How Can I Know?

I work with a fair number of people who really aren't sure if they're “saved” or not. They're not sure because they haven't really made up their minds to leave behind what this world considers important. Of course, we're all bombarded on a daily if not hourly basis with messages telling us that things and stuff and self are important. We're all inundated with messages telling us that we get our value and worth from what we own, how we look, what our level of education is and what strata of society in which we live. We all have to fight off those lies.

A person who is saved however, a person who is a follower of Jesus should be able to recognize the lies that the world feeds us.

A Christian is someone who believes to the point of acting upon what Jesus Christ taught about Himself, about life, death, sin, forgiveness and the resurrection (His and ours). Jesus taught that a follower of His is a person who depends upon Jesus alone for salvation. He taught that a Christian is someone who depends upon what Jesus calls His Word (The Bible), and upon His Spirit for guidance and strength in daily living.

Does that mean that true Christians never sin, that they never do things contrary to the teaching’s of Jesus? 
. Obviously not because our sin loving nature is the very reason that Jesus came to “seek and to save” the lost. 
. Obviously not because Christians are told to confess their sins and to ask for forgiveness. 
. Obviously not because, ‘doing what we shouldn’t do, and not doing what we should do’ is an ongoing moral struggle that is addressed in the Bible.

In his letter to the Colossian Christians, Paul says - “. . . you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”

In 1^st John chapter 2 we're told, “”We know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commands. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys His word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did.”

You can know you are saved when you look back and realize that you desire to worship God. That would have been unthinkable, absurd in your pre salvation state. You have changed from serving yourself to serving Him. Your priorities have changed from the things of this world to the things of God's Kingdom. When you are a genuine follower of Jesus, you'll stop performing, working, striving for salvation. You'll simply relax in the knowledge that your faith in the Grace of God and what Jesus accomplished on the cross is your only requirement for a full and abundant life on this planet and for eternity in paradise on the other side.

There is no need to stumble around in fear and uncertainty. When the Holy Spirit resides within your soul, you'll know.