Scripture says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:9–10 (NKJV) Someone is saved by trusting in the person and work of Christ alone for their salvation.
In Luke 15, Jesus tells the parable of the prodigal son, who wastes his inheritance on worldly living. When a famine hits, he joins himself to a man of that country and is sent out to feed swine and serve in his fields. Then it says, “when he came to himself, he said… I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you’… And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him…” This parable highlights humility and repentance (turning back to God), transformation (leaving the man he was joined to and his former way of life), and going to the Father, where he is met with love, acceptance, and rejoicing (grace).
This is a great illustration of how to become saved.
You must first change your way, by faith turn to God,
Next, confess your faults and sins against God,
Lastly, embrace the grace of God, who has forgiven your sins and faults, and go follow Him.
Can we know for sure if we are saved?
Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” (John 10:27–28 NKJV). God wants those who belong to Him to have peace in His complete work, so long as we abide in Him. In John 15, Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” (John 15:5–6 NKJV) Security comes from the finished work of Christ and from abiding in Christ.
Jesus said, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” (John 6:37 NKJV). God’s grace and salvation are an amazing work! John Bunyan said, “Great sins do draw out great grace; and where guilt is most terrible and fierce there the mercy of God in Christ, when showed to the soul, appears most high and mighty.”1
When we stumble or struggle with fear, we must remember that assurance is not found in ourselves, nor is it a license to sin; it is found in the work and person of Christ, Ephesians 2:8–9 tells us, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (NKJV). 2 John verse 9 says,
“He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.” (NKJV) Assurance comes from trusting in and abiding in Christ and His accomplished work.
- John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, vol. 1 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2006), 38.