“If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.” (Mark 8:35 NLT)
Are you saved? There are only three definitive answers to this question: yes, no, or I don’t know. Why is it so important to know with certainty that you are saved? What does it mean to be saved? And, to the point of this article, what saves you?
Jesus’ words above speak to the circumstantial evidence that you are or are not saved. How so? What does “hang on to your life” look like? It essentially means to do what seems best to you without regard to what God or His Word instructs you to do. Hanging on to your life means to let go of God or to not hang on to Him.
It’s like a drowning person hanging on to a scrap of wood that’s keeping them afloat, but destined to lead them to their death, or letting go of the piece of wood and grabbing the life preserver that’s being extended to them from the lifeboat. As strange and unbelievable as it seems, there are billions of people who are hanging on to their life with all that is within them, not realizing that to do so is an eternal death sentence.
It’s vitally important to seek God by giving up ownership of our own life; otherwise, we give ourselves to our own fate, which is an eternity without hope. To be saved basically means to yield our will to God’s will in every avenue of our being. It’s to allow the Holy Spirit to take control of our life and guide us to our eternal shore. But how does that happen? How can I know that I’m saved and headed to heaven?
R.C. Sproul wrote: “No one is saved by a mere profession of faith. One must possess faith.” How can you tell the difference between the two? Millions of people have made “professions of faith.” Thousands of people have gone forward in Billy Graham crusades or in many other types of religious settings. For the most part I believe they’re sincerely seeking a change of heart and/or life, but a very high percentage of those who make professions don’t follow through to actually allow the Lord to have leadership in their lives.
Many blame their past for the person they’ve become and now believe it’s too late for them to change. And it may well be, but that’s not our call. Crawford Loritts wrote: “Your past may explain you but it doesn’t excuse you.” There are those who blame God for all they’ve had to experience in their lives, believing they’ve already suffered enough for their sins and God owes them a free pass to heaven. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works.
John Blanchard said: “Faith that goes no further than the head can never bring peace to the heart.” We can believe we are worthy of salvation or that we’d never in a million years ever be worthy, but both misunderstand and/or misread what the Bible says about salvation. Salvation is a free, unmerited gift of God, not based on anything we’ve done or ever could do to deserve it.
What saves us is faith in God’s completed work through Christ on the Cross. Salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone. Our salvation was purchased by Jesus’ blood. Satan will seek with everything within him to rob you of salvation, but the simple truth is – whosoever will may come! Oswald Chambers wrote: “Never let the sense of past failure defeat your next step.”
Regardless of who you are or what you’ve done, place your trust in the risen Lord Jesus, by repenting and confessing your need of Him, then let Him fill you with His Spirit and walk with you each step. Salvation isn’t a one step process. It has past, present, and future implications. I have been saved, I am being saved, and one day, praise God, I will be forever saved.
So, the only question that remains is: Have you been saved?
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 