For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Eph 2:8-9 (ESV)
The Bible clearly teaches that we are saved by grace through faith alone… but many people have twisted up this simple truth. Often, if you ask someone how he knows that he’s a Christian, his response will start with faith, but then his focus drifts to his own works. Here is an example from John Piper as he responded to the question, “How can I know I’m saved?”
The unmistakable message all through the New Testament is this: we are saved by believing on Jesus. So rivet your attention on Christ in the gospels — John, Matthew, Mark, Luke — and the whole Bible. Rivet your attention on Christ and say what you see.1
Up to this point, Piper’s answer has been that a Christian knows he’s saved based on Christ’s promises. If he would stop talking, I would agree… but he continues. Notice that what Piper says next focuses on man’s work:
Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9). And say what you feel about this: “I receive him. I love him. He is my God. He is my Lord. He is my treasure.” Confess that. Let yourself hear yourself saying that. Say it to others. Say it to your wife. Say it to your kids. Say it to your friends. “Jesus is my Lord.” The Bible says no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). So if you say it and mean it, God is at work in your life, you have the Holy Spirit.2
Another example can be seen in Kevin DeYoung, the senior pastor of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan. In an article for The Gospel Coalition entitled, “How do I know I’m a Christian,” he offers three tests:
You should have confidence if you believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God (5:11-13). […] Those who practice wickedness, who plunge headlong into sin, who not only stumble, but habitually walk in wickedness-should not be confident3
See the contradiction there? At first, it was confidence in Christ, then immediately switches to confidence based on your works, not His. He even goes further and says that money is somehow involved:
If you hate like Cain you do not have life. But if your heart and your wallet are open to your brothers and sisters eternal life abides in you. One necessary sign of true spiritual life is that we love one another.4
John MacArthur promotes nine conditions to prove someone is a Christian: Love for God, repentance from sin, genuine humility, devotion to God’s glory, continual prayer, selfless love, separation from the world, spiritual growth, and obedience.5 Sometimes the number of tests will jump from nine to eleven,6 but sometimes it drops all the way down to two.7
But what does the Bible say? Let’s consider some narratives. Lot was a righteous man (2 Peter 2:7), but was he “devoted to God’s glory” when the mob came to him in Gen 19? What about the prophet, Jonah? When we last see him, sitting under a wilted gourd, wishing for death because Nineveh was praising God. Was his “heart and his wallet” open to Nineveh at the end?
God wants us to know that we have eternal life, but if we will never be able to have the confidence that He wants us to have if we keep looking to our own works rather than to Christ. We can devise two, three, or nine tests of salvation, but they will always fail us. God only uses one test: faith alone in Christ alone. Consider Jesus’ words to Martha:
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26 (ESV)
Notice that Jesus did not throw in any fine print that Martha needed to do any kind of works to prove that she had eternal life. All He asked was “Do you believe this?” and her answer was, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
And that was that.
- Tony Reinke, “How Do I Know I’m Saved? (Ask Pastor John)”
- Ibid.
- Kevin DeYoung, “How do I know I’m a Christian?”
- Ibid.
- John MacArthur, “What kind of things do and do not prove the genuineness of saving faith?”
- John MacArthur, “Is it real?”
- “How can you tell a Christian from a non-Christian? How can you tell someone who is born again from someone who is not? How can you tell someone in the family of God from someone in the family of the devil? The answer, anyone who doesn’t practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.” John MacArthur, “The Christian’s Incompatibility with Sin, Part 1“
Loved this article~!!!! Thank you for writing it~!!! 🙂
It’s true faith alone saves
But,,,, that faith must be in the “true” Jesus, not one you have made up from a few verses that you can accept. People make up a Jesus out of just parts of the Bible. Jesus is found, the real Jesus from the whole Bible. They skip over entire books in many cases.
Satin loves people who teach all you have to believe is Jesus is the son of God, died on the cross, and rose from the dead, heck he not only belives it, he witnessed it all. You actually think he is saved?????? If not why not? He has much more faith than all humanity that all that is true.
You want to know if your saved? The Apostle John was asked by people “how do I know ” he wrote a little book called 1 John just to answer that question. Why don’t you take that test? By the way all the answers must be “yes that’s me”
When a person is born again, God working through the Holy Spirit changes them from a person a slave to sin, to a free from sin Follower of Jesus. This is not from human effort of trying not to sin , or trying to do good works, it is only through the Grace of God.
Of course this only occurs when a person has saving faith in the real Jesus
The commenter above wrote the following:
“When a person is born again, God working through the Holy Spirit changes them from a person a slave to sin, to a free from sin Follower of Jesus.”
That’s a nice idea, but the problem is that nowhere is it taught in Scripture that such will AUTOMATICALLY occur. A person can believe that “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” and still continue in sin (1 Timothy 5:20) because they have free will. They can RECEIVE THE GRACE OF GOD in vain; that is, they can receive the free gift of eternal life, and then choose not to produce good works for God.
“We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.” (2 Corinthians 6:1)
“But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured [i.e., chose to produce good works for God]” (1Corinthians 15:10a)
You may recall that their was a believer in Corinth that was living in very gross sin! Against this believer Paul issued the following command:
“deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be SAVED in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 5:5b).
Now, reference verses nine through twelve of that same chapter, and notice how many descriptive words Paul uses in relation to sinful actions associated with BROTHERS (i.e., not those of the world that are without, but those that are within):
“I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators [Gk. pornos]: yet not altogether with the fornicators [Gk. pornos] of this world, or with the covetous [Gk. pleonektēs], or extortioners [Gk. harpax], or with idolaters [Gk. eidōlolatrēs]; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator [Gk. pornos], or covetous [Gk. pleonektēs], or an idolator [Gk. eidōlolatrēs], or a railer [Gk. loidoros], or a drunkard [Gk. methysos], or an extortioner [Gk. harpax]; with such an one no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?”
Every single one of these actions is repeated in the next chapter to describe sinful actions associated with those who will not inherit the kingdom! I’ll prove it:
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators [Gk. pornos], nor idolaters [Gk. eidōlolatrēs], nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous [Gk. pleonektēs], nor drunkards [Gk. methysos], nor revilers [Gk. loidoros], nor extortioners [Gk. harpax], shall inherit the kingdom of God.”
Paul clearly identifies that regenerate individuals are in view when he states, “ye do wrong [Gk. adikeō], and defraud, and that your brethren. Know ye not that the unrighteous [Gk. adikos] shall not inherit the kingdom of God?” The Greek work adikeō is simply the verb form of the adjective adikos. In other words, ‘you are acting unrighteously, and the unrighteous (i.e., you) will not inherit the kingdom.’ Also, contextually, the “ye” applies to those who were “bought with a price” (verse twenty).
He then rebukes them further in verse eleven as follows:
“And such were some of you: but ye are washed [‘were washed’ indefinite past], but ye are sanctified [‘were sanctified’ indefinite past], but ye are justified [‘were justified’ indefinite past] in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
The Spirit is pleading that they don’t return as a sow to wallow in the mire.
Relative to the word “washed” reference II Peter 2:1, 13a, 20-22.
Relative to the word “sanctified” reference Hebrews 10:26-31.
Relative to the word “justified” reference Titus 3:1-8.
In all of the above references the possibility of washed, sanctified, and justified believers being disinherited is in view.
One’s eternal salvation (i.e., a gift) is based solely upon the work of another (Christ). But the co-inheritance with Christ (which is relevant to reigning with Christ during The Messianic Era) is a reward that may or may not be imparted to an individual who has already “passed from death unto life,” and it is based upon the work (i.e., turning from sin, et cetera) of the saved individual.
Excellent, Kevin.
Sorry. Your whole idea of the “true” Jesus as opposed to some other Jesus is a concept that is nowhere found in Scripture. It was a concept that was introduced by man leaning on his own logic and understanding. Nothing in 1 John emphasizes any of the things you mentioned. To pass the test in 1 John 5, one must believe the Father’s testimony that we have life and this life is in His Son. The rest of 1 John is not a test of whether one has life at all, but whether one has fellowship with the Father and Jesus which is clear in the introduction of the book. There is absolutely no guarantee in Scripture that a believer in Jesus for eternal life will live a life following Jesus, or free of sin, or any of the other things you suggested since, again, a guarantee like that is nowhere found in Scripture. The only thing a believer is guaranteed is the gift of eternal life which Jesus promised him if he believed Him for it. A believer’s walk was never guaranteed by Jesus, and therefore he is continually warned, throughout the New Testament, of the things he “should” be doing precisely because it is not guaranteed. If he fails to heed the warnings, he is in danger of bad consequences in this life and a bad verdict at the Judgement Seat of Christ, but is never in danger of Hell since that was taken care of when he believed in Jesus for the free gift of eternal life. Jn. 3:16, 5:24, 6:37, 6:40, 6:47, 11:25-27, Rom. 4:5, Eph. 2:8,9 to name a few.
> Sorry. Your whole idea of the “true” Jesus as opposed to some other Jesus is a concept that is nowhere found in Scripture. It was a concept that was introduced by man leaning on his own logic and understanding.
Sure it is, all over the Scriptures, warnings of false teachers and false Gospels, these are “all” about the false Jesus’s they teach,
You even think I follow a false Jesus.
Because my Jesus, the true Jesus, delivers me “from” sin, not just from the punishment of sin, evidently faith in your Jesus does not deliver believers from sin, just from hell
As far as I can tell, (I may be wrong, I would have to actually talk to you on the phone to be sure) your Jesus just gives you a get out of hell card, fire insurance . All you have done is walk down an isle, say a prayer, accept Jesus as your savior, to pick up your hell insurance policy, it’s a free gift, you believe it’s all you need, you are then to have faith in your salvation, then you can still be of this world, commit sin with no feeling of guilt, no desire to repent, be able to hate people, to never forgive them, and that’s OK, your protected from hell fire. Sure you know you should not sin, but it’s ok if you do, God won’t send you to hell for it
I used to believe in that Jesus as well, I would have fought anyone who told me I was not saved, so I’m not judging you, really I’m not. How can someone judge a blind person, I used to be blind to, I know where you are, I also walked that path.
Now let me tell you about the real Jesus, first off he is “””REAL””” not someone who just lived 2,000 years ago and made a lot of promises, and then went to Heaven never to be heard from again, he is very real and very talkative to his believers, if you remember in John 10 , he says my sheep hear my voice , He says voice, not his words, Look up the word voice, each person on earth and in Heaven has a different voice, we can recognize people we know just by their voice. I can read all the letters of Paul , yet I have never heard his voice. Jesus said in John 5 that they had never heard the voice of God . I have heard Jesus’s actual voice on many occasions, he actually tells me to go places, sometimes what I’m to do , others that he just needs me there, and I will just know what to do. How do I know it was him? , well because I know his voice:-) , and I have never been sent anywhere that he didn’t need me there at that moment. SO far I have been used to stop 3 suicides, stop 17 verbal fights from getting violent, saved my mothers life, and a large number of people I was used to witness to and in many cases just help with what ever was going on in their life. Sometimes he uses me to act as a conduit for miracles, some of these have defied the laws of physics
Remember MT: 7 Those who love me obey my commands, he didn’t mean just his laws, but his commands
The entire Bible is just a history of God talking directly to man, it only has a few, of the countless thousands of times he has done it, recorded in the scriptures. Do you actually believe he has stopped talking to men, maybe your Jesus has, but the real Jesus talks and teaches daily, Yes he said “It is finished”, but that was for clearing the way for man straight to the throne room of God. He did not stop working, read the book of Acts and then tell me he stopped on the cross, he just had gotten started. Throughout the writings of the N.T. it conveys this, it is hidden in plane sight, the 23 rd chapter of Mathew is all about Jesus teaching men directly. Galatians tells how Paul was totally taught by the resurrected Jesus. The Real Jesus teaches all that are his. The problem today is all this filling the church pews, easy belief salvation, for the most part this is in America’s churches, in the 3rd world they mostly believe in the real Jesus,. where confessing “Jesus is Lord”, is a death sentence. Not many American so called believers would say it facing a Muslim with a sharp knife in his hands
You have faith in your salvation
I have faith in Jesus,. that is the only place we are to have faith
Even Paul did not have total faith in his salvation until the end
Philippians 3
10 My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.
Reaching Forward to God’s Goal
12 Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brothers, I do not[c] consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead,
In John 3:16 that everyone wants to quote, they forget the rest of the chapter, it talks about the rebirth, how you “MUST” be born again, that rebirth can only happen when God makes it happen, no one can choose to be born again, it is entirely by the Grace of God.
If a
Thanks for the comments! Some more comments came, but I didn’t approve of them because they included personal attacks against other readers.
Theological discussion is welcome here, but let’s keep it above the belt.
The commenter above wrote the following:
“All you have done is walk down an isle, say a prayer, accept Jesus as your savior, to pick up your hell insurance policy, it’s a free gift, you believe it’s all you need, you are then to have faith in your salvation, then you can still be of this world, commit sin with no feeling of guilt, no desire to repent, be able to hate people, to never forgive them, and that’s OK, your protected from hell fire.”
Firstly, it should be noted that the commenter outlined two blatant works within the above soteriological equation:
1. walking down an isle
2. saying a prayer
Thus, his tendency toward a work-based soteriological ideology is clearly displayed.
Scripture does not state that a person is eternally saved by walking down an isle (a work) or saying a prayer (a work); the one requirement for eternal salvation (given over 150 times in the NT) is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ (not a work)!
Please note the question asked in Acts 16:30b:
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
And also note the answer which is provided in the adjacent verse:
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”
“Believe,” here, is second person aorist, active, imperative. This means a single point of belief, consequently, not a linear belief (not a point plus a continuation) is commanded (not requested). Though it is logically possible that the belief could extend beyond the point, such an extension is not commanded. Rather, the aorist (that which is commanded) is punctiliar and refers to the point of time where the belief actually occurs. Such an event cannot be reversed. An aorist tense completed action moment of belief upon Jesus Christ (a Person, not a doctrine) is commanded. “Shall be saved” is in the future, passive, indicative, which indicates it to be simply an announcement of fact: a guarantee, contingent solely upon obedience to the command.
This is the only place in all of Scripture where the DIRECT QUESTION regarding how to be saved is asked and then followed with the DIRECT ANSWER! The word “saved” is used in both the question and the answer. Compare this message with the type/antitype arrangement outlined in the following two verses:
“And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.” (Numbers 21:9)
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:14,15)
The commenter then wrote a couple paragraphs with no Scripture citations, followed by an an allusion to the sermon on the mount and a paraphrase of John 14:15.
The sermon on the mount is a connected discourse dealing with rewards (the word “reward” is used nine times) and entrance into or exclusion from the kingdom (not eternal salvation). In fact, you’ll note that the entire address is an exposition of Matthew 5:20: “For I say unto you [Jesus’ disciples; cf. v. 2], that except your righteousness (the fact that practical righteousness is contextually in view is clear because this statement of Christ is followed by examples of how to implement righteous DEEDS) shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom [Gk. basileia: kingship, dominion, rule] of heaven (a reward).”
Christians often talk about dying and going to heaven. That is not how Jesus talked; He constantly spoke about of ENTERING the KINGDOM of heaven. The expression, “the kingdom [Gk. basileia: royal power, kingship, dominion, rule] of the heavens” (literal rendering from the Greek text, found thirty-two times in Matthew’s gospel), is simply a reference to the rule of the heavens over the earth. If they (the disciples), continually break the “weightier” commandments (as did the scribes and Pharisees—Matthew 23:23) they will not enter into the rule of the heavens over the earth. They will not enter into the “good things to come” of which the law is a shadow: they will not enter into the seventh day rest awaiting the people of God, spoken of in Hebrews 4:9: they will not reign with Christ during the Millennium (a reward). They will still possess the free gift of eternal life, but they will have failed to attain the “prize”—the “crown” (1 Corinthians 9:24–27).
Believers will only become “joint-heirs with Christ (a reward); if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Romans 8:17). For “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him [relative to suffering on his behalf], he also will deny us [relative to reigning with Him]” (2 Timothy 2:12).
Then, after another paragraph without Scripture, the commenter states that “Paul did not have total faith in his salvation until the end.” Then he cites Philippians 3:10-13 in an attempt to substantiate his claim.
It is
It is likely that the commenter is unaware that Paul is referring to the out-resurrection (Gk. exanastasis) in Philippians 3:11, and that this is the only place in Scripture where this word is used. Paul even clarifies in verse fourteen that it was the “PRIZE” that he was striving after—not the free GIFT of eternal salvation.
There is a free gift:
“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.” (Ephesians 2:8–9)
And there is also a prize to be won:
“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.” (1 Corinthians 9:24–25)
The gift and the prize are not synonymous!
It is clear that the commenter is failing to distinguish between the free gift of reconciliation with God associated with Christ’s finished work on the cross, and “the reward of the inheritance…” (Colossians 3:24b) associated with our faithful discipleship. And when one fails to make proper distinctions in relation to these matters, many dangerous and heretical doctrines result. This is why certain individuals attempt to teach that a lost person must deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Christ in order to be reconciled to God. Jesus, however, links cross-bearing with discipleship (Luke 14:27), not with the free gift of reconciliation with God. Our works (such as walking down an isle, saying a sinners prayer, turning from sin, commitment of the entire personality to Christ, asking Christ into one’s heart, public declarations of Christ, baptism, confessing with one’s mouth, submitting to Christ’s Lordship, placing Christ on the throne of one’s heart, etc.) have nothing whatsoever to do with receiving the free gift of God, by believing “…on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 16:31a), thus, to state that any of the afore mentioned works are necessary in order for an individual to be reconciled to God is to present a heretical message; as it corrupts one message (the free gift of reconciliation with God) and destroys the other (the reception of, or the loss of, reward, based upon an evaluation of our works).
As this reply is beginning to become lengthy, I’ll simply provide a link to M. R. DeHaan’s proper treatment of the out-resurrection of Philippians 3:11 below:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ded8923z0f6r1x9/M_R_DeHaan.pdf?dl=0