Devotional: How Do I Know I'm Saved (1 John)?

Funny that I'd think of this question again after my spiritual security post on my old blog. This should be similar to that one. This was prepared (on a 3x5 card) as a devotional for my prayer group at college. However, I never got to give it. To answer the question of "How do I know I'm saved?" I want to define it. One of the things I think of when people say, "saved" is "born again." That's what getting saved is. The old is gone the new has come. Unfortunately, most people have very trite, religious connotations they attach to the word "saved." It would have been interesting to hear what the guys in my prayer group thought "saved" was. A better question might be "What are you saved from?" Some might say Hell, but that's just a consequence. We are actually saved from sin. In that sense, the answer to the age old question of "How do I know I'm saved?" is easily answered. Are you saved from sin? Or are you still trapped by it? We can know, within ourselves, if we are saved or not, simply by looking at our lives. Do you keep going back to the same sin over and over again? Then you aren't saved from sin. It's the slave concept (Romans 6).

"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything." 1 John 3:18-20 (NIV). How do we know if we belong to the truth? Love with actions and in truth, rather than just words. That is one way we can know if we are saved. The second part of this verse very accurately describes people who struggle with the concept of being saved (from sin). Our hearts condemn us. We wonder if what we've done (or haven't done) is keeping us from serving God (going to heaven). But God is greater than our hearts and our love and actions will be a testimony for or against our salvation. Does your heart condemn you?

"We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did." 1 John 2:3-6 (NIV). That lays out the question pretty clearly. This is how we know we are saved: you must be living as Jesus did. Jesus was sinless.

"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." 1 John 1:8 (NIV). We are not without sin in and of ourselves, but, thanks be to God, He is able to save us from sin (Romans 7:24-25). But that is very fundamental. That's the gospel. Jesus saved us from our sins. Are you saved from yours?"

"Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or knows him." 1 John 3:4-6.