the way.

 

We should, however, look at our own lives and ask ourselves important questions:

 

• Do I believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died for my sins and rose from the grave?
• Do I believe that my only hope for my eternal soul is in Christ and in Christ alone?
• Am I willing to submit to the Lordship of Jesus?

 

You must ask yourself those questions. If you answer them in a genuine affirmative, the Lord tells you that you have salvation. If you do not genuinely believe in Christ, if you have not genuinely placed your hope in him, if you are not genuinely willing to follow him as your Lord, you have a major problem. A past prayer may be the moment that you had genuine faith. But a past prayer, for many, is simply a sign of an emotional reaction to a religious service. The far more important question for us all is, “Am I, right now, trusting in Jesus and Jesus alone—his perfect life, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection—as my only source of salvation?” Ask,” am I willing to yield all authority over my life and soul to Jesus?” This is how you test to see if you are in the faith. And, these are questions that believers should ask themselves.