Lesson 8: Confidence in God’s Salvation (2)
Read Galatians 5:16-25 - https://www.bible.com/bible/59/gal.5

How can we know we are saved? As we read in the last lesson, we must know we have believed Him. If we believe we have accepted Him, we confirm this with a simple prayer asking Him to verify it to our spirit. He will do so. His Holy Spirit, living inside of us will commune with our spirit and give us a sense of peace. He may very well also tell us if there is unconfessed sin in our lives and if He does, we must confess it and turn from it immediately. To harbor sin when He has shown it to us hurts Him and damages our relationship with Him.

If He does not answer when you pray, the only chance you have is to drop everything else and seek Him with everything you are. It must be your number one priority; it must be more important than the food you eat or the air you breathe. It must be so important that you would rather die than not hear from Him. I will promise you, you will not die. He promised He would never turn away anyone who comes to Him. He will hear you. He will save you. He will make you His child (John 6:37).


The next question to ask is, "Do I see God working in my life?" You might ask, "What am I looking for?" Now we turn to Galatians 5:22-23. In the verses just before this we are shown what it looks like to be human. Starting in verse 22 we see what it looks like to belong to God. Do you see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control in your life where before there was little or none? Are you loving someone whom you could not love before? Do you have the joy in the midst of sorrow which cannot be explained? Do you have peace in the storm? Are you patient when you know you would have blown up before? All these are signs of the Holy Spirit living inside of you. If the signs are present, so is the Holy Spirit. And if the Holy Spirit is with you, you are saved.

The next question, then, is whether or not we can lose our salvation. To answer this we must look again at the very nature of our salvation. If our salvation was of our works or by something we had done, then something we did could conceivably affect our salvation. But our salvation is not of our works or by something we have done; it is of and by God's grace alone. I repeat: our salvation is of and by God's grace alone. Therefore, it is not WE who keep our salvation secure; it is GOD who keeps it secure. Look at Galatians 3:3 where Paul chides the believers for thinking their actions could perfect/secure their salvation which had been begun by God. More on this in our next lesson.

*Memorize: Romans 8:1-2
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”