Are You Saved?

“She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21).

Are You Saved?

How do you answer this question? First you have to understand what the person is asking. They are asking if you have received Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

The Altar Call

But secondly, let’s be honest, this is a shallow understanding of salvation. A lot of Evangelicals mistakenly think that responding to an altar call and saying the sinner’s prayer makes them a Christian. It does not.

You will look in the Bible in vain for an altar call and a sinner’s prayer. That’s not how people were saved in the Bible or in the early church. People are saved by repentance, belief and baptism.

Repentance

Repentance is about changing your mind. That means you change it from a self-centered mindset to a God-centered mindset. Another word for this is conversion, which literal means to turn. It means a turn from self and turn to God.

The simple fact is that a faith that makes no difference in your life makes no difference to God. God does not save people in their sins, he saves them “from their sins.”

More than Words

We need to really take to heart Jesus’ warning about just saying “I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior.” Listen closely to Jesus:

“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?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you who behave lawlessly’” (Matt. 7:22-23).

Knowing Jesus

That knowing Jesus is talking about a transformative ongoing experience of Christ in your life. It is a day by day relationship in which you “work on your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12). When you stop growing, you start dying.

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Jay N. Forrest

I am a Christian Teacher focused on the Pursuit of God through Prayer, Contemplation, Silence, Solitude, and Simplicity. I became a Christian in 1983, attended Bible school, and eventually earned my Doctorate in Ministry. I served as a Protestant minister for 27 years and also spent about a decade practicing Buddhism. In 2005, I was baptized into the Catholic Church, but have since joined the Episcopal Church. I live in the desert southwest of the United States.

Latest posts by Jay N. Forrest (see all)

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