You sit down at a great meal and you eat…and eat. How do you know that you have had enough? The reaction is a little delayed, that is why we sometimes overeat, but eventually you feel full and hopefully stop. The gas tank is full when the pump kicks off. The antibiotics have worked when the symptoms of infection go away. There are many cause and effect signs that show when something has happened. You don’t observe it directly, but you know it to be true.
Is salvation like that? When I am connected to Christ, I don’t see the connection. I don’t go immediately into Heaven. How do you know? Is there reason to entertain any doubt? This is the most critical aspect of our existence after all.
The type of certainty that we can have about salvation is a solid one that stops short of taking it for granted. A person can fall away from grace (read the book of Galatians), people can be Christian in culture only (see Luke 13:24-27). But salvation is not something secret and unobservable.
Let’s start with the most objective sign–your baptism.
Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
1 Peter 3:21 (ESV)
A human can only be saved by one thing–the death and resurrection of Jesus. You don’t and can’t add to that. Everything else is either a means of connecting you to Jesus or a reaction to being connected. Baptism has a promise of God attached to it. A person can fall away from Christ, but with baptism in the name of the Triune God, you can say they were connected at least.
There is more evidence:
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9 (ESV)
An intellectual belief in the story of Jesus and a personal trust in the promise of forgiveness of sins and eternal life that is something you can verbally confess is another sign. This confession doesn’t have to be in front of those who oppose Christ. The trust doesn’t have to be seamless. These things are signs, not causes, of your salvation. Jesus has created the conditions by which you can be saved. The Holy Spirit has forged the necessary connection between you and Christ. The ability to confess honestly is important, but it may not be perfect because of your sinful nature. It is a part of a preponderance of evidence.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
Romans 8:15-16 (ESV)
God lets you know that you belong to Him. It is a sense of welcome. We know that God is our Father and we are His children. The presence of the Spirit is definitely a sign, but how the Spirit presents in our lives can be very different. If you are doing miracles by the power of the Spirit that would be very conclusive, but if you only have faith and an inner testimony like Romans 8 speaks of then that’s good too.
We can list more signs of being saved. We will have a growing love for God and for people as God’s love for people becomes a part of us. The growth of any of God’s qualities is a proof. Speaking of these qualities, Peter says:
10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:10-11 (ESV)
The growth of God’s qualities in you is not only a sign of salvation but it is a defense against falling away.
There are two extremes, often driven by personality or preaching that confuses the Law and the Gospel, that we should try to avoid. One is to be always questioning our salvation because the sinful nature is still a part of us. Banishment of sinful nature is something we work on, but it is not a prerequisite of being saved. The other extreme is being so glib about salvation that we consider sin to be no longer a threat to us and the means of grace (God’s Word, the Lord’s Supper especially) as not necessary. We also increase the danger of falling away greatly by separating ourselves from other believers. We need each other, that is why belonging to a congregation is so important.
With this evidence, I do believe that you can say that you know that you are saved. Don’t look at life circumstances for proof. Things can go badly for a Christian. Don’t look for perfection as proof. You will have a sinful nature until death. Don’t look for specific gifts of the Holy Spirit as proof (not everyone speaks in tongues), the Spirit equips you to serve as He desires. Really, don’t look at yourself. Is Christ enough? That is the question. And if you can say, “yes”, you say it because you are saved.
Giving Christ 