Hello everyone,
there is something bothering me: I do not know if I am really a believer and as a conculsion saved.
How do I know it? I want to follow Jesus but I cannot really tell you why. There is someting about His message I am attached…
Thank you for your help
Dani
Dani,
It would be nice to have a certificate or a signed contract or something, wouldn’t it?
Actually, imo, we do have that, in the life, death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus. He came to be the savior of the world (according to scripture) and I do not believe He failed. In that sense, you ARE saved. We all are – every last single one of us and his little sister.
In another sense, we are BEING saved as we follow Him and allow Father to transform us into His image through the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit. Just like a small child, he is growing up. He is already a child of his papa, but he is not yet a mature son of his papa. So while he is a child (immature/maturing) he hasn’t got a lot of freedom. He can’t have the keys to the family car; he can’t sign his papa’s bank cheques; he can’t represent the family in legal affairs, and so on. He is a child, and perhaps the heir of all, but he is not yet in power and he must obey those who are tasked to take care of him.
In a third sense, even when we are brought to a stage of maturity and are given additional responsibilities and freedoms, we are still physically a part of this present age. That is, we are “imprisoned” in corruptible bodies, destined to die. These bodies come with animal desires which are a never-ceasing source of grief to us. We are inherently selfish, short-sighted beings ruled (to some degree at least) by our physical needs and wants and instincts. One day, in the resurrection, we will find that our bodies, planted as seeds, have been reborn. This mortality will have put on immortality; this corruption will have put on incorruptibility. On that day our bodies too will be saved.
That’s my take on salvation, Dani. I hope it helps to at least give you a little more to ponder on.
Blessings, Cindy
The very fact that you are worried about your salvation is a signpost of you already having the small seed of faith within you. Those who are not awaken from their sleep do not worry about such things. Your heavenly Father has already begun a work in you, just trust that He will bring it to maturity in His time.
Grace and peace
Robert
Ask yourself - What is it that you are wanting to be saved from?
If your desire is to be saved from your sins, then that desire shows that you are already being saved from your sins.
If you see in you the negative effects of sin in your life, if you see how sin causes pain in your own life and in the lives of others; if you are sorrowful for your sin and believe that Jesus Christ came into the world and died to save sinners - then salvation is yours. - Close with Christ.
Peace to you,
Dan.
If I may go with a “mere Christianity” answer, most Christians will agree at least on this, regardless of what else they agree on in theology:
1.) Accept Jesus as your lord. If you aren’t doing that, you aren’t a Christian yet, period. (Jesus may still judge you’ve been serving Him anyway, but that’s on His side of responsibility.) This will include accepting Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself for you.
2.) Cooperate with what Jesus is doing in your life. You shouldn’t be trying to convince Jesus to save you, like you can earn your salvation; but on the other hand, “Why do you call Me Lord when you don’t even do what I say?!”
3.) Trust Jesus to save you from your sins. That’s part of the cooperation on your side of things, and also involves believing in the resurrection. If you don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead, how can you believe Jesus will be able to help you? – especially in saving you from your sins? He either ceased to exist, or died cursed as an enemy of God, or at best is depending on someone else to help him eventually and so cannot be helping you.
4.) Pass along in charity what Jesus gives you or empowers you with. That’s part of the cooperation on your side of things.
Christians differ among each other about how best to go about these things, including what to accurately believe about these things, but we agree at bottom on these four points. (Some liberal “Christians” don’t care about one or more of these points, but then it’s hard to figure out why they would call themselves Christians for any practical reason Jesus would care about.)
Billy Graham is going on (probably) his Last Crusade this year, with the final leg in America this week; and while I obviously don’t agree with him about a few things (like God being incompetent to save everyone He intends to save 
), I certainly agree with his version of the sinner’s prayer (which you may notice isn’t overly specific about theological details about how the Father, Son and Spirit relate to one another. All sorts of Christians can agree with the principles of this prayer despite our other disagreements.)
(Personally I find it helpful to pray this, or an equivalent, on a regular basis, as a disciplinary penitential exercise, including when giving thanks for meals. Other Christians would say you don’t have to ever do this more than once, which I also agree about in several ways. 
)
Hi Jason
What if:
-
I don’t want to accept Jesus as my lord (as I often don’t)?
-
I don’t want to cooperate with what Jesus is doing in my life (as I often don’t)?
-
I don’t trust Jesus to save me from my sins (which I think I do, as long as he really existed and he really was the son of God)?
-
I’m too selfish to do all that charity stuff? (which I sometimes am)?
Am I saved? Can I be saved? Will I be saved?
J
1.) Jesus acts originally to lead us to accept Him as our Lord, and keeps at it. But He isn’t going to rest satisfied short of that acceptance.
2.) Jesus acts originally to lead us to cooperate with what He is doing in our life, and keeps at it. But He isn’t going to rest satisfied short of that cooperation.
3.) Jesus acts originally to lead us to trust Him to save us from our sins, and keeps at it. But He isn’t going to rest satisfied short of that trust.
4.) Ditto charity.
That’s on Jesus’ side of things, though. Dani was asking about his side of things.
Also, I was previously giving an answer even non-universalists would agree with. Calvinists would agree with the above answers, but wouldn’t be able to have total assurance Jesus intends this for Dani. Arminians would have total assurance Jesus intends this for Dani, but wouldn’t agree with the above answers.
Both sides would agree in principle with my previous answers (maybe with various additions, and differences on how best to understand them). They’d disagree with each other (and with us especially) about these answers.
Hi Jason
Much as I loathe Calvinism, as you know 
, the answer to Dani’s question must surely be tied up in an amalgam of Calvinist-Arminian-Universalist theology? We are powerless to save ourselves (Calvinism), but God saves us (Calvinism), but not against our will (Arminianism), and yet inexorably, ultimately (Calvinism) - and this is true for us all (Universalism).
And so I would say to you, Dani, it doesn’t matter what you think or feel or believe or anything. You are saved. You always were and you always will be. Praise be to God .
Things started to change for me when I came to know who God is and who I truly am. My personality shifted to one who cares more about my fellow human being. I am a more compassionate person today.
If God is good, of course you will be saved. Saving the weak and helpless is what good Gods do.
If God is bad, you won’t be saved, or if you are, you’ll be saved to be his plaything etc. Very nasty thought… (But, to my mind, a bad God is quite impossible, like dry water, or dark light, or square circles.)
If God is imaginary, you’ll never know.
The only sensible thing for a lost sheep to do is to bleat loudly, and look for the shepherd until the shepherd finds him. In the same way, the only sensible thing for a lost person to do is to seek the good God, and keep calling out until He finds you.
Yep!
Still, cooperation with God shouldn’t just be set aside like it doesn’t matter, especially since intentionally not cooperating with God is rebellion and thus sin. God still expects us to walk according to the best light we can see, looking for more light thereby. He accepts whatever little we can give in good faith, and is broad about what counts as good faith, and He isn’t going to judge us as though we have no difficulties, but He is going to judge us for our uncharity and laziness.
Our uncharity and laziness are certainly difficulties (and not always ones we sought for), but we cannot excuse being lazy and uncharitable by appealing to our uncharity and laziness! A woman freezing to death must be wakened and warmed, even if at the moment she would naturally prefer to freeze to death (because at the moment it feels so warm and comfortable compared to the icy hot needles of trying to move around and restore her circulation.)
And God is certainly going to do that. But it isn’t always welcomed and appreciated by those He is bringing back to life, under the circumstances.
And God is certainly going to keep at it, even when He is kicked into the fire by those He is trying to warm out of their sins and back to life.
But people may, indeed, become confused and disheartened by the way that God (sometimes to protect and advance other plans of His) is going about the process of saving them from their sins, and worry that this means God isn’t doing so, or has no intention of doing so, or is failing to do so.
What we’re both trying to say, Dani, is please don’t worry.
(I like Alan’s recent reply, too. )
The new birth takes place when we are brought into contact with God’s saving grace. We will see God and His Son and His holy revealed will as beautiful and most valuable. We will see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ in the Gospel. God becomes our Supreme Treasure. His holy revealed will becomes beautiful bringing joy to our hearts. In this way we obey out of love. We are free to obey with joy. This doesn’t mean we never mess up. But when we do God will eventually convict us and bring us back to Himself as He restores to us the beauty of holy love. This is how we know we are born again.
- Those who are born again practice righteousness.
- Those who are born of God don’t make a practice of sinning
- Those who are born of God love others
- Those who are born of God confess the Son and have Him
- Those who are born of God believe that Jesus is the Christ
In this matter, I’m unwilling to put any weight on my subjective religious experience. Lot’s of people who have been “re-born”, filled with the Spirit etc find themselves thoroughly de-born at a later date!
My hope rests entirely on the goodness of God.
If God is good, then reality will be like an infinitely long road that winds its way across a flat world, where a new vista will be seen from the top of every hill, and where we will never end back where we started. All of us find ourselves somewhere on a road, but is it this road? Does God’s road even exist? Only time will tell? I suspect not even time will tell.
If our hope be true, this temporal road of ours will be but a tiny part of God’s eternal road. What’s more, all of us will always be on this road, and this road will never end.
Allan,
As the scriptures state it’s about having a changed personality to where we become a more humble, loving, and compassionate person. We do mess up every now and then but God convicts us and we ask for forgiveness and repent. The firstfruits are saved by grace through faith in this lifetime. The non-elect undergo purification in the lake of fire as they suffer the punishment for their sins - death of the old self. They are then given new life.
Because I say so!!! 
No doubt, but I’m unwilling to speculate about my own personality, or changes thereof.
First, my heart “is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it?” Certainly not me! I’m blissfully unaware of my deepest sins. The ones I know about are almost certainly trivial.
Second, I have no idea if changes in personality are the result of aging, social pressure, or any of a thousand things. God-only knows which changes were miraculous.
Third, lots of people who have appealed to a changed personality as evidence of God etc have changed their minds at a later date.
I’m quite happy to live in uncertainty. (I may as well make a virtue of a necessity!)
“Am I saved?” is not the question. “Is God good?” That’s the question.
Well, people tell me that they can see a change in me. I can see it and feel it also.
God has taken out the heart of stone and given me a new heart of flesh.
God can use a lot of different things by grace to bring about a humble love.
The question is are you born again. God is good. No need to question that.
You may well be right.
I’m still not prepared to make any judgments based on my own subjective experience for the reasons outlined above.
I’ve no idea. That’s impossible to answer. Multitudes delude themselves completely on such matters. Why would I be any different?
I hope God exists. I hope God is good. I choose to act as if he is because it’s irrational to choose otherwise. That’s the best I can do, I’m afraid, if I want to remain honest. I suspect it’s the best any of us can do at the moment.
There are devout Atheists who, at some point in their past, were 100% certain that they were born again. They could have said, " people tell me that they can see a change in me. I can see it and feel it also."
Consider the testimony of former pastor, current Atheist, Dan Barker:
He thought he knew he was “born again.” How can one know? Knowledge/Certainty of being “born again” is not what’s important.
There seems to be something wrong with this. I can’t quite put my finger on it, except perhaps that it is too indefinite.
All I know is that you can substitute “Zeus” or “Jupiter” or any other god for the word “God” in the above quote and it seems to work just as well (though I don’t see why it would be irrational to choose otherwise, either in the case of Zeus or the God who does in fact exist).
For me the existence of God is a reality and not a mere hope—and I AM being honest.