We’ve probably asked God at some point, “What’s Your will for my life?” Maybe we wanted to know God’s will regarding what we should study in school, the kind of job we should have, or who we should marry.
It’s human nature to be intensely focused on our own affairs and not on God’s. After all, since God is all-powerful and divine, what could He want or need?
God created the heavens, the earth, and all mankind. Why? The Bible gives us the answer in Revelation 4:11:
“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, for You have created all things, and because of Your will they were, and were created.”
This verse clearly tells us that God created everything for His will. When we compare our personal affairs to God’s creation of the heavens, the earth, and all humanity, we have to conclude that God’s will must be something much more significant than merely where we should go to school or what job we should have.
So now that we know all things were created for God’s will, what is God’s will?
Our God is a God of purpose
First, we have to realize that God is very purposeful. The idea that God would do something in an aimless way, without a purpose, doesn’t make sense. Even we wouldn’t spend our time and effort to construct something with no reason or purpose in mind.
Let’s look at Ephesians 1:5 and 9, paying attention to some key words in these verses:
“Predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.”
“Making known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself."
These verses speak clearly of God having a good pleasure, a will, that He purposed in Himself. In eternity past, before anything existed, in God’s heart was a desire, something He wanted. To obtain this desire, He made a plan. This plan is God’s will, His eternal purpose. His creation of the universe and of mankind is part of that purpose.
God does everything with that particular purpose in mind. So what is the good pleasure of God’s heart?
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God wants many sons
We probably have our own ideas about what God’s purpose is. But what does the Bible say?
Ephesians 1:5 tells us God predestinated us “unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.”
The good pleasure of God’s will is to have many sons, begotten by Him through regeneration to share His divine life and nature. By growing in the divine life, they would express God, and God would be seen through them.
But that’s not all. The book of Ephesians shows us even more of what God’s purpose is and what will fulfill His heart’s desire.
God wants the church
God desires to have sons who have His life and nature. But He also desires that these many sons collectively would be His church. We can see this in Ephesians 3:10-11:
“In order that now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies the multifarious wisdom of God might be made known through the church, according to the eternal purpose which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
According to God’s eternal purpose, His multifarious wisdom would be made known through the church, which is composed of all the regenerated sons of God.
Individually we may express God to a certain extent, but no one person can express Him fully. Our God is so great and so rich, He needs a great and rich expression through His church. God wants to have His many sons built up together in His life as the church. This church would be a testimony of who He is to the universe and His full expression on earth, both today and for eternity.
How can we become such a church? Note 3 on church in Ephesians 3:10 in the New Testament Recovery Version explains:
“As revealed in v. 8, the church is produced from the unsearchable riches of Christ. When God’s chosen people partake of and enjoy the riches of Christ, they are constituted with those riches to be the church, through which God’s multifarious wisdom is made known to the angelic rulers and authorities in the heavenlies. Hence, the church is God’s wise exhibition of all that Christ is.”
This is why it’s so important for us as sons of God to consistently read the Bible. As we take Him in as nourishment in the Word, we’re actually partaking of Christ and being reconstituted. Just as the food we eat constitutes our physical body, the riches of Christ we enjoy in the Word constitute us to be the church. Then we can express Him both individually in our daily lives and together with our fellow believers as the church. This is how God can obtain His heart’s desire.
If you'd like to understand more about God’s purpose and the church, we heartily encourage you to download our free e-book The Glorious Church here.
And if you live in the US, you can order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here to read all the verses mentioned in this post with their enlightening notes.
You’re not alone if you’ve ever asked yourself this question. Many of us didn’t know what came next after we received the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
We surely appreciate the tremendous steps God took to redeem us and impart His eternal life into us so that we could be born again. But believing in Jesus Christ is just the beginning of our Christian life. So much more lies ahead! Let’s look at some things that should occur after we first believe in the Lord.
Be baptized
Believing in Jesus Christ is the inward aspect of our salvation, and being baptized is the outward affirmation of our salvation. So after we believe, the next step is baptism. These two go together.
Mark 16:16 says, “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.” The second part of note 1 on believes in the New Testament Recovery Version helps us see why both believing and being baptized are necessary:
“To believe and to be so baptized are two parts of one complete step for receiving the full salvation of God. To be baptized without believing is merely an empty ritual; to believe without being baptized is to be saved only inwardly without an outward affirmation of the inward salvation. These two should go together. Moreover, water baptism should be accompanied by Spirit baptism, even as the children of Israel were baptized in the sea (water) and in the cloud (the Spirit)—1 Cor. 10:2; 12:13.”
By believing and by being baptized, we receive the full salvation of God!
Consecrate yourself to the Lord
Another step we need to take after we’re saved is to consecrate ourselves to the Lord Jesus. To consecrate yourself means to give yourself to the Lord. Paul says in Romans 12:1:
“I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.”
By consecrating ourselves to the Lord, we become a living sacrifice, putting ourselves completely in God’s hands. Previously, our lives were for ourselves; now, they’re for Him.
Consecrating ourselves to God helps us walk in His way, grow in His life, and enjoy His salvation. It also allows God to work in us.
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Be transformed: A lifelong process
After believing and being baptized, we begin to undergo a lifelong process of Christ spreading from our regenerated spirit into our entire being, filling us with Himself. This process is called transformation in the Bible.
Ephesians 3:17 says, “That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith.” When we believed in Him, Christ came to live in our spirit. But in this verse, we see a further step: Christ wants to spread from our spirit into our heart to make His home there. He wants to “settle down” in our heart, not as a guest but as its resident.
As Christ makes His home in our heart, we’re changed—that is, transformed—in our inward parts: our mind, our emotion, and our will. Of course, this doesn’t happen overnight, but gradually over time.
In Romans 12:2 the apostle Paul exhorts us to “be transformed.” Note 3 on this verse in the New Testament Recovery Version helps us see what transformation is and how it takes place:
“Transformation is the inward, metabolic process in which God works to spread His divine life and nature throughout every part of our being, particularly our soul, bringing Christ and His riches into our being as our new element and causing our old, natural element to be gradually discharged. As a result, we will be transformed into His image (2 Cor. 3:18), that is, conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God as His many brothers (Rom. 8:29). Thus we will be suitable for the building up of His Body.”
An excellent picture of transformation is a piece of petrified wood, which is the result of a process that takes millions of years. It begins when a branch is buried in soil with constant exposure to water. As the water flows around and through the branch, minerals in the water gradually replace the material of the wood. Over time, the wood is transformed into an object that has the color, texture, and weight of a stone.
As we allow God’s life as living water to saturate us and spread in us, we too are being transformed. But this incredible transformation takes place in our soul, with all the elements of who Christ is!
Cooperate with God to be transformed
Since God never forces Himself on us but allows us to exercise our free will, our transformation occurs only with our cooperation. So how can we cooperate with God to be transformed? Here are just a few ways:
- Praying—as we speak to the Lord in prayer, we open our hearts to Him. This helps keep our hearts in a good condition toward Him.
- Scheduling a daily time with the Lord—setting apart a dedicated amount of time with the Lord Jesus every day is critical to maintaining a healthy relationship with Him. We can spend that time talking to Him, singing to Him, and prayerfully reading His Word.
- Calling on the name of the Lord—whether loudly or quietly, we can call on the Lord Jesus to contact and enjoy Him throughout the day.
- Reading the Bible—a healthy habit of daily Bible reading is one of the best ways to receive the transforming elements of Christ. This is how we’re nourished with spiritual food. First Peter 2:2 says, “As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation.” Just as a baby needs milk to grow, we need the Word of God as our spiritual nourishment so we can grow unto salvation. If you need a Bible and live in the US, you can order a free New Testament study Bible from us here and start reading God's Word.
- Obeying the sense in our spirit from the Lord—now that the Lord dwells in us, we get a sense from Him concerning many matters in our daily life. For example, maybe we want to purchase a particular item, but we have an uneasy feeling from the Lord in our spirit about it. That’s an opportunity to obey Him. Obeying Him to not buy that item allows the Lord to spread a little more into our soul.
Meet with other Christians
God doesn’t intend for Christians to be alone. After we’re saved, we need to find other believers in Christ so we can meet, fellowship, and grow together. We can even pray, “Lord, lead me to others who love You and follow You.” Gathering together to fellowship with believers in Christ strengthens our faith and encourages us to experience more of Christ.
Additionally, when we gather with other believers to fellowship and praise the Lord, God can be expressed through a group of people, thus fulfilling His plan.
So much awaits us after we first believe in Christ! We’re now on a lifelong journey of enjoying Christ’s presence and experiencing His rich and full salvation that continues throughout our entire lives.
For more on this subject, you can read chapter 1 of Basic Elements of the Christian Life, vol. 1 for free here.
When the love of the Lord Jesus first touched us and we repented and confessed His name, a deep joy we’d never known before filled our hearts. What a joy it was to be forgiven and born again! God wants all His children to continue to rejoice in His wonderful salvation for their whole lives. This should be the normal experience of every believer, as we see in 1 Peter 1:8: “You exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.”
We’ve experienced such a wonderful salvation, and now we have access to all the riches of Christ. We should be overflowing with unspeakable joy. But while we can never lose our eternal salvation, we can sometimes lose the joy of our salvation. How does this happen? Let’s look at two possible causes.
1. Sin causes us to lose the joy of our salvation
Although we’re saved, we all still sin, fail the Lord, and disobey Him. The sins we commit cause us to lose our joy. After we sin, we feel that something’s wrong; we sense a barrier that’s come up between us and the Lord. Isaiah 59:2 tells us,
“Your iniquities have become a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.”
Our sins separate us from God because God is righteous; He can’t tolerate sin. This is why even a small transgression creates a barrier between us and God. Big or small, our sins cause us to lose the joy of our salvation.
2. Grieving the Spirit who indwells us causes us to lose the joy of our salvation
Romans 8:9 tells us clearly that “the Spirit of God dwells in you.” When we received the Lord Jesus as our Savior, He not only redeemed us, but He also came to dwell in us as the Spirit. Now we’re no longer alone; we have another Person living in us, and He has His own thoughts, feelings, and preferences. Whenever we go along with the Lord who lives inside of us, He’s happy. And when He’s happy, we’re happy.
In Ephesians 4:30, Paul says, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption.” Note 1 in the New Testament Recovery Version explains what it means to grieve the Holy Spirit:
“To grieve the Holy Spirit is to displease Him. The Holy Spirit abides in us forever (John 14:16-17), never leaving us. Hence, He is grieved when we do not walk according to Him (Rom. 8:4), that is, when we do not live according to the principle of reality with grace in the details of our daily walk.”
Let’s say, for example, we want to go to a certain place. But when we think about going, we feel uneasy. This feeling tells us that the Lord doesn’t want to go there. Though we may try to reason that it’s really okay, the uneasy feeling won’t go away; the Lord Jesus simply doesn’t want to go there. But say that instead of agreeing with the Lord and obeying Him, we go anyway. By not walking according to Him, we grieve Him and make Him unhappy. And it’s impossible for us to be happy when He’s grieved.
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How can we recover and maintain the joy of our salvation?
As Christians, our joy can sometimes seem very elusive. We may even find ourselves crying out as David did, “Lord, restore to me the joy of Your salvation!” What can we do to recover our joy in such times, and how can we avoid losing it in the first place?
Just as a delicate flower is maintained and nurtured by the proper soil, water, and sunlight, our joy is preserved by the right conditions. Here are four healthy habits that can provide the right conditions to maintain our joy.
1. Confess our sins quickly
Whether our sins are small transgressions or serious offenses, we must confess them to the Lord. This includes grieving the Spirit. Whenever our conscience makes us aware that we’ve sinned, we shouldn’t wait to confess to the Lord. First John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We confess, and God is righteous to forgive us and cleanse us. When the problem of sin is dealt with and our fellowship with Him is restored, we experience the joy of salvation once again.
Learning to confess our sins without delay is a good habit to develop. There’s no reason to wait. The sooner we confess our sins and failures to the Lord, the sooner we can enjoy sweet fellowship with Him once more.
2. Take in God’s Word as our spiritual food daily
We all know how grumpy and irritable we can be when we haven’t eaten and are physically hungry, or even undernourished. We experience the same thing spiritually when we haven’t been eating. If we spend time daily to delight ourselves in His Word, the words we feed on become the gladness and joy of our heart, supplying us throughout our day.
Eating physical food is an enjoyment to us, but eating the Word of God brings us true and lasting inner satisfaction. A daily habit of taking in God’s Word as our spiritual nourishment will help us maintain our joy in God’s salvation.
3. Speak to the Lord in prayer all the time
When we come to the Lord, we don’t need to kneel down and solemnly recite a formal prayer. We can simply open our hearts and speak to the Lord Jesus in a personal way. At any time, day or night, we can talk to Him. In John 16:24, the Lord Jesus says to “ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be made full.” Speaking to Him in prayer about everything brings us joy. We can even pray by simply calling upon the name of the Lord.
By opening to the Lord in prayer every day and throughout the day—not only at set times or during major life events—we strengthen our loving relationship with Him. By staying in fellowship with Him, we maintain our joy.
4. Fellowship with other Christians regularly
Having fellowship with other Christians also helps us maintain our joy in the Lord, since one of the greatest joys of the Christian life is to come together with others who love Jesus.
Concerning the believers’ fellowship, in 1 John 1:3-4 the apostle John shows us that genuine Christian fellowship is not a duty or a ritual but a matter of joy:
“That which we have seen and heard we report also to you that you also may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write that our joy may be made full.”
Gathering with other believers to read the Bible, speak about Christ, and praise the Lord refreshes us, encourages us, and makes our joy full.
May we endeavor to build up these healthy habits in our daily lives. By confessing our sins, feeding on God’s Word, speaking to the Lord in prayer, and getting together to fellowship with other Christians, we can maintain an overflowing joy in our Christian lives.
For more on this subject, you can read chapter 2 of Basic Elements of the Christian Life, vol. 1, a book that has helped thousands of believers. You can download this e-book for free from anywhere in the world here.
In other posts, we discussed how believers in Jesus Christ can be fully assured they're saved and can never lose their salvation.
When we received Jesus Christ as our Savior, we were forgiven and washed from our sins. But although our salvation is eternal, after we’re saved, we still commit sins. We disobey God or fail Him in many situations in our daily living.
After all, 1 John 1:8—which was written to believers—says:
“If we say that we do not have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
When we sin, it results in three problems involving three parties—God, ourselves, and Satan. Let’s look at these problems and the unique solution to each: the blood of Jesus.
1. We're separated from God
Isaiah 59:1-2 tells us what happens between us and God when we sin:
“No, Jehovah’s hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have become a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.”
Since God is holy and absolutely righteous, our sins separate us from Him. It doesn’t take committing a serious crime to separate us from God; even telling a little lie creates a barrier between us and Him. Only the blood of Jesus can remove this barrier.
Solution: The blood of Jesus cleanses us from every sin
Let’s read what 1 John 1:7 and 9 say:
“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin...If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
We can be forgiven and cleansed from every sin by the blood of Jesus. This removes the separation between us and God.
But notice in these verses that for us to be forgiven, something is first required: we must confess our sins to God. When we confess, He is faithful and righteous to forgive and cleanse us because the blood of Jesus satisfies all God’s righteous requirements.
Note 2 on verse 9 in the New Testament Recovery Version says:
"God is faithful in His word (v. 10) and righteous in the blood of Jesus His Son (v. 7). His word is the word of the truth of His gospel (Eph. 1:13), which tells us that He will forgive us our sins because of Christ (Acts 10:43); and the blood of Christ has fulfilled His righteous requirements that He might forgive us our sins (Matt. 26:28). If we confess our sins, He, according to His word and based on the redemption through the blood of Jesus, forgives us because He must be faithful in His word and righteous in the blood of Jesus; otherwise, He would be unfaithful and unrighteous."
Sometimes after we confess our sins to God, we may not feel forgiven. But our feelings don’t determine whether we’re forgiven; our forgiveness is based on the blood of Jesus. According to the Bible, if we confess our sins to God, we’re forgiven and have the right to come boldly to Him. The separation is removed, and we can enjoy fellowship with Him once more.
2. We have guilt in our conscience
Another huge problem created by sin is the guilt we feel inside. God is satisfied with the blood of Jesus as payment for our sins, but we may be plagued by guilt. This is because the sins we commit leave a stain on our conscience. The feeling of guilt comes from our stained conscience.
To have a guilty conscience is a serious matter. We all know the miserable effect a guilty conscience has upon us. And nothing we can do is capable of obliterating the stain on our conscience.
Solution: The blood of Christ purifies our conscience
But the Word of God gives us the answer to this problem. Hebrews 9:14 shows us the unique solution for a guilty conscience:
“How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
The same blood that requires God to forgive us also purifies our conscience and washes away the stain of sin. The blood of Christ is truly powerful!
If a feeling of guilt remains after we confess our sins, we should simply stand upon the Word of God. We can pray, “Thank You, Lord Jesus, by Your blood I’m forgiven and cleansed. Lord, Your Word says that Your blood even purifies my conscience! Thank You, my sin is completely washed away by the blood of Jesus.” The more we stand upon the Word of God instead of trusting in our feelings, the more we’re assured that the stain on our conscience is cleansed away.
3. We're accused by Satan
After we’ve dealt with our sins before God, we may encounter another problem: an inward feeling of accusation regarding our sins. This accusation can become like a giant cloud over our heads, robbing us of all peace. Even though we realize we've been forgiven by God and our conscience has been purified, we may be troubled by that lingering accusation and continue to blame ourselves for what we’ve done.
This feeling might drive us to confess our sin to God again, thinking we didn’t confess thoroughly enough the first time, or didn't feel sorry enough. But no matter how many times we confess the same sin to God, the accusations just won’t go away.
Why is that? It’s extremely important to see where these accusations come from. They’re not from God. We’ve seen that God is bound by His faithfulness and righteousness to forgive us when we confess. The accusations don’t come from our conscience either. The blood of Jesus purifies our sin-stained conscience.
So where do such accusations come from? The Bible tells us that they come from Satan.
In fact, Revelation 12:10 says this about Satan:
“The accuser of our brothers has been cast down, who accuses them before our God day and night.”
Satan is God’s enemy and our accuser. He spends his time accusing the believers, even day and night. His goal is to weaken and even paralyze us. He wants to cheat us of our enjoyment of the Lord and all He’s done for us. If we accept his accusations, our fellowship with God will be hindered, and we’ll suffer great loss in our spiritual life.
Solution: We overcome Satan because of the blood of Jesus
But Revelation 12:11 tells us how to deal with these accusations from Satan:
“And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb.”
Note 2 on this verse in the New Testament Recovery Version is enlightening:
“The blood of the Lamb, which is for our redemption, answers before God all the accusations of the devil against us and gives us the victory over him. We need to apply this blood whenever we sense the accusation of the devil.”
We certainly need to confess our sins to the Lord to be forgiven and have our conscience cleansed from the stain of sin. But after that, if we’re hounded by lingering accusations regarding that same sin, we must take further action. We have to say “NO!” to Satan’s accusations and declare to him the full effectiveness of the blood of Jesus. We have to point Satan, the one who accuses us, to the blood of the Lamb.
Instead of succumbing to Satan’s accusations, we must reject them. When he accuses us, we should simply declare, “Satan, I reject your accusations. Look at the blood of Jesus. God is satisfied by Christ’s redeeming blood, my conscience is purified with His cleansing blood, and you’re defeated by His overcoming blood!”
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Experiencing the blood of Jesus
By believing in and experiencing the effectiveness of the blood of Jesus, our Christian walk will change.
We don’t ever have to remain separated from God, burdened by guilt, or tormented by Satan’s accusations. When we sin, we must confess our sins, believe God forgives us and purges our conscience from the stain of our sin, and even declare to Satan that we’ve been forgiven and cleansed by the blood of Jesus. The blood of Christ is truly precious!
To learn more about the power of the blood of Jesus, we recommend reading chapter 3 titled “The Precious Blood of Christ” in Basic Elements of the Christian Life, vol. 1. You can download this e-book for free from anywhere in the world here.
Have you ever wondered if you can lose your salvation? Or if you can be “unsaved” if you do something wrong or sin?
It’s extremely important for us believers to be clear about several fundamental matters. One of these is having the assurance that we’re saved once we believe in Christ. Another fundamental matter we must be clear about is the security of our salvation. Just how secure is our salvation? What safeguards it? Does its security depend on us? Can we lose our salvation?
Let’s get into five points that address the security of our salvation.
1. God initiated our salvation, and His calling is irreversible
Not a single one of us initiated our salvation. Ephesians 1:4-5 show us that God initiated our salvation before we were even born:
“Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love, predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.”
Our salvation didn’t start with us; it started with God. He chose us before the foundation of the world. And Romans 11:29 gives us this reassuring word:
“For the gracious gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
Irrevocable! This means our God-initiated salvation is irreversible, permanent, final, and unalterable.
2. God’s love and grace are eternal
We may withhold our love from others if they don’t love us in return, or we may want others to meet certain conditions in order to gain our love. But God isn’t like that. He loved us when we were His enemies, even dead in our offenses and sins. First John 4:10 tells us:
“Herein is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins.”
God loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for our sins. His love for us is so great, and it’s also eternal. In Jeremiah 31:3 God says, “Indeed I have loved you with an eternal love.”
God’s grace to us is also eternal. Second Timothy 1:9 says:
“Who [God] has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the times of the ages.”
God gave His grace to us before the times of the ages—that is, in eternity past. Our salvation is not based on our love for God or on our works, but on His eternal, unchanging love for us and on His eternal grace.
3. God is righteous in regard to our salvation
God’s salvation surely arises from His love for us. But it is also a matter of His righteousness. Our sins violate God’s righteousness, and legally we should pay the penalty for them.
But Christ fulfilled the demand of God’s righteousness by paying the penalty for us. He died in our place for our sins, bearing them in His body on the cross. Because Christ died for our sins, God must righteously acknowledge that our debt has been paid; He can no longer demand that we pay it.
As an illustration, let’s say we violate a traffic law and a police officer gives us a ticket. But we have a problem: we can’t pay the fine. However, say someone pays it for us. Since that person paid the fine, a judge can’t require us to pay it again. The judge has to acknowledge that the fine was paid.
The righteous God can never take away our salvation because our debt was fully paid, once and for all, by Christ’s death on our behalf. We’ve been forever redeemed by His precious blood.
4. God begot us with His eternal life
When we were saved, we were born again with the life of God. John 1:12-13 tell us:
“As many as received Him [the Lord Jesus], to them He [God] gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name, who were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Once we’re born of God as His children and receive His eternal life, we can never be “unborn,” even if we do things that aren’t pleasing to God. The life we’ve received from God is eternal, and our life relationship with God is also eternal.
To illustrate, let’s say our son or daughter isn’t behaving well. While this makes us unhappy, it can’t cancel or undo the fact that they are our children. Their bad behavior can’t annul the fact that they share our human life.
In the same way, we’re children of God. We were born with His eternal life, and nothing can undo that.
5. God holds us in His hands
Furthermore, John 10:28-29 tell us:
“I give to them eternal life, and they shall by no means perish forever, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”
Once we receive the eternal life of God, we’re held in the strongest hands in the universe. No one, not even Satan, can snatch us out of these hands! Our salvation could not be more secure.
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Being absolutely clear that our salvation is eternally secure
The verses in the points above prove to us that our salvation is eternally secure, safeguarded by God Himself. We must be absolutely clear about this. Reading and understanding the verses related to each point will reassure us that we can never lose our salvation.
But what if we sin?
We should never think that because our salvation is eternally secure, we have license to sin. Although we can never lose our salvation, we shouldn’t be careless about sin. When we sin, we suffer the consequences. We don’t lose our salvation, but we lose our joy, because sin interrupts our fellowship with the Lord.
So what should we do when we sin? When our conscience bothers us about any sin we’ve committed, we should confess it to Him so we can be forgiven and cleansed from that sin. We shouldn’t let unconfessed sins remain on our conscience; we should keep short accounts with the Lord. We should build up a habit of daily confessing our sins in order to maintain our fellowship with the Lord and our enjoyment of Him.
Praise God that our salvation is not based on us, but on God Himself—on His calling, love, grace, righteousness, life, and strength. We can rest knowing that we can never lose our salvation.
To learn more about these wonderful facts, click here to download our free e-book Basic Elements of the Christian Life, vol. 1 and read chapter 2, “The Assurance, Security, and Joy of Salvation.”
We at Bibles for America are continuing to pray for people everywhere during this COVID-19 global pandemic. While many of us are physically isolated, we’re connecting online more than ever via video calls and social media. We believe that the Lord wants many people to be saved in the midst of this difficult time, so we’ve made sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ as easy as possible with a new page called Share the Good News.
This new page has a number of online resources you can use to tell people about God’s salvation:
- Digital tracts: Click on the 11 tract titles to read and send them to people via text message, email, Facebook, or Twitter. For example, you can see the page for “Freed from the Fear of Death” here.
- Gospel videos: Watch the following gospel videos directly on the page: “Is Jesus in Your Boat?”; “Who Is Jesus?”; and “The Meaning of Life.” Share a video using the icons below each one.
- Blog posts: These gospel posts from our blog are longer than the digital tracts. You can read and share them using one of the sharing buttons at the bottom of the screen on mobile devices or along the left side on a computer.
- Podcast episode: Listen to a gospel episode from the BfA Podcast called “The Big Question” right on the page and send it to someone using the share icons below it.
Many people are anxious and suffering; they need eternal comfort. Surely we all have particular people we’re praying for, such as our relatives, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. May we all be faithful to tell them about our Savior God who wants them to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth.
Please bookmark the “Share the Good News” page so you can easily access it: gospel.bfa.org. You can also find the page under the Resources tab in the main menu of our site. We intend to add more content in the future, so be sure to revisit the page. Please also pass this on to others who want to share the gospel.
May the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ reach many people throughout the whole earth!
Did you know the Bible tells us that our Savior God desires all men to be saved? This includes you.
But you may wonder, Why do I need to be saved? You might even think, I’m not so bad. I don’t need saving.
Actually, every person needs to be saved because we’re all fallen human beings. Without exception, we’ve all committed sins. The Bible tells us in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This means every human being is a sinner, regardless of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or educational level.
God must judge sinners because He’s holy and righteous. Although God created us and loves us, He can’t simply overlook our sins; His righteousness requires Him to judge us. So under God’s judgment, today our sins separate us from God; then after we die, we’ll suffer perdition for eternity. This is why we need to be saved!
[[Free Study Bible]]
Because of God’s immense love for us, He made a way for us to be saved. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place. On the cross, Jesus as the sinless Lamb of God bore the judgment for all of mankind’s sins. As proof that Jesus’ death on the cross was accepted for our redemption, God raised Him from the dead.
Today Jesus Christ lives in resurrection, and He is now a life-giving Spirit. All who believe in Him are forgiven and washed from their sins. All separation from God is removed, and they’re saved from eternal judgment. In addition, they’re regenerated—that is, born again with the life of God. So many marvelous things happen when a person is saved!
So how can you be saved?
On God’s side, He’s done everything necessary to save us. On our side, the Bible says we must repent and believe to be saved.
To repent simply means to have a turn, or change, in our mind. Before we’re saved, we live apart from God, and our thoughts are against Him. So to repent means we turn away from everything else to God. We acknowledge we’re sinners, and that we need to be saved.
In addition, we must believe in Jesus as our Savior who died in our place and shed His blood to obtain forgiveness for our sins. God’s heart of love extends His salvation to us, but we in turn must receive it by believing.
In the Bible, Romans 10:9-10 says:
“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart there is believing unto righteousness, and with the mouth there is confession unto salvation.”
To be saved, you must openly confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. This means you have the deep conviction that Jesus Christ is the Lord of all, and you say it out loud. You confess Jesus was not an ordinary man but the Son of God who was incarnated as a man; lived a perfect, sinless life; and died on the cross for your sins. Furthermore, you must believe in your heart that He was raised from the dead. Then He as the life-giving Spirit will enter into your spirit; you’ll be forgiven of all your sins and be born again with His eternal life.
You can receive God’s gift of salvation by simply praying this prayer:
“Lord Jesus, I repent and turn to You right now. Thank You for bearing my judgment and shedding Your blood on the cross. Thank You for dying for me and forgiving me of all my sins. I confess that You are Lord! I believe You rose from the dead. I receive You as my Savior and my life. Come and live in my spirit. Thank You, Lord Jesus. Amen.”
If you prayed to receive the Lord Jesus, visit this page. Order a free study New Testament here.
As Christians, although we've believed in the Lord Jesus and received Him as our Savior, at times we may wonder, “How do I know I’m saved?” Sometimes we feel we’re definitely saved; at other times, we’re not so sure. When we’re tossed back and forth between certainty and uncertainty, it’s difficult for us to progress in our Christian life.
But we don’t have to be unsure. God provides three clear ways for us to have the full assurance of salvation, which we'll discuss in this post.
1. The Bible says so
The first way we know we’re saved is that the Bible says so. We have to realize that the Bible isn’t an ordinary book; it’s the speaking of the living God Himself. And God does not lie, so we can absolutely believe, trust, and rely on His Word.
First John 5:13 says this:
“I have written these things to you that you may know that you have eternal life, to you who believe into the name of the Son of God.”
This verse shows us God doesn’t want us to be unsure about our salvation. We have something in writing—the Word of God—by which we can know we’re really saved. God wants us to be assured of our salvation by His written Word.
Note 1 on this verse in the New Testament Recovery Version speaks about the assurance of salvation we can have through God’s Word:
“The written words of the Scriptures are the assurance to the believers, who believe into the name of the Son of God, that they have eternal life. Our believing to receive eternal life is the fact; the words of the Holy Writings are the assurance concerning this fact—they are the title deed to our eternal salvation. By them we are assured and have the pledge that as long as we believe into the name of the Son of God, we have eternal life.”
We have a pledge concerning our salvation! Our pledge, our “title deed” to our eternal salvation, is the Word of God.
John 3:16 is another verse that assures us of our salvation:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.”
This verse tells us that when we believe into Jesus Christ, we’re saved; we have eternal life and we will not perish. We’re saved when we believe in Him and receive Him as our Savior. This is God’s unchanging and reliable Word.
Relying on the facts in God’s Word, as opposed to our own feelings or deductions, is one strong way we can be assured we’re really saved.
[[Free Study Bible]]
2. The Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirit
Another way we can be sure we’re saved is through the Spirit.
God gave us two wonderful gifts: the Bible, which is something outside of us, and His Spirit, who is inside us. Both testify that when we believe in Jesus, we’re saved eternally.
When we were born again by believing in Jesus, the Spirit came into our spirit to live in us forever.
Romans 8:16 speaks clearly concerning these two spirits:
“The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.”
The Holy Spirit witnesses deep within us, in our spirit, that we are truly saved. Even if we doubt this and say, “I don’t think I’m a child of God,” the Spirit within us witnesses to confirm that we are.
One reason we may wonder whether we’re saved may be because we don’t know how to experience this witnessing of the Holy Spirit with our spirit. Instead, we may rely on our fluctuating feelings or our doubting mind to assure us we’re saved. But the key to experiencing this witnessing of the Holy Spirit is to realize that it’s with our spirit, which is deeper than our emotions or our mind.
Now, let’s read 1 Corinthians 12:3:
“No one can say, Jesus is Lord! except in the Holy Spirit.”
Note 3 on this verse explains how saying “Jesus is Lord” is crucial:
“This indicates that when we say with a proper spirit, ‘Jesus is Lord!’ we are in the Holy Spirit. Hence, to call on the Lord Jesus is the way to participate in, to enjoy, and to experience the Holy Spirit.”
Whenever we’re doubting our salvation, we can say aloud, “Jesus is Lord!” As we declare this, we’re in the Holy Spirit, not in our questioning mind or our changeable emotions, and the Spirit in our spirit witnesses and assures us that we most certainly are children of God.
3. Love for our brothers in the Lord
In addition to the Word of God and the Spirit in us, we can know we’re saved because we have genuine love for our fellow Christians, even for those who may be very different from ourselves.
This love isn’t something we had before we were saved, and it’s not something we manufacture after we’re saved. It’s the spontaneous result of our receiving the life of God when we're regenerated.
In 1 John 3:14, the apostle John says,
“We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers.”
Note 1 explains the relationship of life and love in this verse:
“Death is of the devil, God’s enemy, Satan, signified by the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which brings death; life is of God, the source of life, signified by the tree of life, which issues in life (Gen. 2:9, 16-17). Death and life are not only of two sources, Satan and God; they are also two essences, two elements, and two spheres. To pass out of death into life is to pass out of the source, the essence, the element, and the sphere of death into the source, the essence, the element, and the sphere of life. This took place in us at our regeneration. We know this, i.e., have the inner consciousness of it, because we love the brothers. Love (the love of God) toward the brothers is strong evidence of this. Faith in the Lord is the way for us to pass out of death into life; love toward the brothers is the evidence that we have passed out of death into life. To have faith is to receive the eternal life; to love is to live by the eternal life and express it.”
This love in us for our brothers in the Lord is further evidence that we’re genuinely saved.
Assurance of salvation: a solid foundation for our Christian life
Once we receive Christ as our Savior, we have wonderful sources of the assurance of our salvation in the written word of the Bible, the Spirit witnessing with our spirit, and love for our brothers in the Lord. Thank God we can know with certainty that we’re saved eternally and that we’re truly God’s children! With this assurance as our solid foundation, we can have a joyful Christian life and go on to experience Christ and grow in Him.
For more on this subject, you can read chapter 2 of Basic Elements of the Christian Life, vol. 1, a book that has helped thousands of believers. You can download this e-book for free from anywhere in the world here.
When we repent and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, some wonderful things happen to us. We are forgiven of all our sins and delivered from God’s condemnation and eternal punishment. As a result, for the first time in our lives we have untold happiness and peace. We can’t help but love the Lord Jesus who died for us on the cross.
Forgiven, delivered, and born again
Being forgiven by God and delivered from eternal punishment are truly wonderful, yet there’s even more. Perhaps the most amazing thing that happens to us when we believe in the Lord Jesus is that we’re born again, or regenerated.
What do the words born again mean? Some think it’s a figure of speech, like the saying turn over a new leaf, meaning you resolve to be a better person. But it’s more profound than that. According to the Bible, being born again isn’t a metaphor for having a new beginning. It’s an actual spiritual birth: we are reborn with the life of God.
Why do we need to be born again?
Since our sins are forgiven, isn’t that enough? Why do we need to be born again?
We were born with the physical, human life, which we received from our parents. But God wants us to have His divine life in addition to our human life. We are reborn with the divine life of God by believing in Christ.
Regardless of whether we’re a good person living the most moral life, quite the opposite, or somewhere in between, every one of us needs to be reborn spiritually to have the divine life of God.
In John 3:3 the Lord Jesus makes it clear that we all must be born again:
“Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
For His plan to be worked out, God wants us to be people who are not just forgiven and cleansed, but also who possess His divine life.
Two births
This is why God created us as vessels to contain Him. Specifically, He made us with a human spirit, the deepest part of our being, which is able to contact, receive, and contain God.
The Lord Jesus said in John 3:6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” “Born of the flesh” refers to our physical birth, and “born of the Spirit” refers to our spiritual birth.
“The Spirit” is the Spirit of God, and “spirit” refers to our human spirit. When we believe in Jesus Christ, our human spirit is born of the Spirit with the divine life of God.
[[Free Study Bible]]
How can this be possible?
God is holy and righteous. How can He give His eternal, divine life to sinful human beings? Because of Christ’s death on the cross, God can forgive and thoroughly cleanse all who repent and believe in Him. Then the holy and righteous God can come into our spirit and beget us with His life.
We need to realize that God’s forgiving us, cleansing us, and delivering us from eternal punishment is so that we can have His eternal life.
To illustrate, let’s say we want to pour delicious juice into a cup. But there’s a problem—the cup is filthy. We first have to wash the cup; then we can fill it with juice.
Similarly, God wants to fill us with Himself as the divine life, but first we sinners need to be cleansed with the blood of Jesus. Once we believe and are cleansed, the divine life can enter into us with no obstacle.
A hymn by Charles Wesley beautifully speaks of what the Lord Jesus did for us so we could be born again. Here are a few lines:
“Mild He lays his glory by, Born that man no more may die; Born to raise the sons of earth; Born to give them second birth.”
Being reborn makes us God’s children
Just as being born of our parents physically makes us their child, being born of God spiritually makes us a child of God.
John 1:12-13 tells us this fact:
“As many as received Him [Jesus Christ], to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name, who were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Isn’t it amazing that we human beings can have God’s divine life and be His children? What wonderful things happened to us when we were saved!
For all eternity we’ll thank the Lord Jesus for dying on the cross for us so we could be forgiven and cleansed of our sins. We’re so thankful we’re no longer under God’s condemnation, headed for eternal punishment. But we also thank God that His salvation goes even further. We were born of the Spirit in our spirit! We have the life of God!
We can echo the apostle Peter’s praise to God in 1 Peter 1:3:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
For more on this subject, we encourage you to read chapter 1 of Basic Elements of the Christian Life, vol. 1, a book that has helped thousands of believers. You can download it for free from anywhere in the world here.
