How Do You Know You Are Saved? 2 Corinthians 13:5 Says
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Are you lot a Christian? Many people who merits to exist bespeak to some event in the by to substantiate their merits. But inviting Jesus to come up into your life in the past is not proof that you are genuinely saved. In ii Corinthians 13:v Paul says to the Corinthian church, " Examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith; evidence yourselves (emphasis added)." He wouldn't take said that if some issue in the by were obviously the answer. The Bible never verifies anyone'southward conservancy by the past but by the nowadays. If there is no evidence of conservancy in your life now, you need to face the fact that you may not be a Christian. You demand to examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith. How does one do that? Jesus shows us in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew five-7).
The Distinguishing Mark of a Christian
Before Jesus was born, the religious leaders of State of israel had already decided what it meant to alive righteously. They had developed a organization contrary to Scripture based on self- righteousness generated by doing expert works. When Jesus entered the world, He shattered their religious organization by upholding the standard revealed in God's Discussion. He revealed how a citizen of His Kingdom actually lives.
If yous want to know if yous're a Christian, compare your life with the standard Christ presents in the Sermon on the Mountain. One word summarizes His standard: righteousness. Examine the lives of many professing Christians, and you'll find no such righteousness. Someone one time told me nigh a woman who said she was a Christian but was living with a man who was not her husband. Starting time Corinthians 6:9 says that those characterized by sexual immorality ("fornicators") "shall not inherit the kingdom of God ." That woman was living in a state of unrighteousness. Just righteousness characterizes true conversion.
Matthew 5:20, the key verse in the Sermon on the Mount, says, "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of sky." The scribes and Pharisees went to the Temple regularly, paid tithes, fasted, and prayed constantly. But Christ wasn't impressed with their religious performance. He said no one would enter His Kingdom whose righteousness didn't exceed theirs. Righteousness—living by God's standards—is what sets a person apart as God's kid.
Hebrews 12:xiv says, "Follow ... holiness, without which no human being shall see the Lord." Second Timothy 2:19 says, "The Lord knoweth them that are his; and, Permit every ane that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." Titus i:16 says that some people "profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, beingness abominable, and disobedient, and unto every adept work reprobate." A person's profession of Christ means naught apart from obedience and holiness. Some people believe you tin can come to Jesus Christ without a consequent modify in life-style. Just God expects a transformation. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; sometime things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." Commencement John ane:9 says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and simply to forgive u.s. our sins, and to cleanse u.s. from all unrighteousness." Being righteous doesn't mean you never sin; it means yous confess your sin to the Lord, repent of information technology, and despise it. First John ii:iii says, "By this we do know that nosotros know him, if we keep his commandments." In John 14:fifteen Christ said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." Commencement John 2:ix says, "He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now." Showtime John 3:9 says, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."
The Bible makes information technology articulate that those who are genuinely saved are righteous and holy. They still sin, but with decreasing frequency. A true laic hates his sin (cf., Rom. vii:fifteen-25) and repents of it, hungering and thirsting for what is right. He obeys God, loves his brother, and hates the evil globe organisation. No one can be a Christian and continue living the way he did before he knew Christ. Making a determination years ago, going to an research room, walking an aisle, or reading a tract on how to accept Christ is not a biblical criterion for salvation—the issue is what your life is like right now. If sin and unrighteousness characterize your life, there is a possibility y'all are a disobedient Christian—simply there is a greater possibility yous are not a Christian at all.
The Proper Archway into Christ's Kingdom
In Matthew 5:3 Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The Greek text indicates that the Kingdom belongs just to those who are poor in spirit. Only those who admit their spiritual bankruptcy and sinfulness tin can enter the Kingdom. Existence "poor in spirit" speaks of beingness poverty stricken in one's spirit. Poesy iv shows the result of that inner poverty: "Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall exist comforted." But those who are cleaved and mournful over their sin ever receive salvation. Meekness, produced by the burdensome weight of ane's sin, also characterizes a person inbound the Kingdom (v. 5). When a person is poor in spirit, mournful nearly his sin, and meek, then he volition hunger and thirst after righteousness, and he will exist filled (5. 6).
If you didn't come to Jesus Christ shattered over your sinfulness, and hungering and thirsting afterwards righteousness, y'all are not a Christian. Some people come to Christ as if they are doing Him some keen favor. Sometimes Christians reflect that same attitude by hoping some famous person will be saved because of his potential influence. But whoever wants to come up to Jesus must come on His terms: mourning over his sin, and desiring righteousness. When someone comes on those terms, the Lord makes him merciful (v. 7), pure in centre (v. 8), and a peacemaker (v. 9). Then considering of what he is, people will persecute him (5. 10), revile him, and say false things about him (v. xi). Simply he will rejoice, considering he'due south a citizen of the Kingdom (v. 12).
Vital Signs of a Christian
A Singled-out Testimony
In Matthew five:13-14 Christ referred to believers as "the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world." A Christian's life- style will be easily distinguishable from the world'due south. Only as table salt preserves decomposable meat, Christians are a preservative in the midst of a decaying civilization. One reason the prophesied Great Tribulation of the cease times will be so terrible is the preserving event of the church will be gone. Christ compares His disciples to a light set up on a hill and salt that has retained its saltiness. Is information technology evident to those around you lot that your life is dissimilar, or practise you do the aforementioned things they practise? If your life didn't modify when you were supposedly saved, then you aren't really a Christian.
An Obedient Life
A child of God is characterized past obedience. In Matthew 5:17-xix our Lord said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and world pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no way pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break i of these least commandments, and shall teach men and then, he shall exist called the least in the kingdom of heaven; only whosoever shall practise and teach them, the same shall be chosen neat in the kingdom of heaven. Christ's point is this: if you lot are truly saved, yous will exist obedient. Y'all will take an overwhelming desire to submit to God's Give-and-take. Paul hungered to obey God's Discussion, even though sin was e'er tugging at him (Rom. vii:15-25).
Matthew 5:21-32 maintains that if you have actually been converted, you will think differently. Apparently the Israelites controlled their outward beliefs but not their thoughts. The Lord said to them, "Ye have heard that it was said by them of onetime, Yard shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of judgment; but I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of judgment" (vv. 21-22). A believer doesn't fifty-fifty desire to injure anyone—let alone kill—because he has a dissimilar heart. In Ezekiel 36:26 God promises that when you lot become redeemed, He "will take away the stony middle out of your flesh and ... will give you an eye of flesh."
In Matthew 5:27-28 Christ says that a Christian is not to commit infidelity or even entertain adulterous thoughts. Someone who claims to be a Christian and continues to exist immoral, practicing such things as infidelity or homosexuality, will never inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:nine-x). Until you are broken over your sinfulness and crawl into Christ's Kingdom hungering for righteousness, you will never know what true redemption is.
In Matthew 5:33-37 Christ discusses perjury and keeping i's oaths. He emphasized that true conversion produces pure and truthful speech, "for out of the abundance of the heart the oral fissure speaketh" (Matt. 12:34 ). In Matthew 5:38-47 He adds that a citizen of His Kingdom doesn't retaliate but is kind. He loves his neighbor (five. 43), and fifty-fifty his enemies (5. 44). The goal is for believers to exist like God (v. 48).
No 1 is a Christian because he went forwards at a meeting and signed a card, or because a advisor said he was. In fact, a counselor should never assure someone he is saved afterward that person verbally commits his life to Christ. No counselor can be certain of that. It is the Holy Spirit's job to grant assurance to a laic. He grants it by an inward testimony (Rom. viii:16 ) and an outward sit-in.
James ii:17 says that "organized religion, if it hath not works, is dead." An unfortunate legacy of modern evangelism is that one'due south assurance of salvation is attached to a determination. Biblically, however, assurance has nothing to practice with the past; it'south related to what your life is like right now. Jesus said, "If ye continue in my word, and then are ye my disciples indeed" (John 8:31 ). Testify of salvation is always present in a truthful believer.
Sincere Worship
A believer demonstrates the correct kind of worship (Matt. 6:1- eighteen). His worship of God is genuine, in contrast to that of the Pharisees, whose only concern was attracting attention to their spirituality. A Christian gives of his resource because He loves God, non because he craves public recognition (6:1-4). His prayers aren't hypocritical simply a sincere expression of his heart (six:five-xv). Also he doesn't need for others to know that he's fasting (6:sixteen-18).
A Biblical Perspective of Money and Materialism
According to Matthew half dozen:19-24 the citizens of Christ's Kingdom don't love money: they do not lay up for themselves "treasures upon earth" (v. 19). They turn down to serve money considering they know information technology's impossible to serve both information technology and God (v. 24). If you lot have committed your life to acquiring wealth, yous are not a servant of God. If you are a friend of the world, you are an enemy of God (James 4:four). If yous love the earth, the honey of the Father is not in you lot (1 John 2:15 ). Matthew half dozen:25-34 adds that Christians are non to be preoccupied with the necessities of life. They know God takes care of those things vv. 31-32).
An Uncritical Dear of Others
Matthew 7:1-12 emphasizes that 18-carat believers have skillful relationships. They don't constantly misjudge other people and human action pious toward them while ignoring their own problems. Christians are known for loving others (cf., John 13:35 ).
Perhaps later on this survey of what Christ taught in the Sermon on the Mount, yous are wondering how anyone could ever alive like that. If you're thinking it's impossible to practice all those things, that'southward the very response the Lord wants. After confronting a rich young ruler with his materialism, Jesus said to His disciples, "Verily I say unto y'all that a rich man shall with difficulty enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, Information technology is easier for a camel to become through the centre of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God " (Matt. xix:23-24). It's incommunicable for a camel to get through the eye of a needle! That's exactly what the Lord wanted people to conclude. Verses 25-26 say, "When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who, then, can be saved? Simply Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." No man has the resources inside himself to alive up to God's standards. That'due south why we accept to bandage ourselves on the mercy of God. The rich young ruler in Matthew 19 wasn't willing to do that. He wanted to enter the Kingdom but on his terms. Notwithstanding, that'southward like trying to put a camel through the centre of a needle. The only way into the Kingdom is by becoming broken in spirit, mournful, and eager for a righteousness that yous tin can't attain and don't deserve.
Well-nigh people don't want to meet those conditions. They want to exercise things their way. They resemble a man with iv pieces of luggage—worldliness, sin, Satan, and self—trying to get through the turnstile into the Kingdom. They want in so they can have happiness and stay out of hell, just they want in on their terms. However, the Lord said, "Enter in at the narrow gate; for broad is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be who go in that style" (Matt. vii:13). Many people enter through the broad gate because they tin can take their baggage of good works and self-righteousness with them. Verse xiv continues, "Narrow is the gate, and hard is the style, which leadeth unto life, and few there exist that notice it." The Greek give-and-take translated "hard" literally ways "compressed." Yous have to strip yourself of everything to go through the narrow gate.
A Deceptive Illusion of Eternal Life
Discover that the broad manner leading to devastation is non marked as the manner to hell—information technology'southward marked as the way to heaven! People get on the broad road because it doesn't require a change of life-mode. Yous merely have to say y'all fabricated a decision, were baptized, went forward at a coming together, or signed a bill of fare. The deplorable thing is that many people are on that road. Merely the style that leads to life is restrictive, and very few observe it.
If yous still cling to your worldliness and self-righteousness, y'all're on the incorrect road. You lot may think you're headed to sky and that your skillful works will get you in. But someday you will find what John Bunyan described in The Pilgrim'due south Progress : that there is an entrance to hell from the portals of heaven. In fact Christ warned people to beware of faux prophets (Matt. 7:15-20) considering they sell tickets to the broad way; they'll tell you you can get to heaven without changing anything.
In Matthew seven:21-22 Jesus says, "Not every 1 that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of sky, merely he that doeth the will of my Male parent, who is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, take we non prophesied in thy name? And in thy name accept bandage out demons? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And and then will I profess unto them, I never knew yous; depart from me, ye that piece of work iniquity." Many people won't discover until it'southward also belatedly that they were on the wrong route.
Christ ended the Sermon on the Mount by illustrating the destinations of the wide and narrow roads. In Matthew vii:24-25 He speaks of a wise human who builds his business firm on a solid foundation. Verse 25 says, "The rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it cruel not; for it was founded upon a stone." That man came to God on His terms—he built his business firm on the stone, which is obedience. Therefore his house stood. Christ continues, "Every i that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who congenital his business firm upon the sand" (5. 26). The foolish human congenital a beautiful business firm; his religion looked good. He is one of those who prophesied, cast out demons, and did wonderful works (v. 22) but never came to God on His terms. Verse 27 says, "The pelting descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it cruel; and great was the fall of it."
What a disaster it would be to come before Christ on Judgment 24-hour interval and discover yous are sentenced to hell because you didn't come to Him His way! Examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith. As Peter said, "Be all the more than diligent to brand certain about His calling and choosing you" (2 Peter i:10 ; New American Standard Bible ).
Source: https://www.gty.org/library/articles/45EXAM/examine-yourself
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