How do you verify that you truly are Christian?

[Ascetic X]

I know we should trust the scriptures for the basis of our salvation, but what in your life is evidence that guarantees you are a genuine born again Christian?

Can you see things in your life that strongly indicate you have changed, and have passed out of the kingdom of darkness, have transferred into the realm of light?

If we whole-heartedly confess Jesus as Lord, believe God raised Jesus from the dead, and trust in His sacrifice on the cross for our personal sins, the Bible says we are saved.

But it’s possible to assume that you got saved when young, then after a period of sincere zealous devotion, you gradually backslide into habitual sin, lulled into no longer thinking your actions are really sinful. Nothing about your life is really Christian anymore, aside from a flickering of faith and occasional Bible reading. You are deluded. You foolishly think everything is fine and fun.

As John McArthur stated in his YouTube video “The First Sign God is Angry With You”, God in disgust has abandoned you when the Holy Spirit stops convicting you, your sins no longer trouble you. God gives you up to dangerous self-indulgences and unedifying friends. “That silence is not peace, it is judgment.”

Then you hit a crisis point, where you radically question your life. Your egocentric smugness vanishes in a flash. Suddenly, the reality of your salvation seems frighteningly uncertain or even non-existent. You, for the first time in your life, imagine being lost in hell forever, with no escape.

I’m ashamed to admit, this happened to me. It’s a nightmare. You feel compelled to scramble in a panic, putting your life back in order, so you don’t die in your spiritual apathy and sins.

Nowadays I experience the “new creation, old things are passed away, all things are become new” condition. Things in the past that I once thought were okay, I now confess as sins and I repent.

I now hate all worldliness. I pray constantly, instead of having worldly songs running through my mind. I got rid of all my secular music, novels, movies, and television. I use no psychoactive substances, not even caffeine. I love reading the Bible and devout books. I listen to Christian radio and sermons on YouTube. I attend a good church. I am sharing my faith with a friend.

I can look back at when, as a teenager, I asked Jesus to come into my heart, upon hearing the gospel explained to me by the pastor at a Mennonite church camp.

I’m sure I was 100% sincere and genuinely enthusiastic. I was active in church and youth ministry groups. I witnessed to people, even though I was shy and introverted. I felt blessed, loved, guided, and protected by God.

But after several years, the deceitfulness of sin eventually seduced and captured me. I drifted into the lifestyle of any unsaved person. I thought I was still a Christian, but it was mostly head knowledge, rather than behavioral. I was not attending any church, although I still read my Bible and Christian books now and then. I was deeply into the pleasures of the flesh and the world.

So I sadly have only my brief beginning and my current life to point to as Christian. The entire time in between was corrupted and wasted.

Now I frequently examine myself rigorously, making sure I am obeying every command of Jesus, every principle in the church epistles.

If you have maintained a consistent Christian walk throughout your life, you are incredibly blessed. You don’t have to carry a load of remorse, regrets, and miserable memories.

But it still might be good to question yourself, to make sure you are not just going through the motions, playing the game of church.

Be sure you set a good example, and you actually do turn the other cheek, endure suffering, remain pure in heart, shun adult entertainment, avoid intoxicants, never cuss, practice peacefulness, give generously, believe the scriptures, trust God’s healing power at all times, thank God for all things, are humble, act kindly to others, respect your pastor, pray perpetually, intercede for individuals and the world, are happy to evangelize, fear nothing, never worry, and love God more than anything else.

No, we cannot work our way into heaven. We don’t have to be so legalistically strict and severe that life has no joy. But the rewards we earn in this life are what we will be stuck with for all eternity.

We do not want to appear before the throne of judgment and hear Christ say, “I never knew you. Depart from me, you worker of iniquity.”

 

[Kai]

I once had the pleasure of reading "So Great Salvation" by the late Dr. Charles Ryrie, and I believe it represents the most balanced way of understanding the relationship between faith and works. He didn’t deny that genuine faith produces fruit, but he also didn’t think we should turn that into a checklist for determining whether someone is really saved.

Ryrie famously said that “Every Christian will bear spiritual fruit. Somewhere, sometime, somehow.” I think that qualification is important. He recognized that a Christian can go through periods of spiritual barrenness, and that the fruit God produces in someone's life isn't necessarily going to be obvious to everyone, or even to themselves.

Some fruit may be very visible, but some of it may be go unnoticed. We also don't necessarily know what God is doing in someone's heart or how their life may affect someone else in ways we'll never see. An example of this would be someone who comes to faith shortly before death. We obviously wouldn't have much opportunity to observe the fruit of that person's faith.

So while the Scripture commands us to be fruit inspectors, all we can do is observe someone's behavior, but we can't see their heart. It isn't up to us to assume that the amount of outward fruit we can see or lack thereof provides us a reliable measurement of someone's salvation. After all, it's possible for someone to claim they believe in Christ while actually embracing an entirely different Gospel message. From where we stand, their virtuous actions might look like they're being guided by the Holy Spirit, but the reality would be that those deeds are spiritually lifeless.

 

[Ascetic X]

I once had the pleasure of reading "So Great Salvation" by the late Dr. Charles Ryrie, and I believe it represents the most balanced way of understanding the relationship between faith and works. He didn’t deny that genuine faith produces fruit, but he also didn’t think we should turn that into a checklist for determining whether someone is really saved.

Ryrie famously said that “Every Christian will bear spiritual fruit. Somewhere, sometime, somehow.” I think that qualification is important. He recognized that a Christian can go through periods of spiritual barrenness, and that the fruit God produces in someone's life isn't necessarily going to be obvious to everyone, or even to themselves.

Some fruit may be very visible, but some of it may be go unnoticed. We also don't necessarily know what God is doing in someone's heart or how their life may affect someone else in ways we'll never see. An example of this would be someone who comes to faith shortly before death. We obviously wouldn't have much opportunity to observe the fruit of that person's faith.

So while the Scripture commands us to be fruit inspectors, all we can do is observe someone's behavior, but we can't see their heart. It isn't up to us to assume that the amount of outward fruit we can see or lack thereof provides us a reliable measurement of someone's salvation. After all, it's possible for someone to claim they believe in Christ while actually embracing an entirely different Gospel message. From where we stand, their virtuous actions might look like they're being guided by the Holy Spirit, but the reality would be that those deeds are spiritually lifeless.

I agree with all you said, but I was not talking about judging the salvation of other people.

I spoke of self-examination. The principles you mentioned can be applied to ourselves, but we must have a balance of kindness to ourselves plus rigorous undeluded scrutiny of our lives.

 

[Kai]

I agree with all you said, but I was not talking about judging the salvation of other people.

I spoke of self-examination. The principles you mentioned can be applied to ourselves, but we must have a balance of kindness to ourselves plus rigorous undeluded scrutiny of our lives.

I think self-examination is certainly biblical (2 Corinthians 13:5), but I'm pointing out that we ought to be careful not to turn it into an endless search for evidence that we are truly a Christian. Our confidence should ultimately rest in Christ and His promises, not in how much spiritual fruit we think we see in ourselves.

There is a difference between examining our walk with Christ and questioning whether Christ has truly saved us every time we recognize a shortcoming. We should take sin seriously and desire to grow, but we also need to remember that salvation is by grace through faith, not by the quality of our performance.

 

[Ascetic X]

I think self-examination is certainly biblical (2 Corinthians 13:5), but I'm pointing out that we ought to be careful not to turn it into an endless search for evidence that we are truly a Christian. Our confidence should ultimately rest in Christ and His promises, not in how much spiritual fruit we think we see in ourselves.

There is a difference between examining our walk with Christ and questioning whether Christ has truly saved us every time we recognize a shortcoming. We should take sin seriously and desire to grow, but we also need to remember that salvation is by grace through faith, not by the quality of our performance.

Extremely good points. My purpose was not to advise that we be walking on eggshells, doubting our salvation every day, but to engage in a retrospective assessment of our total life, how much of it is evidence of being a new creation in Christ.

This is urgent, because many people will be supremely confident and serenely complacent at the throne of God’s judgment, only to be damned and thrown into the lake of fire.

 

[Kai]

This is urgent, because many people will be supremely confident and serenely complacent at the throne of God’s judgment, only to be damned and thrown into the lake of fire.

I would say that the strongest sign that a person's faith is truly accompanied by the presence of the Holy Spirit is their conviction of sin and a zeal for good works, even if that doesn't always lead to noticeable outcomes.

I believe the individuals mentioned in Matthew 7 lacked genuine heart belief and thought that their religious actions could earn them favor.

 

[Ascetic X]

I would say that the strongest sign that a person's faith is truly accompanied by the presence of the Holy Spirit is their conviction of sin and a zeal for good works, even if that doesn't always lead to noticeable outcomes.

I believe the individuals mentioned in Matthew 7 lacked genuine heart belief and thought that their religious actions could earn them favor.

Yes, conviction of sin is a good sign of the inner reality of the Holy Spirit.

 

[CoachedByChrist]

Thank you for asking this honestly. Assurance rests first on Christ and His finished work, not on a perfect record. Real fruit shows over time, and conviction is evidence of life, because dead faith feels nothing. Your grief over past sin and hunger to obey point to a heart God is working in.

 

[Ascetic X]

Thank you for asking this honestly. Assurance rests first on Christ and His finished work, not on a perfect record. Real fruit shows over time, and conviction is evidence of life, because dead faith feels nothing. Your grief over past sin and hunger to obey point to a heart God is working in.

Thank you for encouraging me.

 

[Kai]

One way to verify if you are a genuine Christian is to notice if you receive discipline when you begin to backslide.

Hebrews 12:6-8
For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.