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When a person trusts Jesus Christ as his Savior, a miracle takes place. That person is born again spiritually. He or she becomes a child of God.

It will help us if we understand that there are four essentials in God's salvation.

The work of Christ

The Lord Jesus died for our sins and rose again to be our living Savior. His work is perfect and complete.

The Word of God

In His Word, God tells us what Christ has done for us.

Our Faith in Christ

Our part in salvation is to believe what God says in His Word concerning Jesus Christ. We must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

The work of the Holy Spirit

When we believe on the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit makes real in us all that Christ has done for us. Our sins are forgiven. We are born again! The Bible says,

"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God." 1 Peter 1:23

How can we KNOW that we are saved?

When a person is born again, he becomes a child of God. God wants every child of His to know without a doubt that he is saved, that he has eternal life.

Let us consider some ways by which we can know that we are saved.

We know that we are saved by the Word of God.

One way by which we know that we are saved is by the Word of God made real to us by the Holy Spirit.

As we read or hear a portion of God's Word, it suddenly seems as though God is speaking directly to us.

What has happened is simply this: the Holy Spirit has made God's Word real to us. It is not only that it is written in the Bible, but God has spoken it to our own heart.

There are many verses in the Bible by which we can know that we are saved. The Bible says,

"This is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that has the Son has life; and he that has not the Son of God has not life." 1 John 5:11-12

These verses tell us plainly that eternal life is in God's Son. If we have Christ as our Savior, we can know that we have eternal life. The next verse makes this clear:

"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may KNOW that you have eternal life." 1 John 5:13

A woman was using God's Word to explain the way of salvation to a young girl. The girl was confused and said, "I thought I had to have a certain kind of feeling or some burst of light or something."

Pointing to the Bible in her hand, the woman said, "Here is all the light you need." The girl put her faith in God's Word and found the peace and joy she had been looking for. The Bible says,

"the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace IN BELIEVING." Romans 15:13

We know that we are saved by the witness of the Holy Spirit.

When a person becomes a child of God, the Holy Spirit comes to live in him. The Bible says,

"Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts." Galatians 4:6

By sending the Holy Spirit to live in us, God shows us that we are His children. Every child of God has the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. The Bible says,

"Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" 1 Corinthians 3:16

One of the things that the Holy Spirit does for us is to "bear witness" that we are God's child. This means that the Holy Spirit inwardly confirms to us that God is our Father and we are His child. The Bible says,

"The Spirit itself (Himself) bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." Romans 8:16

Do you have this inner witness in your heart that God is now your Father and that you are His child? That is the witness of the Holy Spirit.

We know that we are saved because our life is changed.

When we are born into the family of God by trusting Christ as our Savior, many changes take place in our life. The believer is "a new creature in Christ." The Bible says,

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Corinthians 5:17

We have new desires. In the past we did not care for the things of the Lord, but now we begin to love them. We want to know and understand God's Word. We begin to talk to God in prayer.

We have a new love for the Lord Jesus. We love Him because of who He is and what He did for us.

We have a new love for our heavenly Father. We discover that He loved us long before we loved Him. The Bible says,

"We love Him, because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19

We have a new love for other people. This is actually God's love in our heart. Because we have God's love in our heart, we will be concerned about our unsaved friends and relatives. We long for them to know Christ as their Savior.

We have a special love for other believers. They are now our brothers and sisters in Christ. This is one way we know that we have been saved.

The Bible says,

"We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." 1 John 3:14

Though our circumstances may not change, we will find that we ourselves have changed. These changes may not take place overnight, but they definitely do take place in the life of a person who is born again. They take place because Christ Himself has come to live in us.

Believers are Obeyers

One evidence that we are truly born again is that we have a new heart-attitude. Formerly we did not love God nor want to obey Him. Now we love Him and we want to obey Him.

A new Christian may not know much of God's Word and what God wants him to do, but he will want to obey God. Believers are obeyers! The Bible says,

"Hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that says, I know Him, and keeps not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 1 John 2:3-4

We show our love for the Lord Jesus by obeying Him. Jesus said,

"If you love Me, keep My commandments." John 14:15

Let us consider some ways in which we should obey the Lord.

* We should obey the Lord by confessing Him before men.

Once a person has trusted in the Lord Jesus, he should tell his friends, relatives and others that he has trusted Christ as his Savior. The Bible says,

"Let the redeemed of the Lord say so." Psalm 107:2

The Lord Jesus has commanded every Christian to share the gospel—the "good news" — with those who have not heard it or understood it. Untold numbers of people are lost because no one has ever made it clear to them how they can be saved by trusting the Lord Jesus as their Savior.

* We should obey the Lord by making things right with others.

One of the first things a person should do after becoming a Christian is to make things right with those he has wronged in any way.

You may have taken something from someone wrongfully. Perhaps there is an unpaid debt that you need to clear up. Or it may be that you have offended someone by something you said or did. Whatever it may be, the Lord wants you to make things right with that person.

It may be that someone has wronged you. You have carried resentment in your heart toward that person for years. You will not forgive them.

How can we, who have been forgiven so much by the Lord, be unwilling to forgive others? The Bible says,

"Be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you." Ephesians 4:32

* We should obey the Lord by being part of a local church.

Believers are to gather together with other believers on a regular basis to worship the Lord and to have fellowship with one another. Such a group of believers is called a "local church."

It is God's will that every believer be part of a Bible-believing, local church and that he faithfully supports it. Jesus said,

"For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20

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