True saving faith is rooted in two great realities: the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel of salvation that He preached. To be a Christian, you must believe in the biblical Jesus and the biblical gospel—that is the foundation of true faith.
In the profound conversation between our Lord Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus that to have eternal life, one must be “born again’? Theologians call this doctrine regeneration, which means that the spiritually dead sinner must be made alive by a powerful work of God.
How do you know if you have true saving faith? The answer to such a crucial question can be found in 1 John 5. There, the apostle John identifies several guaranteed results that are always found in the lives of those who have true saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Keeping with John’s overall message, he writes to help believers have assurance or confidence that they truly are in Christ and do possess eternal life.
There are many professing Christians in the world today who do not have assurance of salvation. In other words, they, for a variety of reasons, are not confident that they have been saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. But under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 1 John 5 presents a series of tests for every Christian to determine if true saving faith is a reality in their own lives.
In the first century, the apostle John wrote that all Christians overcome the world. He uses such language to demonstrate that those who have turned from their transgressions and trusted in Christ alone for salvation have been broken free from the shackles of sin and the family of Satan to be born into the family of God, where righteousness dwells.
According to 1 John 5, such an expression is true of every person who has turned from their sins and trusted in the biblical Jesus and the biblical gospel for salvation. But not only does embracing the gospel and overcoming the world immediately free you from bondage to Satan, it also produces massive implications for your future on this earth and into eternity.
The Bible makes it very clear that salvation only comes through the person and work of Jesus Christ. This simply means that you must believe in the biblical or correct Jesus to be saved. But what does the Bible teach about Jesus, and what is necessary for one to believe for salvation?
The Bible teaches that authentic real faith is found in a person: Jesus of Nazareth. The Bible gives sufficient testimony to this crucial reality, specifically from God the Father Himself. In fact, there are three instances in the New Testament when God acts as a witness and gives a perfect testimony regarding the person and work of Jesus.
Unfortunately, there are pastors, teachers, and churches that teach that Jesus Christ was not God at specific points during His life on earth. Such teaching is contrary to Scripture and should be outright rejected. One of the primary points that the apostle John makes in 1 John 5 is that Jesus Christ, from the moment of His conception, was the God-Man, and He was the God-Man through His entire earthly life.
All false religions, to one degree or another, teach that salvation is by faith in someone or something that works. But the biblical gospel and the nature of true salvation reject such an idea. The Bible teaches that salvation is all about God and nothing about man. Eternal life can’t be earned or merited. All false religions, to one degree or another, teach that salvation is by faith in someone or something that works. Eternal life can only be found in Jesus of the Bible—He is at the center of saving faith.
What are some of the common reasons that true Christians lack assurance of salvation today? Such a question isn’t limited to modern-day Christians but rather has been asked by Christians since the first reason. In fact, one of the primary reasons the apostle John wrote 1 John was to help his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to be assured that they were truly saved.
Many professing Christians seek assurance of salvation in all the wrong ways and in all the wrong things. It is very common for Christians to base their salvation on a certain experience that they had when they were younger. But assurance of salvation cannot be obtained through any of those ways. Instead, 1 John 5 presents a series of three tests so that you might know if you are in Christ.
In 1 John 5, the apostle John teaches that assurance of salvation allows Christians to gain new confidence in prayer to God the Father. In other words, if you are positive that you have eternal life, then you can have equal confidence that when you pray, God will hear. In fact, Psalm 34:17 says, “The righteous cry, and the Lord hears.”
In a profound way, the apostle John links assurance of salvation with the fact that our heavenly Father hears and responds to the prayers of His people. If we, as Christians, know we are saved, we should also know that God hears our every prayer. Because of this, Christians must eagerly seek to pray to God on a regular basis. But what should our prayers consist of?
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