Assurance of your salvation

August 26, 2023

After accepting God’s gift of salvation, you should notice changes in your life and how you decide to utilize your time. Otherwise, you may doubt your salvation, which could mean that you were never saved at all. This writing will reveal the signs to help you know that you are saved through God’s perpetual grace.

Keeping the commandments
The two greatest commandments recited by Jesus are to love the Lord with all your mind, heart, and soul (Matthew 22:37; Deuteronomy 6:5) and to love your neighbor as you love yourself (Matthew 22:39; Leviticus 19:18). A common teaching today is that these two greatest commandments replaced the Ten Commandments entirely. Christ did not teach this. Jesus Himself warned that if anyone breaks any commandment and teaches others to do so, then they will not be favored in the heavenly judgment (Matthew 5:19).
Jesus became our everlasting sacrifice, and by coming to faith in Him and confessing your sins, you no longer have to slit a lamb’s throat to be forgiven. This is what is meant by those under the new covenant not being justified by the works of the law, but by faith (Galatians 2:16; Romans 3:28).
You will desire to keep the commandments as a result of your faith in Christ because you are no longer dead to sin but seek to be righteous instead (Matthew 5:6; Proverbs 21:21). To love the Lord entirely is to keep all His commandments in your born again life (1 John 5:3; John 14:15, 15:10; Deuteronomy 10:12-13), and keeping them will support your faith (Deuteronomy 6:2; Ecclesiastes 12:13).
Don’t think that you are alone in this process. By receiving the gift of salvation, you will receive the Holy Spirit, who will direct you with your obedience to God (John 14:16-17, 14:26), including your good works (Ephesians 2:10). God works in you by granting imparted righteousness (Philippians 2:13), and this should allow you to strive for complete sanctification.

Good works
Evidence of your salvation also includes the good works from your newfound faith in Christ. Good works in the Bible are the good physical acts that you do in support of your faith apart from keeping the commandments (1 Timothy 3:1, 5:10; James 2:21, 2:25). They are crucial in your born-again life, as faith without good works is dead or incomplete faith (James 2:17). Good works can vary based on the circumstances. They could be helping the poor, reading the Bible, holding the door for someone, or even praying. Additionally, these works are to apply at a spiritual level. For instance, helping the poor does not only include the financially poor but also those who lack knowledge. You are to give bread (the Word of God) to them as they are “strangers from the covenants of promise” (Ephesians 2:12).
Failure to do good works when allowed is the sin of neglect (James 4:17). Maintaining salvation requires us to keep the commandments with good works (Matthew 19:17; 2 Timothy 3:17; Matthew 25:37-41).

Sensing transgression
Followers of Christ will have the ability to sense sin in themselves when it occurs. This sense comes from the conviction of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8). Awareness that you have sinned is good evidence that the Holy Spirit resides in you and you are saved. When convicted by the Spirit for sin, you must confess your sin to Christ so that you can be forgiven (1 John 1:9). Only your past sins are forgiven when you are saved (Romans 3:25). The idea that your present and future sins are also forgiven is unbiblical. Any present sins in your born-again life must be confessed every time to Christ so you can be acquitted (Proverbs 28:13). Any new unrepentant sins that are revealed to you by the Holy Spirit must also be confessed and repented of without delay (Matthew 3:8).
Since God's people will have a by-heart understanding of God’s law (Hebrews 10:16), born-again Christians under no circumstances should continue to sin willfully (Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 10:26).

The word of God
A great desire to study God’s word in the Bible is also strong evidence that you are saved. Part of your sanctification process is the continuous consumption of the word of God. Jesus declared that man must not live by bread alone but also by the word of God (Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3). Just like you are to depend on food to live on earth, you must also depend on God’s word in the Bible for eternity that awaits. Studying and reading God’s word should not be limited to Bible study groups or church service days but every opportunity you have (Proverbs 3:6; Psalm 105:4; Lamentations 3:25).

Prayer
An active prayer life is essential for Christians. Prayer is your direct communication with the Father, where Christ is the mediator (Hebrews 9:15; 1 Timothy 2:5; Romans 8:34). This is why you must end your prayers with: “in Jesus name”. No person can come to the Father without going through Christ (John 14:6). Praying can be used to help resist temptation (Luke 22:40), for guidance (James 1:5), for thanksgiving (Colossians 4:2), for one another (James 5:16), and confession of sin (Psalm 32:5). For anything else, God will only hear prayers that are in accordance to His will (1 John 5:14). This means that any sinful prayers will not be heard (James 4:3).

Doubts
It’s not uncommon for some to doubt their salvation due to their past or current transgressions. It is also possible to self-deceive yourself into thinking that you are saved when the truth is you are not. You will still fall into sin after being born again (1 John 1:8), possibly multiple times in a single period (Proverbs 24:16). However, those sins should not be willful. Doubting your salvation due to habitual sins could indicate that you are striving for self-righteousness salvation rather than accepting the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ (Romans 3:24; Ephesians 2:8). As stated previously, your subsequent righteousness after being born again is not of your own, but of Christ and the Holy Spirit who is always convicting you of sin, and His righteousness is given to you. Trust in God and allow Him to restore you to your intended character and complete sanctification (Psalm 23:3; Philippians 2:13).
Above all, God's people should have absolute assurance of their salvation without any doubts (1 John 5:11-13).