HOW CAN I KNOW IF I AM A TRUE CHRISTIAN?

HOW CAN I KNOW IF I AM A CHRISTIAN?

By Pastor Mark Taylor

This is a very important question.  If we get this concept wrong, then nothing else in seeking a relationship with God will work.  We can be good moral people and have some knowledge of the Bible.  However, if we do not understand what the Bible says about "salvation", we can go through life deceived and discouraged.  So, Let us look at some basic evidences of knowing that we are true believers.  Because, that is what God wants.  "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son od God."  (I John 5:13)

Jesus has given us specific statements regarding how we must become a Christian and how we can know if we are really “saved” or “born again”.   Many of us have heard the invitation to come to Christ and have given our hearts to the Savior.  We have read and heard the verse Jesus said to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” (John 3:3).    

We know that before a child is born into the world he has eyes, but cannot see, he has ears but cannot hear. Before we are born we cannot breathe. It is only after he is born that he is now capable of hearing and seeing.  When we are “born again” we receive our spiritual eyes and ears. “The natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (I Corinthians 2:14).  

When we are “born again” God breathes into our soul a spiritual life.  It is that great change which God works in the soul when He brings it into life.  When we are “born again”, our spiritual life begins. Our Lord is reminding us that if we are going to have the kingdom of God in us in this lifetime, and the kingdom of Heaven in the life to come, we must do two things:  “Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 18:3-4).

How can you know if you are “born again”.  There are several ways.  Have you come to Christ and asked for forgiveness of your sins and asked Him to be your Savior?  Is there a change within you that makes you care about spiritual things?  Is there a change in you that makes you want to avoid sin and the pleasures of this world?  “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Colossians 3:1-2).  The new birth does not consist in washing the outside of the cup, but a cleaning on the inside, in the inner man.  If you are not changed inside, this child is not born to you. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Another way you can know if you are “born again” is that there is a change on the exterior of your life.  Do your friends and family observe a change?  If there is no change in the outward life, there is no change within.  The proof of the Christian is in the living.  When we live in sin and worldly pleasure, and seek our own desires, and not God’s will, and we deceive ourselves.  “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:6-8).

The “New You” should not include the following characteristics. “But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds.”   (Colossians 3:8-9).  

The “New You” should include these characteristics: “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another.  If anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.” (Colossians 3:12-13).

The “New You” has the ability and power from the Holy Spirit to overcome sin. 

“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”   (1 Corinthians 10:13).

The “New You” has the ability to love others. “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:8).  “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the payment for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”. “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.   (1 John 4:10-11)

God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16).  “We love Him because He first loved us. If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.” (1 John 4:19-21).

The “New You” will demonstrate your faith by your good works.  “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”  (Ephesians 2:10).  “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:14-17).