I Remember The Day
When I was a teenager at a Christian summer camp, I remember learning a song called “Somebody Touched Me.” Now that may sound like an inappropriate song choice for a bunch of teenagers, but the song was actually about remembering when you became a Christian or when God “touched” you or healed you.
It started with the words “Glory, glory, glory! Somebody touched me. (Repeat 3xs) It must have been the hand of the Lord.” I think that’s about as Independent Baptist as a lyric can get.
But there’s more. To the same tune, we would then sing a verse for all seven days of the week. “It was on a Monday, somebody touched me” or “It was on a Tuesday…” and so on. When we sang the verse for the specific day when you remember praying the sinner’s prayer for salvation, you would stand up in the audience. Of course, a lot of people stood up on the last verse about being “touched” on a Sunday because that’s the day most of us were in church hearing sermons and altar calls.
But if you just couldn’t nail down what exact day of the week it was that you were saved, you could wait until the very last verse when we sang “It was on a One day, somebody touched me.” I guess we didn’t want to leave out the believers with poor memories. They could still be Christians, it was explained, even if they had forgotten the exact day of the week. Also, maybe they couldn’t recall the exact words they prayed or who prayed with them or a number of other details. But if their salvation experience was truly real, they would probably at least remember where they were when it happened. If you didn’t remember where you were, you probably needed to try again.
Looking back, these types of activities placed an incredible emphasis on the moment of salvation, the memory of the conversion experience. And I think I understand why. I believe it was the youth leaders’ genuine desire that everyone in the room be faced with the question: Am I a Christian?
And that’s a great question, right? Paul encouraged the believers in Corinth to examine themselves, test themselves to see if they were in the faith.
2 Corinthians 13:5 - Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless you fail the test.
And Peter calls us to “confirm” our “calling and election.”
2 Peter 1:10-11 - Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.
So “Am I a Christian?” is a really good question. It’s really the most important question!
But here’s my point: Scripture not only instructs us to ask the question; it also tells us how to know the answer. The Apostle John wrote a whole letter about it. And that “how to know” involves little to no analysis of the moment or memory of a conversion experience. Rather than placing great value on the event of faith, the New Testament writers focus on the effect that faith has in your life.
Did I Really Mean It?
I can’t remember exactly how many times I prayed for salvation when I was growing up in church. I would hear preachers talk about how we shouldn’t just assume we were saved because we prayed a prayer, which is true. But they would follow this by describing their own personal emotional conversion experience. They would speak of weeping, gripping pews, and walking aisles followed by feelings of intense joy and an almost immediate disinterest in all things unrighteous.
I remember thinking, “I’ve never experienced any of that! There’s no way I’m saved.” So I tried to feel more sorry for my sin. I tried to work up more emotion. I even remember intentionally making note of my exact location because I thought, “Saved people remember those details.”
Looking back now, I was just reacting exactly as anyone would when they were constantly told that their eternal destiny depended upon the sincerity of a moment. It’s like I was trying to convince God to save me.
“That’s what we have turned it (salvation) into: a ceremony; a prayer. And we’re reliving that and basing our salvation on how well we did that, rather than what Christ has done. That’s what I did. I was always saying: Did I do it right? Did I repent enough? Did I believe strongly enough? - JD Greear
Sugar Pills
One of my favorite episodes of The Andy Griffith Show features a character named Emma Brand, a hypochondriac, who is always convinced that she is sick and in need of medicine. The pharmacist in Mayberry knows her well, so he regularly fills her prescription bottle with sugar pills for ten cents. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with her. But Emma finds great comfort in her mock medication.
The pills provide no real physical benefit for Emma, but they are harmless, right? Well, that depends. They do give her a sense of security, but it’s a false security. They make her feel safe when she really isn’t. They may even distract her from paying attention to the actual indicators of physical health.
I don’t want to be too hard on Emma; it’s just a sitcom. But here’s my point. I believe the danger of emphasizing the moment and memory of conversion is similar. It has great potential to create a lot of doubt for people who shouldn’t doubt and a lot of assurance for others who shouldn’t have assurance.
Basing your standing with God upon a recollection of the quality of a moment of conversion is like trusting your health to a sugar pill. You shouldn’t put your faith in it nor should you allow it to distract you from the real indicators of your spiritual condition.
Can we know?
So what does the scripture actually say about assurance of salvation? If I’m not supposed to find it in an emotional experience, how do I find it? Do we have more than sugar pills?
The short answer: Yes, we can know we are God’s children. We have been told how to find assurance. And it’s all about the gospel, the good news of what Jesus did and not what we have done.
We could reference passages from all over scripture, but for the sake of simplicity, let’s primarily look at John’s first letter written all about assurance of salvation. And let’s ask ourselves two questions:
Question One: Do I believe Jesus is the Son of God?
1 John 5:1 - “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God…”
1 John 4:15 - “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God.
Over and over, John says that those who belong to God are those who have faith in God’s Son, those who have weighed the evidence, found it compelling, and accepted the claims Jesus made about Himself to be true.
So Who did Jesus claim to be? Read one of the gospel records and you’ll find that He was repeatedly called a blasphemer because of His claims of deity, of equality with God. And his disciples must have been convinced He was the Messiah. Why else would they have devoted themselves to His commission at the cost of many of their lives?
Here’s how Paul described Jesus:
Colossians 1:15,16,19-20 - He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. All things have been created through him and for him. God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile everything to himself.
Jesus was the son of God sent as a “mediator between God and mankind...who gave himself a ransom for all (1 Timothy 2:5-6).” Do you believe this? Have you come to understand that because “God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16)?”
Because of our unholiness before a holy God, we desperately need forgiveness. And that forgiveness can only come through Jesus’ perfect life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection. He lived the life we couldn’t live, died the death that we deserved, and conquered the grave we all anticipate. He took our place.
And John says that our relationship with God is defined by what we believe about His Son, how we respond to this truth.
Bluegrass Music
If you asked me if I’m a fan of bluegrass music, I would probably step on the end of your question to say yes. I’m a big fan! But if you followed up by asking me when I became such a fan of this genre, I honestly couldn’t tell you exactly. I think it just kinda happened gradually, similar to other things in my life like my passion for biking or my love for watching Dateline.
Though there is value in looking back at how you came to be something or to believe something, identifying exactly when I became a bluegrass fan isn’t as important as the fact that I am one right now.
See where I’m going with this? I’m not saying the beliefs of your past don’t matter; I’m saying they aren’t as important as the present. It doesn't make sense to base our relationship with God today on some distant memory. It’s not about your ability to remember; it’s about His ability to save.
The answer to “When were you saved?” ought to be not “In the back of the church with my
grandmother,” but “On a hill about a 20 minutes’ walk from downtown Jerusalem nearly 2000 years ago.” It’s not the quality of our repentance or strength of our faith that saves us. Repentance and faith are not our Savior; Jesus is our Savior. - JD Greear
Our assurance should not come from something we felt or said; it should be based on what Jesus did for us on the cross. The answer to “How do I know if I’m a Christian?” is not a description of something I did but rather a confidence in something Jesus did for me.
Our assurance of salvation does not come from a confidence in some subjectively measured inner witness, nor how warm our affections for God are at any given moment. Rather, our assurance comes from a growing confidence in Christ’s saving work that purchased the fulfillment of all his great promises to us and his power to keep them. - Jon Bloom
So what do you believe about Jesus today? You may have said a prayer when you were a kid, but that was then. Do you want to know if you are a Christian now? Well, do you believe that because of your sinful condition, you needed Jesus, the Son of God, to accomplish everything necessary to reconcile you to God? If so, that’s awesome! And it’s great if you remember when you first came to that realization. But what really matters is whether or not you believe “that Jesus is the Christ” right now.
Question Two: Is that belief changing my life?
1 John 2:3-6 - This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commands. The one who says, “I have come to know him,” and yet doesn’t keep his commands, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1 John 3:14 - We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death.
There’s no way to read John’s letter or the entire Bible without encountering this theme: Saving faith is transforming faith. If you belong to God, He has made you spiritually alive. God’s Spirit in you is changing you. You are now “his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works (Eph. 2:10).” And “he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion (Phil. 1:6).”
Look Around
A while back, a colleague of mine was expressing concern over her twenty-something year old son and his lack of desire to go to church, read the Bible, or grow spiritually in any way. She was confused by his life choices because she said she knew her son was a believer. She vividly remembered a Sunday morning church service when he was around ten years old during which he walked forward after the service to pray with the pastor. Her thinking: If he prayed for salvation, he must be saved.
Do you see the potential problem here? My colleague is operating on the assumption that her son is a Jesus follower even though he is not following Jesus. She’s been taught that if her son “prayed the prayer,” he’s on the team. If he can say, “It was on a Sunday, somebody touched me,” he’s good to go.
There’s just one major flaw with that method of faith examination: it’s not scriptural. We shouldn’t be looking back to a moment for assurance; we should be looking around...at our lives. If you want to know if you are a Jesus follower, answer this question: Are you following Jesus?
God Sticks Out
When I was a kid, I remember my Sunday school teachers using a kind of silly illustration about a young child having a conversation with his dad about God.
The child said to his father, “Isn’t it true that God is really big and that He made the world with his hands?”
The father answered, “Yes son, I think so.”
“And,” the child continued, “Isn’t it true that when I become a Christian, God comes to live in me?”
“Yes, in a way, that’s also true.” his dad responded.
“So…” the child reasoned, “If God is really so big, and He lives inside of me, isn’t He going to stick out everywhere?”
The kid’s theology is not perfect here, but he’s definitely on to something true. When God makes us spiritually alive, we begin to show signs of life.
Belief Affects Behavior
Jesus’ brother, James, devoted a section of his letter to this subject where he emphatically stated that “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:17). In other words, belief should affect behavior. If it doesn’t, there’s really no true belief.
“We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.” - Martin Luther
“We are saved by faith, not by growing fruit; but we are not saved by fruitless faith." - Tim Keller
Our deeds don’t determine salvation; they demonstrate it. - Sam Storms
True faith can be seen; counterfeit faith is invisible. - Sam Allberry
The life of faith is more than a private transaction of the heart with God. It is the life of active consecration seen in the obedience which holds nothing back from God, and the concern which holds nothing back from human need.” - Alec Motyer
The question is not whether or not you want to go to heaven or hell. Everybody wants to go to heaven. The question is whether or not you want to meet God once you get there. It is a desire for God, not a desire for heaven, that is evidence of God’s work in you. - JD Greear
Inevitable Growth
“So how exactly does my belief in God affect my behavior?” you may ask. How does my faith in Jesus cause me to follow Him? There are a lot of answers to these questions, but here are a few evidences of saving faith John mentions.
Love for others - 1 John 4:12 - If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us.
The God who loves us transforms us to be a people who love others. - Jon Azzarello
Jesus said that “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35)
Struggle against sin - 1 John 3:9 (NLT) - Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.
Christians are not sinless, but they are always learning to love what God loves and hate what God hates.
Christians struggle with sin rather than settle in it. They fight it rather than flaunt it.
Endurance in trials - 1 John 2:19 - They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us.
A false faith will not make it through the fire. - Kyle Mercer
A faith that can be tested is a faith that can be trusted. - Kyle Mercer
Again, this is not an exhaustive list of faith indicators, but it’s a great place to start. And please know this: The rate of our growth as believers often looks less like the kudzu vine and more like an oak tree. It’s not always speedy, but it’s sure.
Genuine vs. Counterfeit
I love how Michael Lawrence, author and pastor from Portland, Oregon, describes genuine Christianity in his 2017 book Conversion: How God Creates a People:
What does a false convert look like? Often, it’s someone who...
is excited about heaven, but bored by Christians and the local church;
thinks heaven will be great, whether God is there or not;
likes Jesus, but didn’t sign up for the rest—obedience, holiness, discipleship, suffering;
can’t tell the difference between obedience motivated by love and legalism;
is bothered by other people’s sins more than his or her own;
holds grace cheap and his own comfort costly.
But how does the New Testament describe a genuine Christian? According to 1 John, the genuine Christian is someone who...
loves fellow Christians and the local church because he or she loves God (1 John 5:1);
desires fellowship with God, and not just ease in heaven (1 John 1:6–7; 5:1);
understands that following Jesus means discipleship (1 John 1:6);
obeys God out of love for God (1 John 5:2–3);
is eager to confess and turn away from his or her sin (1 John 1:9);
holds grace costly and his own desires cheap (1 John 1:7, 10).
To become a Christian is to take up a life of repentance. Jesus described it as taking up our cross and following him. Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it well when he said, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
Morning Sun
There are many instances in scripture of people who came to faith in God in a moment, a flash of miraculous belief and surrender. The most famous example is probably the Apostle Paul’s conversion experience on the Damascus road. And that’s amazing.
But so many of us can identify more with Nicodemus and Thomas. We had to work through seasons of doubt and questioning before finally believing.
My friend Ben describes his coming to faith like morning sunlight on your eyelids. The sun slowly shines through the windows and fills the room with light so that when we finally wake up, our eyes have already adjusted. He said that was his experience. He was exposed to truth for so long that, when his “eyes” were finally opened to it, everything Jesus said just made sense.
So some of us can come to faith in a moment. Others slowly release their unbelief. There is no one-size-fits-all conversion experience. But what is the same for every child of God is this: We believe that Jesus is the son of God, and that belief is changing our lives.
Do you believe that right now? The most important day is today.