"Have I done enough to be saved?"

 

In order to answer the question, it is worth looking at how a person is saved. This will be my outline thoughts based on 1 Cor 15:1-4:

The Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirit that Jesus is the Son of God: Equal with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. Not simply a man born of God, but God Himself who became fully human. He lived a sinless life. He then gave up His life, taking all of our sins on Himself and dying to pay the price for them. Then on the third day after His burial, he rose again. All of this was done in accordance with what God had foretold in his word through his prophets.

If you are wondering whether you have done enough to be saved and fully accept what I have just written then understand that the unsaved mind cannot accept what I have just written. Are you thinking - 'well, that’s obvious, we all know Jesus is God, fully God and died for our sins – surely I need to do more?' It’s not obvious! Even though it is what the church teaches and has taught since it began, it is the truth that causes a lot to stumble.

Paul tells us that without the Holy Spirit, left to our own natural minds, the message of the Gospel is both a stumbling block and foolishness.

Unless you are saved you cannot believe it. God knows everything, the Holy Spirit witnesses to us that Jesus is God and saviour. The moment we accept this, God fuses His Holy Spirit with our human spirit. This is called the quickening. So, at the moment we accept Jesus - what seemed utter fantasy, now becomes cemented as truth for us.

If you are still thinking you should do something towards your salvation other than just believe; there are two things you need to know: 1, You can’t. That’s why Jesus had to die. 2, It’s not about what you do, it’s about what He has done.

There is no special incantation or formula we need to recite. There are no special works we have to accomplish. God made it simple.

I should say a word on what Paul says in 1 Cor 15:2: 'By this gospel you are saved, if (since) you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.'

Paul is not saying you have to believe, keep believing and hold on really tightly with white knuckles or else you won't be saved! Neither is Paul talking about not being a true believer in the sense of not fully believing. For example, in the heat of the moment, some people will go forward at an evangelistic rally, say the "sinner's prayer", but the next day ask themselves what they were thinking!

No, Paul is saying: You believed, you fully accepted, the Holy Spirit is now part of you. But if you do not hold onto and live in the truth of that, you are not living according to your new 'Christian' reality.' You are a saved person living like an unsaved person. That is believing in vain, or in other words, 'without purpose'; not to your full potential or according to God's calling. 

Words like 'purpose' and 'potential' are the kinds of words our little inner Pharisees can take to beat us over the head with! We need to look at what Paul is saying altogether, and not just focus on one word. Another way of saying 'if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.' is 'fix your eyes on Jesus.' It is not a case of now I'm a Christian I must do X, Y and Z. It is a case of - Now I'm of Christ, I belong to Him. I focus on Him in order to grow in Him; in order for Him to produce His character in me; in order to do the 'easy' and 'light' things He has for me to do.

If you do not accept that Jesus is God, and died for our sins etc., and want to be saved then you need to accept it. God will do the rest. In my own story; I went from thinking, ‘How can anyone believe this nonsense?’ one minute, to, ‘How can anyone not believe this amazing truth?’ the next. The moment I allowed myself to accept what I was being told, that belief was cemented in me. The quickening. At that moment of believing and accepting, we enter a new reality. As John Newton put it in his song Amazing Grace (1779), ‘Was blind but now I see.’ Or the hymn ‘And can it be’ (1738) by Charles Wesley:

‘Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature's night,
Thine eye diffused a quick'ning ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free;
I rose, went forth and followed Thee.’