Are You Saved? Are You Sure?

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” [1]

Without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, Christianity is about as nourishing as pre-chewed sawdust. Actually, without Christ as Master over life, whatever is professed, there is no Christianity. Without Christ ruling over one’s life, there can be no sense of satisfaction, no fulfilment in life now, and no hope of a future with Him. The reason this is true is that the Faith centres around the Risen Son of God. Any possibility of pleasing God Who gives us our being rests in our relationship with Jesus the Son of God.

Years ago, it was noted that a surprising number of ministers resisted the movement known in American history as the Great Awakening. The resistance of these ministers proved to be a serious hindrance to the advance of the Faith in that distant age. God prevailed, but the resistance to the work of God clearly slowed the spread of revival fires. In the same way, resisting the work of God in this present age is a hindrance and a detriment to the advance of the Faith. However, I suggest that an even greater threat to the advance of God's kingdom is the danger of being unconverted while serving among the churches. Whether simply being a regular church attendee, or whether fulfilling some role in the ongoing work of the churches of our Lord, or whether serving as a minister of Christ in the diaconate or in the pastorate, those who are unconverted are a serious hindrance to the work of Christ the Lord.

The threat and the calamity that such an awful state of feigned faith poses, not just for the general populace but for the one who is seemingly called of God and perhaps is ready to embark on theological education, or for one even now in the midst of such training, is indeed horrible and awful. Therefore, the question must be asked, “Are you saved and are you sure?”

I am less concerned with offending someone who is present than that someone present might learn all of the fine points of service in the Name of Christ and yet miss the most important point. And that is that the Christian life is centred around knowing Jesus Christ personally and walking with him on a daily basis. My deep concern for the salvation of those who anticipate entering into the service of the churches or for those who are now serving among the churches is heightened by recent statistics indicating that less than half of the members of our churches attend services on Sunday morning. If even one half of our Christian population cared enough about the Holy Lamb of God to get out of bed and show up for church on Sunday morning, there would not be enough room in our churches to contain them. In fact, most of our church members are what we might call seventh-day horizontalists.

In a study conducted some years past, the religious pollster George Barna reported that only forty-three percent of those who call themselves Baptists agree with the proposition that a person is saved by grace and not by works. In that study, Barna found that of those who identified as Baptists, sixty-six percent do not believe the devil is a real entity.

But more important than surveys and reports are the words of Jesus Christ Himself. The words that are important for us to note are those recorded in MATTHEW 7:21-23: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” Not everyone who calls Jesus “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, despite many claiming that they have done great works; but Jesus will say that he never knew them!

The Bible calls for each one who professes Christ as Lord to examine his or her faith. Here are a couple of examples to remember from the Word of God. “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test” [2 CORINTHIANS 13:5]!