How Do We Know if Salvation is Real?

How do we know if salvation is real? This is an important question, and one that I have discussed with various people in various ways quite a bit over the past few months. In the course of my work as a sidewalk counselor for Cities4Life, I frequently share the Gospel with abortion-minded women and men, abortion workers, and others who find themselves in a desperate situation. Many respond with a confession of faith. Often, they weep as they pray to God and ask Him to enter their lives and be their Lord.

Some of them don’t seem to make radical changes immediately in their lives. Was their salvation experience real? Should I not even have extended the invitation to ask Jesus to be Lord?

I believe with strong conviction that unless people come to understand that Jesus is Lord, and proclaim that truth, and endeavor to live that truth, they will never know peace, contentment, or the eternal purpose for which they were created. They will not be spending eternity with God, and the alternative is awful. Significantly awful. Eternally awful.

If someone gives me the teensiest opening to speak of God, I seize it. Time is short and the urgency is great. Tomorrow may be too late. I MUST share the truth of the Gospel and exend an invitation that they ask Jesus to be Lord right then and there. None of us is guaranteed any moment beyond this one. If I believe the Bible is true, which I do, then all around me people are doomed and don’t even know it. How can I remain silent???

But what if they experience just a shallow “cheap grace”, with no true conviction of the absolute ugliness of sin, need for heartfelt repentance, or desire to live now for Christ? What if I have just helped them put a bandaid on a wound that is still gushing blood? Even worse, what if I have fed the deception of a life dedicated to God when it is anything but that?

I was, at best, an agnostic for the first thirty years of my life. I didn’t care about God at all and thought Christians were losers who created God in their image to placate their own inadequacies. I thought Christians were idiots. I wasn’t leading a life I was particularly proud of, but I was proud of the fact that I didn’t try to pawn my struggles off on a God who somehow shed His blood for me and let me off the hook entirely.

However, my cousin, newly “born again”, would not stop jabbering about Jesus and what He did for me. To shut my cousin up, I read the Bible. I read it several times because it is GREAT literature. I was filled with doubts but I had to admit, Jesus was a compelling character. Years went by. Then I had my son, and something in me began to shift. This miracle of life could not be a random accident. This baby was designed...exquisitely designed. There had to be a designer.

My cousin closed in for the kill. He cornered me with his Bible and asked me to make a commitment to God. I told him I had ten feet of doubt and one inch of faith. My cousin assured me God could work with that. 

I don’t quite know what happened. I felt excruciating pain in my heart. I was certain I was having a heart attack and was about to die. Was I really about to ask Jesus to be my Lord? I had so little understanding and so many questions. But I found myself praying that prayer of faith with my cousin. As soon as I said, “Jesus is Lord”, the pain in my chest intensified as though talons were literally ripping my heart out of my body, and then, the pain was gone.

And I was a believer.

I didn’t feel any different. In fact, truth be told, I felt frightened. Now what? My cousin told me to read some verses, which I did. My cousin wanted to announce to his church what had just happened. I told him not to do that. If Jesus had just taken the wheel of my life, why was I still just the same doubting, confused, frightened me that I had always been?

The next morning, I went on a run. I noticed something. Colors looked deeper, brighter, more vibrant. And when I passed people, I felt an overwhelming love for them. THAT was different. It was the only difference I remember.

Over the years, just as my cousin promised, my doubts subsided and my faith increased. Now, my best friend and reason for existence is Jesus. I talk to Him more than I talk to anyone. By far. My doubts are not gone, but my faith is so overwhelming that the doubts don’t matter. One day God will reveal all that I don’t know now. I did become a better person, I think, striving to please God...but I failed a lot too. And the same nagging character flaws I had as a non-believer were still there. I struggled more to wrestle with them, and did have victory at times. Other times, not so much.

Nonetheless, there is NO DOUBT in my mind that that terrified, doubt-filled confession of faith was the kernel of salvation that put me on the path to God.

So, my experience is definitely what frames how I approach sharing the Gospel as well as the urgency in asking those with whom I share, “Would you like to ask Jesus to be your Lord right now?”

Maybe there are some who will not know exactly what they are proclaiming. (I sure didn’t.) They will need discipleship from mature believers for certain. Many will continue in life-styles and habits engrained over a lifetime that God will only slowly convict them to alter. But my job is NOT to insure their salvation is real. That is between them and God. My job is to be faithful in introducing them to Jesus, inviting them into His kingdom, and then letting the power of the Holy Spirit take over.

I could be wrong...but I think that is what God has indicated to me. One day I will know for sure.

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Philippians 2:12-13 

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.