September 23, 2024
As a pastor, I have had people ask me how they could know for sure they were really saved. They may have heard some preacher say that one must do this or that and not do other things to be saved. This is the very thing that the Apostle Paul condemned as “works salvation.” And any preacher who tells you that you must do anything to be saved needs to learn some theology.
I answer these people by reassuring them that only two things are required to see heaven when they die. They must sincerely believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God (the Messiah) and, two, they must repent by turning to Christ and asking for the salvation He so freely offers. Paul tells us in Romans 10:13, “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
But what about repentance? Jesus clearly told His disciples, “I tell you, No, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). Repentance is a change of mind about yourself and about Christ. It is the realization that you are a lost sinner in need of a personal Savior. The very act of calling on the Lord requires repentance first of all. Repentance also requires truly believing that Christ is the Son of God.
To prove my point, I usually use the example of the thief on the cross beside Jesus as He was being crucified. Here was a great sinner who, just in time, realized that Christ really was the Son of God and that he was not good and needed God. So he did all that any believer must do to be saved: he called on the Lord for salvation by telling Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). Jesus assured him of heaven that very day.
Many Christians still worry that their sins will send them to hell. This is a needless concern. Some have even been taught that they can lose their salvation by sinning. My rebuttal to this is that a Christian has been adopted as a child of God, and God never kicks any of His children out of His family. If one is saved, he is saved forever and no saved person can ever lose his salvation and home in heaven. Paul said, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
Some people, who are believers, feel they may not be saved when they commit sins. The truth is that every person on earth is a sinner and sins constantly. We all need to remember what “Washed in the blood of the Lamb” means. It means that all our sins, past, present, and future are covered by the blood of Christ. We believers have been “washed,” our sins have all been “nailed to the cross, and we bear them no more,” as H. G. Spafford ("It Is Well With My Soul") proclaimed.
The implication of this is that a Christian should not have undue worry about his sins. He should certainly resist temptation, and sin should grieve him as it does God. But he should never let the devil trouble him with doubt about his salvation. I never condone any sin in believers as well as in lost souls; but I do take comfort, and advise the same in other Christians, that no sin can now send us to hell. The only unforgivable sin, and the only one that sends people to hell, is rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God for His grace, mercy, and love of us. Amen.
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Ralph Fudge is the pastor of Big Ochlocknee Baptist Church in Coolidge, Ga., and has a Master’s degree in theology from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
