How Do You Know You Are A Christian?

Introduction

And I thought about what I’m preaching this morning, and what an awesome privilege it is to do the work that I do. To talk about the greatest questions that the mind can entertain and to teach about them week after week, especially in a place like this. And I want to talk about one of those questions this morning. Somewhat foundational and fundamental, but important. How do you know you are a Christian? That’s a question you need to be able to answer.

It’s a question that Josh McDowell attempted to answer in his book more than a conqueror. And his first answer to that question was, it has changed my life. It is this transformation that assures me of the validity of my conversion. The message of the gospel changed Josh McDowell’s life. There’s no question about that. And he says, that’s what demonstrates the validity of his conversion. And then he goes on to explain what he did on December 19th, 1959 to become a Christian. He says, I prayed these things to God. Four things to establish, he says, in his words, a relationship with the resurrected living Christ. Here are the four things he prayed. First, he said, Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for me. Second, he said, I confess those things in my life that are not pleasing to you and ask you to forgive and cleanse me.

He cites Isaiah 1 in verse 18, come and I’ll make you whiter than snow, as the basis of God’s ability to remove the stain of our sins. Third, he said, right now, in the best way I know how, I open the door of my heart and life, and trust you as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life. Change me from the inside out. Make me the type of person you created me to be.

That by saying a prayer similar to this, that you experience salvation. And the reason why I’m at a loss to explain this is because Josh McDowell, like so many others whose names I could tell you, say so many wonderful things about our Lord. They teach so many wonderful truths and uncover so many brilliant thoughts about the Lord. I’ve got to tell you about Josh McDowell. One of the first books I ever got in my library was given to me by some friends of mine who were Christians. Josh McDowell’s evidence that demands a verdict. I looked inside the book this morning, signature from those friends, 1983. Time I was at SC. Got this book, one of the first books in my library. And so then, when I found out about this book, I had to have it too.

The sequel. More evidence that demands a verdict. Wonderful reading. Haven’t taken them off the shelf in a long time, but some wonderful reading about evidence is the reasons why you ought to believe things that convince him that he ought to believe in the story of Jesus.

And things are being written that are some of the best stuff that’s ever been written on Bible books. And these commentaries, some of the thoughts, the way they shape the material, I come away. Wow! That guy really understands that book of the Bible. And he’s helping me to understand it better. And I share some of that with you. And yet, when it comes to this business of what is required for an individual to be saved, most of them don’t get it. How do people get here? Well, I know the passages that they’re going to cite, like Romans 10 and verse 13. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. The problem with just taking a verse like that and wrenching it from its context is you’re not getting all the information as to what that means.

You assign some definition for what those words mean. Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved, and then you redefine every other passage in the New Testament in view of your definition. Even in the book of Romans. What about Romans chapter 6? And what does it have to say about baptism? Even in the context of Romans chapter 10 and what it’s saying about faith. And even in the broader scope of the New Testament, what about the book of Acts? And when Saul of Tarsus called upon the name of the Lord to be saved, it is preceded by these words. Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins. And by doing that, he was calling on the name of the Lord. Arise and be baptized, wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.

Whatever you think Romans 10 13 means, you’re going to have to also reconcile that with Acts 22 and verse 16. And that’s the beginning. Where’s the passage for this? There is not one example of conversion to the Lord in the New Testament, particularly the book of Acts, where someone did that in order to be saved from their sins. I’m sorry. It’s just not there.

So we don’t have one example of someone being saved in this manner. Not even any instruction that tells someone to pray in order to be saved. And yet that’s what’s commonly believed. So how can I know? How can I know when I become a Christian? Or that I am a Christian. Let’s let the scripture answer that question. Now we’re going to look at a lot of passages here. We’re going to have to go through this quickly because I have a limited amount of time. If you want the notes on this, email me, I’ll give it to you. But I don’t need you to look at all these references. I’ll tell you when I want you to look. But I’ll tell you this. John and 1 John.

Okay? And then one passage in 2 Corinthians. John 8, 31 and 32. Jesus. These are the words of our Savior who said, if you abide in my word, then you are disciples of mine. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. Truth is essential in the salvation process. Abiding in the word is essential to be his disciple. If you’re going to know that you’re a Christian, you’ve got to do that. You’ve got to understand and know the truth and abide in it. And he had a lot to say about this. In his last words with his disciples, he said to them, What? If you love me, keep my commandments. I’ve always liked John 14, 15 and 15, 14. That’s easy to remember.

Just flip it. 14, 15, 14. You are my friends if you do what I command. We’ve got to listen. We’ve got to listen to the Lord. And he even told them later in that conversation that the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, is going to come. And when he comes, he will guide them into what? All truth. He’s going to bring to your remembrance the things that I have said to you. Now, here’s what I really want you to look at. 1 John chapter 2. And wish I had the time to talk about how Gnosticism, as we mentioned briefly in our study with Marty this morning, was influencing these believers, it seems and so he’s talked to talking to them about real knowledge and knowing things. And so the word know appears over and over again in 1 John.

And really for this lesson, we need to read the whole book. But we’re going to get the condensed version. 1 John 2, 28. And now little children. Now these are Christians, and now little children, abide in him. Now that’s sort of sounds like John 8, doesn’t it? Abide in my word. Abide in him so that when he appears, he’s going to return, we may have confidence and not shrink away from him in shame at his coming. He wants us to be assured in regard to our relationship to the Lord. He wants us to be able to know. And so that when the Lord appears, and that hasn’t happened yet, but we’ve promised it’s going to happen. When he appears, we won’t be ashamed at his coming.

We’ll be ready to embrace that moment as his people. If you know that he is righteous, okay, we know that about Jesus, right? If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him. And so doing what is right matters, doesn’t it? Everyone who practices righteousness, that’s just a big word. It means doing what’s right. Everyone who does what is right is born of him. You need to know that. You need to stay firm in your knowledge about that. And so I want to talk to you about what Josh McDowell said about conversion. And I want to talk to you about very real confidence in the Lord based upon truth, based upon abiding in Jesus’ word. And as I thought about, and before I get to point number one, just that phrase, confidence in the Lord, that means a lot of things.

1. Jesus Modeled Submission to the Father

Your confidence in your relationship with him, your confidence that’s based on your trust and hope in him and your dependence upon him. All of that’s involved in my use of that phrase this morning. Confidence in the Lord. Why do we have confidence in the Lord? Jesus shows us the way to be pleasing to the Father. Jesus modeled submission to the Father. We were talking about Jesus as our model in our classes about being a servant, about being a leader, about being husbands and fathers. He’s our model. He’s our example. And Jesus modeled that he needed to submit to the will of his Father. And he would say in Matthew 7, again, a familiar text with many in the audience, but perhaps not everyone. Not everyone who says unto me, Lord.

Okay, just to acknowledge Jesus as Lord, and we talked about this last week, right? Some hold to a form of godliness but deny its power. Just to acknowledge Jesus as Lord, not everyone who says unto me, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven. But we know how that goes, right? But he who does the will of my Father. What is the will of the Father? What has he instructed us to do? And Jesus would further say during his earthly ministry with the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4. What? My food is to do the will of him who sent me. And that theme is going to appear several times in the John narrative. If you’ll look at John chapter 5 and verse 30. I can do nothing on my own initiative.

And let me just say, that’s where people don’t learn from Jesus. We want to establish what is right on our own initiative. We want to make the decisions. We want to make the rules. We want to do things our way. That’s not what Jesus did. Though he was God of human flesh. He modeled submission. He said, I did not come to do this on my own initiative. As I hear, I judge, my judgment is just because I do not seek my own will. But the will of him who sent me. Next chapter. Chapter 6.

Verse 38. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this will suffice in this regard. John 8 and verse 29. I always do the things that are pleasing to him. I always do the things that are pleasing to my Father. And in the scroll of the book, it was written of me. The Hebrew writer is quoting from Psalms speaking of Jesus, and he says, In the scroll of the book, it was written of me. This is what Jesus is going to be all about. I have come to do thy will, O God. Okay, now we’ve established that point, right? Now, what are we admonished to do? Flip over. This is the 2 Corinthians passage I wanted you to see.

2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5. You want to be assured about your salvation? You want to be confident in the Lord. This is what Paul tells believers in Christ. Boy, the context here is rich as well, but we’re going to just look at what he says here. Test yourselves. To see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. How do you know that you’re a Christian? Take a test. Or do you not recognize this about yourselves? That Jesus Christ is in you. Unless you fail the test. You want confidence in the Lord? An evidence that you’re a Christian? Jesus Christ is in you. No, he is not literally inside your body. These are relationship terms. They’re all through the New Testament. The Holy Spirit is in us.

2. Transformation Is Limited Evidence

Jesus is in us. This is the relationship we sustain with God as we take his word and abide from it and live it. Okay? There’s the test right there. What Paul said it to the Philippians this way. After he’s described certain qualities that they ought to have, he talks about what Jesus did in being our sacrifice and being a servant. And he says, What? Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ. Now, let me tell you, if we’re going to have confidence in the Lord, we’re going to have to live what he lived. And what he modeled was submission to the Father. That’s point number one. Point number two. And when I first wrote this down, I had to think about this, and I mold it over, and it sounds a little odd at first.

Josh McDowell said, I know that I’m a Christian because Jesus has changed my life. Transformation. That change, that’s what that word means. Change is, and we talked about that in the Bible class this morning. Transformation is essential. But it is not all the evidence that shows that I’m a Christian. It is limited evidence. And let me explain to you why that is. Absolutely, repentance is necessary. The first sermon that we looked at in class this morning in Acts chapter 2, when they realized something was amiss in their lives, men and brethren, what shall we do? The message was you’ve got to change. Repent. And be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ. Interesting, they were not told to pray. Okay? That’s Acts 2.38.

Repent and be baptized. We’ll come to that again in a moment. Other words that summarize that same concept are the words regeneration and renewal. Rebirth. We’ve already seen a passage that talks about being born of Him in 1 John chapter 2. Regeneration. And Paul says to Titus in Titus chapter 3, as he describes conversion by the mercy of God, he says, by what? Doesn’t mention prayer, incidentally. He says, the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. And so, yes. Conversion involves change. There’s no true conversion to the Lord without changing, without turning to the will of God to find shape and direction for my thinking and life. Okay. But people change. Because of a lot of different things. People have been changed by a lot of messages that don’t involve soul saving truth.

You think there’s some people that have changed as a result of the message of Islam? Where is Jesus in all of that? Oh, but they’re changed. They’re transformation. The message of Islam, it changes people, and sometimes in a not so positive way. Buddhism. I’m just doing a hodgepodge of things here to show this. People are changed by the tenets of Buddhism. In fact, when Tiger Woods was going through his entire scandal and he finally made a public address to the issues that troubled his marriage and his life and all the negative public opinion, what did he say he was going to do? As most public figures do when they get in a lot of trouble, they’re going to go back to their spiritual heritage. And that’s what he said, as he talked about his mother’s devotion to Buddhism, and so he’s going to reorient his life in relation to those things.

Not sure how well that went, unfortunately. Not that would send him on the path he really needed to be on. But even in regard to the message of Jesus.

An angel that’s fictitious. Moroni. A leader who was deluded. Joseph Smith. Committed to books that have false prophecies. But they live really changed life. They will devote years of life to the service of Mormonism. And even an organization like Alcoholics Anonymous that is trying to help people. What are the stages? Stage, first step, number one, involve an admission that one’s life is unmanageable. Second step, believe a power greater than oneself could restore sanity. Third step, turn your will and your life over to the care of God as you understand him. They try to use religion to change people’s lives from this addictive substance, and it works for some people.

3. Assurance Issues From Knowledge

Ultimately, if the one who wants to please the Lord continues to imbibe of his word and cultivate the right heart, obedience to the truth will follow. But transformation alone does not necessarily indicate that one is right with God. And so here’s what I’ve been hinting at. The text that we’ve been reading are telling us is that assurance issues from our knowledge of what God has said. The truth that sets us free.

Not because everything’s coming up roses in my life, and everything’s going my way.

Because when you read the Bible, I read some people who in a right relationship with God, everything wasn’t coming up roses. They were enduring some very real difficulties, and Jesus even warned them if you’re going to be my disciple, you might have to suffer. Things may not go your way.

Now, I wonder if everything people request in prayer, if they say, I got every one of those things. Really? But people say that. You know, the Lord’s answering my prayers. Now we can have confidence that the Lord is responding to my requests, but if I ask amiss, he’s not going to respond so that I can spend something on my pleasure. James says that in James chapter 4. But in 1 John chapter 5, and this really goes with our topic in verse 13, he says, These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence which we have before him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

Okay. If you ask according to his will, right motives, right kinds of requests, if you ask anything according to his will, he hears you. But that doesn’t mean that you are going to get everything that you requested, or that’s all going to happen just right now. Have you ever noticed an answer to prayer that sometimes you have to wait a pretty good period of time before things sort of unfold that what you requested maybe 10 years ago? False barometers. And not because everybody loves me and there is no conflict in the local church.

How do I know? Back to 1 John. Earlier in the context of 1 John chapter 2, notice what he says in verse 21. Here’s how you know. Don’t be dissuade, don’t be led away by these fellows who think they’re in the know, who are telling you things that aren’t so, especially about sin. He says in verse 21, I’ve written to you because I have not written to you because you do not know the truth. Because you do know it. And no lie is of the truth. If what someone is telling you is not consistent with what you know to be truth, you need to reject that. No lie is of the truth. He says in verse 24, as for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning.

If what you heard from the beginning abides in you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. There’s that relationship. What you heard from the beginning, what you heard from people like John, apostles. That truth that you heard at the beginning, where you came into a relationship with the Lord by doing what he says. Don’t drift away from that. That’s truth. That’s reliable. He says in verse 27, another source of receiving that, he says, the anointing which you receive from him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But his anointing teaches you about all things. And it’s true and is not a lie. And just as it has taught you abide in him. These people receive miraculous inspiration via the Holy Spirit that taught them the will of God.

He said, when you receive something directly from God, you trust that. That anointing in you, that message that you receive, that’s reliable. That’s true. You trust that. In chapter 3, he says, whatever we ask, we receive from him. And again, that’s to be understood in light of asking in accordance with his will, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, that we love one another. Okay, that’s a part of being in a right relationship with him, just as he commanded us, and the one who keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in him, and we know by this that he abides in us by the Spirit, whom he has given us.

4. Salvation Is in Him

Again, go back to that which is objective, that which came to you directly from the Holy Spirit, administered miraculously. He says, that’s how you know. By embracing those things, pursuing those things, keeping those commandments, you abide in him, and he abides in you. There’s relationship, assurance issues from knowledge. So when I come to the conclusion, the final point is salvation is in him. Did you see how many times we read something to that effect? He abides in you abide in him. Salvation is in him. And if you are not in the sphere of this, outside, is darkness, deception, and death. And those ought to be scary things to us. Now let’s simplify this in conclusion. What did Paul tell the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians chapter 5?

Therefore, if any man is in Christ, all things have become new. Old things have passed away, new things have come. And that’s exactly what Peter and the apostles were saying on that day of Pentecost when they said, Hey, repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ on the basis of all that he is. Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you’re going to get everything the Holy Spirit’s been talking about in the Old Testament. You’re going to receive the Holy Spirit. That’s what you get. Colossians 2 and verse 12. We can look at Galatians 3, for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Again, that’s what we see throughout the entire New Testament.

For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, you do that as a result of your faith and confidence in the Lord. But in Colossians 2 and verse 12, having been buried with him in baptism, in which, and I have those words underlined in my Bible, so important, in which you were raised up with him through faith in the working of God. When I was baptized into Christ, my confidence was, as a result of this passage, Galatians 3, Acts 2, and so many others that we could reference. That God was going to cleanse me from my sins, as I died to sin, and I came up out of the water in likeness of Jesus’ resurrection, that I was going to rise in newness of life, that I was going to be a new creature.

And so when I did that, you know what I knew? I knew I was saved from my sins.

Conclusion

Because that’s what the Scripture said. That was the will of my Father. That’s why I want to go back to the original question and help you to see it this way. This is a reflection of what we’ve been talking about this morning. How do you know that you are a Christian? And this is very simple. But this is it. The answer is you are in Christ. And Christ is in you.

That’s how you know. And notice how I put Christ up here and you down here. I wanted to make sure that was reflected. I come into Christ by doing what the scriptures have instructed me to do. I come into a relationship with him based upon his truth that saves me. But that’s not the end of the process. If Christ is not in you fail the test. And so I continue to learn about him and what he models, and I allow that to shape my life. There is salvation in a nutshell. United with Jesus in what we think and in what we do and the way we live. And as we pursue that, as we begin in the right place and pursue that, we have confidence that he who began a good work in us will complete it at the day of the Lord Jesus.

Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6. And you won’t have to shrink away at his coming. Let’s just imagine it. I’ve imagined it many times. The day that the Lord returns. What if it’s today? When all of that starts to happen, whether you’re eating lunch or watching football or taking a nap, all of those activities are going to be done. Are you going to respond if that moment were today? Oh no, I’m not ready. I’ve not done what the Lord has bid me to do. Are you going to shrink away this coming? You’re going to say, Yes! Triumph. Glory. Salvation eternal is mine. Are you ready for the day? You in Christ and Christ in you. Can we help you? Let’s stand and say that.