What is the difference between those who believe in God and those who do not? I suppose an equally valid question is… What is the difference between those who believe in God and those who are saved? With so many philosophies, world views and religions in the world, what separates true believers from those who simply believe in God, or those who don’t believe in any God at all?   The answer is truly simple, yet it would seem, somewhat illusive. I remember, as 12 year old, asking my mom how a person knew if they were saved. I remember her answer, “Honey, you will just know” and then she asked, “Do you believe you are saved?”  I smiled and answered, Yes. In truth, I had no clue, and that terrified me.

You see I had been reading my bible, and throughout the book of Matthew I had been reading about everlasting fire, Hell, and eternal condemnation.  I was terrified by some of the statements Jesus had made, such as; "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' Matthew 7:21-23 NKJV.  I was shocked to think that these people called Him Lord, it would seem they considered themselves to be Christians, part of the Church, yet, they would not enter into the kingdom of Heaven.

Another passage that stood out to me was in chapter 25 verses 1-12. To summarize, Jesus gave a parable about 10 virgins waiting for the bridegroom to come. Five were wise and had their lamps oiled and trimmed. Five were foolish and did not have oil in their lamps. When He came, the five foolish had to go buy oil and they missed Him. Later they came knocking at the door of the wedding chamber saying “Lord, open the door”, and the bride groom said to them, “I say to you, I do not know you.”  I guess the question is, if they don’t get to enter the kingdom of Heaven then where do they go?

It didn’t take too much more reading to find out. Next, in Matthew chapter 25 verses 14-30, Jesus gave a parable about the Talents. In the end the guy who was unprofitable, and buried his talent, was Cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.  This didn’t sound too good to me. And again, in Matthew Chapter 25 verses 31-46, Jesus tells us the events of His second coming, when He will establish His earthly kingdom. He will gather the nations together into one place for Judgment. In this account, the goats (those who did not serve Jesus) seemed to be confused about the trouble they were in, they called Him Lord, yet they were cast into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels. He summarizes the chapter by saying. "And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Matthew 25:46 

In these warnings there seems to be a common thread, all of these people thought they were saved. All of them called Him Lord. All of them believed they were worthy to enter His kingdom. Weather by the works they did or the company that they kept.  Yet they were kept out. Why? The answer is simple Jesus said in Matthew 7 verse 23 “'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” NKJV.

It would seem that it is not so much the work you do, or even your ability to keep the laws and rules, but weather or not we know Him. You may have noticed that He said the same thing to the 5 foolish virgins “go away, I don’t know you”.  You see, if we know Him, we believe that He, Jesus, died in our place. We believe that He paid the full price for our salvation, see John 3:16. And if we believe that, we love Him, serve Him, and keep His commandments. We are able to do this, only because, He places His Spirit within us, to dwell within us and to help us follow Him.  If I don’t know Him, yet I believe in God, I will join a Church, I might even call Him Lord, and try to keep the laws, say that I love Him (even if I don’t, how could I if I don’t truly know Him) try to be a good person, and try to work my way to heaven. Only to hear those words, “Depart from me, into outer darkness, into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels, because, I don’t know you!”  I guess the question I must ask you, my reader, is this, Do you know Him?

I have asked people to tell me how sure they are that they are saved, using a scale from 1 to 1o, 10 being absolutely sure you are saved, and going to heaven, and 1 being sure you are not.  Many people I talk to say, “ I think about an 8 or so.” When they say that, I know that they only say it because of that thing they have been doing. The word they keep saying that they know is wrong. That activity they have been participating in. I have to look at them and say, “there is no eight”. You see, if I believe Jesus did it all then I have to say 1o. If I believe it is up to me, being honest, I would have to say zero!

It is simple to see in scripture that God gives us credit for putting our trust in Jesus, rather than trying to earn His favor with our good works.  In Genesis chapter 3 we see the fall of mankind, one thing that is fascinating is that God explains the punishment to man and to woman but does not give them anything to do to make it right. The only thing He does is give them a promise. Speaking to the Serpent, in the hearing of Adam and Eve, He says, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." Genesis 3:15 NKJV

This “He” who will bruise the serpent’s head is a prophecy about Jesus. Without too much explanation, Adam and Eve understood God was saying, that there will be a Son born to a virgin who will crush the authority of the serpent who is Satan.  God didn’t give Adam and Eve a law to keep. He didn’t give them anything but the promise that someday there would be a redeemer.

Later in Genesis Chapter 15 God gave Abraham a promise, that he was going to have a son and be the father of many nations, and through his seed all of the nations of the world would be blessed. Abraham understood that God was going to fulfill the promise of Genesis chapter 3 through him. Then it says “And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” Again, Abraham was not given any laws to keep, rules to follow, not even a plan of salvation. He was only told that through his line, the promised one would come. And because he believed God, even against logic, because he was old, God counted Abraham as righteous.

So how do I know if I am saved? I know that I am saved when I put my full trust in Jesus Christ for my salvation. The bible says that the wages of sin is death, Romans 6:23a. That means if I ever sinned (did something that didn’t bring glory to God) I earned death, not just to die and be buried, but eternal death as is described in Matthew 25, outer darkness or everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels. Sin, or falling short of God’s glory, keeps us from our Heavenly Father. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, Romans 6:23b. The bible clearly teaches that Salvation, (dwelling with Heavenly Father for eternity) is a gift that we cannot earn. When we believe that Jesus died in our place, paying the debt of death we owed, then His goodness and righteousness is credited to us. Then, He comes and dwells in us by His Holy Spirit, giving us the ability to live a life that is pleasing to Him, by His power and not ours.

It is true what my mother said, You do know when you are saved. As the scripture declares, “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, Romans 8:16&17 NKJV

If you ask me today if I know that I am saved, I can say with one hundred percent confidence, Yes, I know that I am saved. If you were asked, what would be your answer?