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NASB | 1 John 3:24 The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 John 3:24 The one who habitually keeps His commandments [obeying His word and following His precepts, abides and] remains in Him, and He in him. By this we know and have the proof that He [really] abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us [as a gift]. |
Subject: How do we know that we are truly saved? |
Bible Note: I am almost certain that I understand your point. A life of sin after salvation is an anomaly, and those who lead it should be worried. They should ask themselves whether they are really saved. In fact, we would all do well to ask ourselves that. But having asked the question, and having examined ourselves, we should know without question whether or not we are saved. One might well say that we should not rest until we have a clear answer. If we are not saved, we should fly to the Lord immediately and receive his grace. But once we have received his salvation, we should go on from there, or in it, with confidence. The confidence that we have is not in ourselves but in God, and in our Lord Jesus Christ. To say that I am saved is to say that Jesus has saved me. To say that I will never be lost is to say that Jesus will keep me. I know that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him. Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Then do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward. Those who live a life of sin cannot be confident in their salvation. Scripture is rather rough on them. Everyone who has been begotten of God does not sin, because His seed abides in him, and he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and we walk in darkness, we lie and are not practicing the truth. It is clear that we can lie to ourselves. For example, he that says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness even until now. But the New Testament letters, written to Christians, tell us that a saved person does not automatically do right. He may need correction. He needs information, even about himself, before he can respond. When he knows who he is (and again, he needs to be made aware) he may respond to the challenge to live up to it. Salvation is cast in various terms: Forgiveness of sins. Escape from eternal punishment. Reconciliation to God. Repentance. Faith. Passage from death to life. A new nature. A new believer may be aware of one of these and not the others. Again, we need to be taught, and the New Testament letters teach us. We are not only forgiven, we are dead to sin. We have not only escaped the dominion of Satan, we have become sons of God. We are no longer slaves to sin, we are servants of righteousness. Knowledge of these things will help us to live in the light of them. When we see the sad strange life of people professing to be saved and practicing sin, we may not know the reason for the incongruity. Perhaps they lack salvation. Perhaps they lack knowledge. Perhaps they lack the help they need. I would suggest that we offer them the Gospel, information about the nature of the child of God, assistance in making necessary changes, and see how they respond. Chances are that the person claiming to be saved will respond positively, in some cases showing a desire to be saved, in other cases responding to the challenge to be true to his Christlike nature. They may even show repentance and a readiness to accept help. If they reject all such overtures, they may leave us wondering if they are saved or even want to be. The question for me is: How do you get to those people? Likely, it is not by criticizing them or condemning them. More likely, it is by presenting the truth and the challenge. The question is one of practicality. Where do you meet these people? And how do you get to talk to them? Neither the structure of the church nor its meetings, nor the ecclesiastical media, nor the mass media, seems to allow it. So I am left with a quandary. It is clear to me that we need to get the Gospel to the people in church, to help them to clarify their relationship to God, and to challenge and assist them to live as children of God. But the means by which that can be done I do not have. It might be good for us to devote some effort to discovering or revealing those. |