Test Your Salvation: How to tell if you are!

How do you know for sure if you're saved? Check for two things: Do you have a heartbeat and are you still on the realm called earth? If your heart is beating and you're still here, you're NOT saved. If you have a spirit residing in a new body and you're in paradise, then you're saved! Let me explain.

It struck me tonight that I'm not yet saved! Don't pray for me yet, nor worry about my spiritual condition because I am "safed". Let's move on.  When we accept Jesus it is commonly said that we have become "saved". However, that's not the case. Because we have faith we have the "hope of salvation"! To comprehend where this is leading, ask yourself, "What am I saved from?" We're saved from the second death:

Revelation 20:14 (ESV) "Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire."

When we become a disciple of Christ our faith is what "saves" us from spiritually dying in "the lake of fire'. Our faith "saves" us from going to hell. Rather than dying spiritually forever, which IS death, but  is more accurately "eternally living in torment", our reward shall be to live forever, both spiritually and physically. We become immortal:

 John 3:15 (ESV) "that whoever believes in him may have eternal life."

Hence, rather than being "saved" we MAY HAVE eternal life. Believing is not "maybe we're Christians", but that "there is a possibility than one may someday have unbelief". There is some time difference in between when we first believe and when we are rewarded for it. Rather than saying that I'm "saved" it's more true to say that "I have the hope of a final reward"!

Being "saved" must be understood as a believer that you have" the hope of avoiding hell".  We'll look at that further in a moment.

Scripture does refer to salvation in the past tense. However, it is predicated on faith.

 Ephesians 2:8 (ESV) "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God..."

In effect because of a person's faith they are saved, but is faith an instant in time or a lifetime of trusting in Jesus?

 1 Colossians 1:22 (ESV) "... he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation"

 Faith is for the rest of your life! You must have continuity in trusting Jesus from here on out, after you first believe. It's not something that you bounce in and out of, but it is stable and steadfast. Sure, we'll still slip and sin, but with that, if we're steadfast, we'll repent as well! Therefore the key idea in what is erroneously called "are you saved" is that faith must have longevity and be continuous. You have been "saved by faith" cannot mean that you are saved at the first belief, but at death, to which our  faith must extend.

"Grace" is at fault for people improperly using the term "I'm saved". The reformed belief in sola gratia (by grace alone), is the culprit. That stems from the Calvinistic viewpoint that salvation is for the "elect" and "is irresistible" and that there is nothing that you can do to assist God since you're "totally depraved"! However, scripture is clear that we must DO things:  "repent and be saved". "Repentance" implies that one has sorrow.

2 Corinthians 7:10 (ESV) "For godly grief (sorrow in KJV)  produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret..."

Being sorrowful and repenting are the two things we must have and DO to become saved. It's not sorrow and repentance that is felt for the moment and repented of what's past, but a sorrow everlasting of what you were and that repentance is not only for what you have done, but will continue as you live your life. The Holy Ghost imposes guilt on us when we sin, we feel sorrow, and that sorrow leads us to repent time and time again. Romans 3:25 tells us that  "for the remission of sins that are past" occurred when we showed faith. He died for ALL our sins, but we're still called to repent of sins as we do them. That's having "steadfast and continuous faith" in Jesus.

John Wesley calls our ability to feel sorrow, even twhile still a lost sinner, not as "receptive" on our part, but as "prevenient or preventing grace". That's God's mercy on his creation and although his salvation is a gift, God is merciful to the extent that he beacons us to accept his grace. He stands at the door and knocks! We must do something! We must answer the knock. That's a "work" we must do.

St. Augustine was an early proponent of the concept of the "grace of God". That's essential doctrine. Salvation is all about grace. We don't deserve heaven because we are indeed born in sin, but because God is a merciful God, he developed a plan from the beginning for all mankind! The Law was NEVER the way to salvation! It has always been by faith in Jesus; the patriarchs in what he was to do, and ours in what he did do!

It was Calvin and his contemporaries who developed the erronius doctrine of sola gratia. That's why there is nothing we can do to prevent salvation or to receive it, according to their understanding. That's why "faith", in their doctrine, is the mere belief one instant in time which you can't resist. That's why "faith" does not have to be steadfast nor enduring. That's why the doctrine of eternal security fails to lead to enduring faith. That's why people are called "saved" when they are born-again, when the "day of salvation" has not yet arrived.

If we're not saved when we first believed, then what are we? It's that word "born-again"!

John 3:3 "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.... (and went on to explain rebirth) 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life."

Being "born-again" is what a Christian becomes with belief. Belief is the first step taken in faith, followed by trust. Belief and trust, along with love, must be enduring. When speaking of "born again" the eunuch's "salvation" is defined as that in the end (at death) he "should not perish" (go to hell), but live eternally. The promise of "salvation" is clearly after the termination of life. Our faith makes us "safe" because we are assured that if we have faith we will be "saved". Hence, I sense that we've been "safed" is much truer than saying that we are already "saved"! (That's my contention as one born-again, based on scripture, not the doctrines which precede me).

To validate this contention study the following verse:

Romans 13:11 (ESV) "Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed."

When "we first believed" is not when "salvation" is. At the time Paul wrote that those "born-again" were further along the road toward salvation than they were at first. Salvation is a single point in time, not a lifestyle because we are "saved" from the second death after the first death, and we're saved only at that one time.

One preacher always asked in jest: "Larry, have you been saved again?", ridiculing "conditional security". One can never be "saved again" because no one who has yet to die have not themselves been saved!

An analogy, although simplistic, is that if we're drowning, but see the boat, we feel "safe" for salvation is in sight, but we're not actually "saved" until we're in the boat and delivered to shore!

In all honesty, it would appear that the day you first believe is the "day of salvation":

2 Corinthians 6:1 (ESV) "Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says,
“In a favorable time I listened to you,
    and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” (from Isaiah 49:8)
Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

In context this is true. Most of us know that two choices await is, and for atheists, three. We will either go to hell or be rewarded with eternal life in heaven. (Atheists merely decay, or so they think!) We will be "saved" after the first death from the second, but we don't wait until the time of death to seek God's gift. Today is the day we first believe! In effect Paul was merely saying "Why wait until you're on your deathbed? Today is the day you commence the race in faith, by trusting in the Lord now!

So when we are born-again, we have faith. With faith therein lies hope. We're not yet "saved", but have "the hope of salvation":

Thessalonians 5:8 (ESV)  But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love [when we're born-again], and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

When is the "day of salvation" or properly, "the day that we're saved from wrath"?

Revelation 12:10 (ESV) And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come,

We're saved after we die. When our souls are taken safely away to be with Jesus, awaiting the day when the body is raised from where it lies and is resurrected. That's the day we're saved! Until then I'm "born-again", I'm a "disciple of Christ" and I'm "safed". God, as he did with Job, puts a hedge around me. He provides Comfort with his infilling of the Holy Spirit to keep me "safe" as long as I trust and obey him. Hence, I'm "safed" in that I live in a protective shell called reverently the Holy Ghost. With his help I can win this race, with hurdles set out by the devil and sand traps by his demons. It's a race of endurance:

 Matthew 24:10 (ESV) "And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved."

 It's clear for those of us who were not a victim of  wrong doctrines in our early stages of belief, that we adjust our pride and say "Lord, I've been wrong! I need to love you and others (in obedience to your commandments), and endure for my lifetime. I repent of my sins and call on your to keep me from sinning because I can grow cold and drift away."

There is no penalty if I'm wrong in my doctrine, but if those who fail to see the dangers inherent in eternal security are wrong, it could be damning.