Q: I accepted CHRIST as my Saviour many years ago but i still have problems with sin in my life. I some times wonder if i am saved. Is this the devil trying to deceive me or what ? My brother who lost his son at the age of 37 last summer claims you cant really know if your saved until you die. What are some thoughts on my comments?
A: A Christian will always have problems with sin in their life. Becoming a Christian doesn't mean that you stop sinning. Becoming a Christian means that you have "crossed over from death to life (John 5:24)." I don't say this to diminish the struggles you are going through in regards to your present struggle. I say this because you will never grow as a Christian and begin to see a diminishing of sin in your life until you realize that your sins have already been forgiven by God. You can never experience the love of God in your life until you realize "that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them (2 Corinthians 5:19)."
When we don't know that our sins no longer separate us from God, we are sitting ducks for Satan to steal the joy of our salvation. We all have experienced times when we have sinned and are overcome by the guilt and embarrassment that comes along with our sin. It is at that time that Satan will come along and suggest the things that plant seeds of doubt in our mind. He will say things like, "How can you be a Christian and do what you just did?" And without a firm understanding of the forgiveness we have in Christ we start doubting everything from our forgiveness to our salvation. Remember, it was the serpent that asked Eve, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden' (Genesis 3:1)?" When we don't know the truth about our sins being put behind God's back for eternity, we give Satan an opportunity to ask the same kind of question to us. "Did God really say He wasn't counting your sins against you?"
Once the doubt is planted in our minds we usually do the rest by equating our sinful behavior with whether or not we are saved. That is what leads people like your brother to say that we can't really know if we are saved until we die. Our salvation is not based on our ability to behave properly and to stop sinning. Our salvation was purchased by, and kept for us, through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If we can't know we are saved until we die than we have to explain the words of John when he said, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13)." John wasn't writing to dead people. He was reassuring his audience that because of their faith in Jesus Christ they had eternal life as a present possession. Our sins are evidence of the fallen flesh that we live in. The same flesh that, according to 1 Corinthians 15:50, "cannot inherit the Kingdom of God." The question you must ask yourself is what is your understanding of the Gospel?
Many of our incorrect beliefs stem from the fact that we don't have a full grasp of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For allot of Christians they believe the Gospel is simply Jesus died for their sins. While that is not incorrect, it is incomplete. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross does not save anybody. His death made salvation possible through His resurrection. After Adam ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden, God removed His life from Adam and he died. Subsequently, all mankind is born into this world spiritually dead to God in our sins. But, before God could restore His life to us, He had to deal with the sin that caused that life to leave in the first place. Jesus was the only man born into this world with a life to give that would satisfy God as payment for our sins. Now, raised from the dead, the life of God can now be offered as a free gift to anybody who accepts Christ by faith. And because of His death on the cross, there is now no sin that can cause that life to leave. Thus, the life we have received is an eternal life. A life that carries us through the rest of our lives and into eternity even after we physically die. The truth of this is revealed in passages like the following:
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!" Romans 5:8-10
My prayer is that you will come to understand the truth that God is no longer counting your sins against you. And that through that understanding you will begin to trust Him with your life and respond to the leading of His indwelling Holy Spirit. As time passes you will notice a diminishing of the sins in your life, but not a total disappearance of them. After all, God is not going to lead you into a life of sin. But, thanks be to God that when you do sin, and you will, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ allows you, and all of us, to "approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16)."
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