In a nut shell
A lot of people (even Christians) ask me how they know they can be saved. There are actually a couple of ways to know but they all require a sensitive heart to the Spirit of God.
When ever someone asks me about salvation I ask them a couple of questions. I’m not God so I can’t tell them if they’re saved. But I’ll start off with;
What does it mean to be saved?
The Bible uses a lot of terminology when it comes to salvation such as:
Lost
Dead
Darkened
Imprisoned
When you’re without the salvation of God you are without life. Sure you may live a ‘life’ but it is without purpose, you do vain things that in the end amount to one thing… death.
-You must then be saved from death-
Ever feel like your life isn’t going anywhere? Like you’re beating at the wind trying to get something to come from nothing, perhaps you have your mindset wrong.
Salvation starts in the mind. Christ said “To Him that has ears let him understand.” That means if you can listen, consider God’s word. God’s word from the beginning has been one thing. “Repent”
I hear people all the time tell me that they’re saved, I ask them how they know and they tell me. “Because in my heart I just know”. The Bible tells us that “The heart of man is deceitfully wicked” don’t trust your heart for salvation trust Christ.
What does it mean to trust Christ?
The Bible uses some great words when it comes to trusting
Faith
Believe
Earnest
Lean on
These words give us this idea that we must abandon our ideas of what “good is” and let someone else define it. So you’ve lived your life for yourself, for your possessions, or for your gain. You did things because of what you can get.
Repentance is a hard word to understand for a lot of people but all it means is to ‘change your mind.’ God wants you to stop living for yourself and start living for Him. If you change your mind to start living for Him you’ve got half of salvation.
Christ said you must repent and believe the gospel.
What does it mean to believe the Gospel?
A lot of people use the word gospel like it is some mantra you can say that will usher you into the presence of God.
Good news
Happy report
A wonderful story!
The Gospel is the good news. Because you were living for yourself you’re living to your death. The Bible is explicit, those who are not living for God are dead, and they will be in hell forever after their bodies perish. Why? You see God is a Holy God and He cannot overlook sin. Say for instance a man stole thirty five dollars from the cash register. Regardless of how much it was, or whether or not he meant to that register is now thirty five dollars less.
We were created for God’s glory, when we don’t fulfill our purpose we rob God of His glory. He can’t just overlook it because that would mean He has no glory, but because of His holiness He must separate Himself from that which is unholy.
Whether we mean to or not we have made ourselves disgusting in sin.
But the good news is this, that Christ God’s own son can make you holy. Not by you working, but by his death. You see Christ was separated so that you would not have to be. That’s the good news, all you have to do is to believe that He paid this debt confess that He is able to save you, and you will be saved.
If you are saved you will change from who you are to who God wants you to be. You can know that you are a child of God by His comfort through His Spirit, and by the change through His Son. You need to ask yourself, “do I love the things of the world?” if you do repent. Love the things that God loves, hate the things that God hates. This is the Gospel in a nut shell.