1. You are a sinner – Romans 3:23-24 (KJV); ‘For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus’.
2. You deserve death - Romans 6:23 (KJV); ‘For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord’.
3. Jesus died for your sins – Romans 5:8 (KJV); ‘But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us’.
4. When you repented of your sin God forgave you - Acts 3:19 (KJV); ‘Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord’.
Once you are sure that you have completed the steps above, you have further confidence in the following:
1. External Witness: the Bible
God's Word, the Bible, is accurate and true. God's Word confirms that we are saved. There is no doubt about that.
1 John 5:11-14 (KJV); ‘And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us’.
Romans 8:1(KJV); ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit’.
Romans 10:9-10 (KJV); ‘That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation’.
Ephesians 2:8-10 (KJV); ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
John 3:36 (KJV); ‘He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
John 5:24 (KJV); ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life’.
2. Internal Witness: God's Holy Spirit
Once we are saved we receive the Holy Spirit who dwells within us to give us power to live righteously before God.
Ephesians 1:13-14 (KJV); ‘In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory’.
2 Corinthians 1:21-22 (KJV); ‘Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts’.
Romans 8:16-17(KJV); ‘The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together’.
3. A changed life…a new creation
The third proof that we are saved is a changing / changed life in which God has given us victory over sin and has changed turned our lives around! We may still struggle with sin, but it does not have a hold on our lives any longer.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV); ‘Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new’.
Romans 6:18 (KJV); ‘Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness’.
Romans 6:11(KJV); ‘Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord’.
1 John 2:1-2 (KJV); ‘My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world’.
