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In this church the Pastor always asked us to share briefly how we became Christians, how we came to have saving faith in the Gospel. I gave my brief testimony of how I came to have saving faith and then was baptized. What I did not know was that a friend of mine, named June Mason, from my before Christ days had come to visit this Church that night and as a result heard my testimony about how I had received Jesus Christ as my savior and Lord and then witnessed my baptism. As a result, that night she gave her life to Jesus Christ and believed on the Gospel with saving faith.

Other passages in the New Testament which talk about our salvation through faith in Jesus’ death and shed blood only, not through receiving the Holy Spirit or because we speak in tongues or as a result of water baptism, are the following:

Acts 13:38-41
Ephesians 2:8-9
Galatians 3:1-9
Romans 1:16-17; 3:21-28, 20; 4:1-25; 5:2-11; 10:3-17

I encourage you to look them up and read them.

What are evidences of a person being truly saved? First, we need to understand that only God knows those who are truly saved. Peter made this plain in Acts 15:8 when he said, "God who knows the heart. . . ." Paul makes this more clear in 1 Timothy 2:19, "Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, ‘The Lord knows those who are His.’" Though only God knows those who are his, the Scripture gives us evidences of those who are truly His and therefore saved. What are these evidences? First, the confession of a person’s mouth. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 10:9-10,

"That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."

Often when I go out on the field and share the Gospel, I run into people who claim that they are Christians but that their faith is personal, between them and God. Not according to the Apostle Paul. When a person is truly born from above and comes into relationship with Jesus Christ, he wants to share it with everybody. I accepted Jesus 30 years ago and the high light of my week is when I get to go out and share the love of Jesus Christ with men.

Jesus put it this way in the Gospel of Mark 8:38: "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels." Only Jesus knows those who are his, but when a person claims to be a Christian but is ashamed of his Christian testimony, Jesus says I have a right to question the legitimacy of his faith.

A second evidence of Salvation is a love for the children of God. The Apostle John writes in 1 John 3:13-15

"Do not marvel, brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of spiritual death into spiritual-life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in spiritual death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal spiritual-life abiding in him."

A person who knows Jesus wants to be with other Christians. He loves to fellowship with the children of God.

Third, a changed life. This is the testimony of anyone who knows Jesus: "When I gave my life to Jesus, He saved me from. . . ." "I could not overcome this problem until I took it to Jesus and He showed me what to do to over come the problem and it worked."

I once worked with a man for two years. He said all the right things. He did all the right things. What didn’t he do? He never showed any evidence of change or growth in his relationship with God. As time went on I came to realize that in two years of working with him, he never once ever stated that Jesus ever shared anything with him. I would talk to him about what he learned from the Word and why there was no change in his life in relation to it. He would always give me the answer that he intended to do something about it, but then never did. After a while I would say to him that I was sure all the people in hell intended to accept Christ, but intending and doing are not the same things. All there good intentions did not keep them from going to hell when they died. He would just laugh and nothing would change. He was very religious and did religious works, but there was no evidence of a changed life. He was also involved in many moral issues. At first it appeared that he was a very dedicated Christian, but because I worked with him for two years, I came to realize that his moral involvements were not out of his relationship with God or love, but for the purpose of trying to prove to everybody else that he was better than them. He was very moral, but had no compassion or love. Jesus and the book of Hebrews put it this way,

"Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’" (Matthew 7:21-23)

"For ground that drinks the rain which often falls upon it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God. But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned." (Hebrews 6:7-8)

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