According to the Bible, people are predestined and called by God. How will you know if you are one of the people who will survive to see the new creation?
If you believe in the Son of God, then God wants you to know for certain that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13)! The wonderful Bible truth of “predestination” (Ephesians 1:11) shows us why we can have this confidence. Before the creation of the world, God, in love, chose whom He would save (Ephesians 1:4) and wrote their names in the Lamb’s “book of life” (Revelation 13:8; 17:8; 21:27). Then, in history, God sent His Son to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21) by laying down His life for His sheep (John 10:11), and by sending the Holy Spirit (John 15:26) to give new birth (John 3:5-8) to God’s chosen people (1 Peter 2:9) as we hear the gospel (1 Peter 1:22). God is now holding on to us until the day Jesus returns (John 6:37-40, 44-45), and nobody can snatch us from His hand (John 10:28-29): whatever the world, the flesh or the devil throw at us, nothing “in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35-39)! Salvation, therefore, is 100% God’s work, from first to last (Romans 8:29-30), entirely by His grace (Ephesians 2:8-9) and to His glory alone (Romans 11:33-36).
Judgment day
Everyone will discover on judgment day whether or not their names are entered into the “book of life” (Revelation 20:15). But is it feasible to find out ahead of time? Indeed, it is! Remembering what Jesus has already accomplished for us (Hebrews 6:18–29) and putting our faith in God’s certainty that He will complete the excellent job He has started in us (Philippians 1:6) should be our primary sources of assurance of salvation. But asking probing inquiries of ourselves is equally appropriate in the Christian life (2 Corinthians 13:5).
Test the genuineness of your faith
According to Jesus, we may determine whether someone is genuinely a believer by looking at the evidence of their life (Matthew 7:20). The following queries will assist you in doing this.
- Are I following Jesus’ instructions? We can tell that we love Jesus (1 John 2:3) if we follow His teachings. If we do, it’s because He first loved us (1 John 4:19)! Don’t give up if your Christian obedience isn’t flawless; genuine obedience to Jesus requires us to confess our sins to Him (1 John 1:8–2:2). But we are deceiving ourselves if we say we are Christians but never follow Christ’s moral teachings (1 John 2:4). Without holiness, we will not see the Lord, even if we accomplish great things for God (Matthew 7:22–23; Hebrews 12:14).
- Am I bearing fruit for Jesus?
Jesus’ parable of the sower describes true Christians as “good soil” who bear a big crop for Jesus (Mark 4:20). Jesus makes a similar point in His metaphor of the vine: if you are bearing much fruit, especially in answer to prayer (John 15:5,7,16), then you can be sure that you are truly in the vine (cf. Hebrews 6:7). Don’t be discouraged if you seem to achieve less for God than some other Christians do (Mark 4:20); we need only be faithful with what God has given to us (Matthew 25:21, 23). However, if our lives are so driven by worldly desires, worries or success that we bear no fruit for Jesus at all (Mark 4:18-19; John 15:6), then we are in great danger (Hebrews 6:8). - Am I growing in faith and knowledge of God?
A sign that we have truly “tasted that the Lord is good” is that we want to keep growing in our faith (1 Peter 2:2-3) and in our knowledge of God (2 Peter 3:18) through studying His word (Psalm 1; 2 Timothy 3:14-15). Don’t expect to understand everything in the Bible straight away: even Timothy, in whom Paul saw sincere faith (2 Timothy 1:5), needed to spend time thinking about the scriptures (2 Timothy 2:7); and even Barnabas was once briefly led astray (Galatians 2:13)! However, when confused, true Christians will listen humbly and carefully to God’s word (Isaiah 66:2, Luke 8:18), and will ask God to increase their faith and understanding (Mark 9:24; Luke 17:5, Luke 8:9-10). In this way, we will not finally succumb to false teaching and Satanic deception (Ephesians 4:14, Matthew 24:24). - Am I becoming more and more like Christ? According to John 13:34–15 and 1 John 4–7, sincere Christians love one another like Jesus loved us. Don’t give up if your relationship isn’t flawless just yet—the Philippians argued with one another occasionally, yet their names were still recorded in the book of life (Philippians 4:2-3)! But our affection for one another ought to be expanding (Ephesians 4:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:3). We cannot know God since God is love (1 John 2:11; 4:8), and our contributions to God are useless if we harbor hatred toward another Christian (Matthew 6:23–24).
- Am I enduring affliction with perseverance? How could Paul have known (1 Thessalonians 1:4) that God had selected the Thessalonians? For even in the face of adversity, the Holy Spirit had given them a [joyful trust in the gospel] (1 Thessalonians 1:5-6; 2:14-16; 3:3-4; cf. Acts 17:1-9; 2 Thessalonians 1:4-5)! Unfortunately, some individuals who appeared to be true Christians in the past have abandoned their faith, which indicates that they were never truly chosen in the first place (1 John 2:19). But, if you endure persecution for the cause of Jesus and maintain your resolve, you will receive a wonderful recompense in heaven as your sincerity in faith has been validated (1 Peter 1:6–9, Luke 6:22–23)!
Pride or despair
When asking ourselves questions like these, we must guard against two opposite dangers: pride, if we think we have “passed” the test; or despair, if we think we have failed. Remember that our salvation belongs entirely to God, and He is the one who works in us “to will and to act according to His good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). All of these five questions are things that we can pray for (e.g. Colossians 1:10-12). If, by God’s grace, you are doing well, rejoice that your name is written in heaven, and press on with good works (Luke 10:20, 2 Peter 1:3-11). If not, recognize this moment as God’s gracious call to you to repent where you have fallen short, and be purified from all unrighteousness by the blood of Christ (2 Corinthians 7:10, 1 John 1:7-9).
