Am I Really Saved?

Verse: Romans 10:8-10
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

Devotion
I think it is natural to wonder, “am I really saved?” I know this is a question I get a lot from people who are afraid they can “lose their salvation” or maybe they “did it wrong” or that God is going to catch them on some technicality. I think that this verse (and others like it) are incredibly comforting. From reading the Bible it doesn’t seem that God intended the transition from unbelief to belief to be super complicated. It isn’t a 10 step process that you can easily screw up.

When it comes down to it, what he is asking for is “discipleship.” He is looking for people who are willing to turn their lives over to him and trust him with their lives both now and forever. He is looking for people who recognize their need for a Savior, and who have come to believe the message of the Gospel. The evidence of this (from this verse) is pretty simple: belief and confession.

Followers of Jesus believe that Jesus died and rose again for their sins. They trust that he has taken the punishment for their sins and offered them new life. They also confess that he is Lord of their life. This means at least two things: (1) they aren’t afraid to talk about their faith in Jesus and tell others that he is Lord (Matthew 10:32), and (2) they aren’t just trusting Jesus as Savior (he saves me from my sin) but as Lord (I am handing over leadership of my life to God, “it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me” Galatians 2:20).

When we feel fear about our salvation, when we doubt if we are truly saved, I think this is a very encouraging way to check in. Do I have this belief in my heart? And am I confessing that Jesus is Lord of my life? I think these are starting points of course. Faith and action should grow out of these two. But we can have confidence in our salvation as we continue to work it out!

Author: Christian Dunn