How do you know you are saved? Can you lose it?

How confident are you that you are saved ?

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Eph. 2:8-10, ESV)

Paul is speaking to the Ephesus Church and telling them how they are saved and why they have been saved.

A few words that needs to be explained and interpreted in the context of Paul's writing. 

The Oxford dictionary definition for the noun “grace” is unmerited favour; the verb “to save” is to rescue someone from harm; the noun “faith” is a state of having complete trust in someone and finally the plural noun “works” is a set of activities involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose.

There are two responses that Paul is developing in his thesis; they are salvation and good works.

Paul starts each sentence in Ephesians 2:8-10 with the Greek word “Kai”, which is translated in English as the conjunction “therefore” and the Oxford dictionary is “consequently”. Paul is giving a confirming statement on the systematic process of the how and why Christians are saved. Verses 8-10 is the cause and effect of his opening statement to chapter two.

How confident are you that you are saved?

Let us exegete (interpret in context of the writing) the above verses and find the answer together. Shall we?

Eph. 2:8a “For by grace you have been saved through faith.”

That is your answer.

Let us exegete (literal interpretation) what Paul is saying here.

Paul says that God found us spiritually dead because we obeyed the lusts of our flesh in his opening statement:

Eph. 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

Eph. 2:2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-

Eph. 2:3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Paul says that while we were still estranged to God, God loved us because He is rich in mercy, and He saved us freely. This process was not done by any human mechanism but only through the “quickening” of the believer’s spirit with Christ. This means that when we believe in Christ to be our saviour, our dead spirit is made instantly alive with the Spirit of Christ. It is done in an instant and it does not involve any physical actions on our part. The only trigger is our belief that the Son of God Is our Saviour.

Eph. 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

Eph. 2:5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-

Both grace and faith were serving the purpose of salvation.

What is Grace?

The Greek word is “xaris” and the root word is “xar” which means favour. “Xaris” answers directly to the Hebrew Bible term “kana” which refer to God freely extending Himself, His favour, reaching out to people because He is disposed to bless them.

In the above verse, Grace is the exchange mechanism: God gave us His unmerited favour in exchange for our sins when we believe because He, alone, is the author of our salvation.

Then Paul says we receive this gift of salvation from God by faith.

What is faith? 

Is faith a gift from God like “grace” or is it a work that is done by the recipient of that grace? Let us find out what explanations the authors of the Bible gives us about faith.

Faith Is

In Greek, the word “faith” is “pístis” which means “to persuade, be persuaded, come to trust.

Faith (“pístis”) is always a gift from God, and never something that can be produced by people. In short, “faith" for the believer is "God's divine persuasion" – and therefore distinct from human belief (confidence), therefore man is not involved in it.

The Lord continuously births faith in the yielded believer so they can know what He prefers, i.e., the persuasion of His will:

“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith.” (1 John 5:4, ESV)

“Pístis” in secular antiquity referred to a guarantee (warranty). In Scripture, faith is God's warranty, certifying that the revelation He in-birthed in us will come to pass (His way).

The root of “pistis” (faith) is “peithô” ("to persuade, be persuaded") which supplies the core-meaning of faith ("divine persuasion"). It is God's warranty to guarantee the fulfilment of the revelation that He births within you.

Faith is always received from God, and never generated by us.

“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” (Romans 12:3, ESV)

Therefore, in summary, Paul says to the church in Ephesus that when you knew God, He birthed faith in them freely and persuaded them that they have become children of God and they have been saved:

“… not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast”.

“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Heb. 11:6)

Therefore, “faith in salvation” is to believe that God exists and that the work of salvation is only from God, it “is not our own doing” and our responsibility is to believe that God has judged that we cannot save ourselves and He rescued us. The object of our faith is God and His Word will accomplish its purpose.

Then Paul says:

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

Finally, Paul claims that once we are saved our position in front of God has changed, God has raised us and seated us with Christ in heavenly places to do good works.

Technically Paul is declaring that Christians have been justified and saved by the great mercy of God who is the author of their salvation, and that status has given us the responsibility to do works.

Isn’t it amazing that we have become clay in the hands of God, we are His workmanship. And He says that He saved us so that we can do good works for His Kingdom.

The good work is not the subject of salvation but the fruits of our salvation, they are the expression of our salvation. For example, when we discipline our fleshly pride, we allow our Spirit-produced humility to shine forth. Those character traits are the good works that Paul is calling us to display, like a lamp in the darkness, drawing attention to God’s grace, practicing the citizenship qualities of the Kingdom of God, they are the fruit of salvation.

Finally, can Salvation be lost?

The evidence of my findings has shown you that we cannot earn our salvation, then by definition, we are unable to lose it and God’s gift is irrevocable. 

Paul's reference in his letter to the Church in Rome explains a very important principle of God. God choose Israel to be a nation who would receive the Scripture and with whom God would make covenants in order that the nation of Israel serves as a son that the world will see God and His sovereign grace and power. Israel, as the stories in the Hebrew Bible tells us, has disobeyed God on countless occasions. But God's call is irrevocable and they will be saved just the way other nations are being saved; by the grace of God's mercy. 

Therefore Paul says:

Rom. 11:28 "As far as the gospel is concerned, they (Israel) are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 

Rom. 11:29 for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. 

Rom. 11:30 Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 

Rom. 11:31 so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. 

Salvation once received cannot be lost. 

However, there is a common objection to that statement, and it concerns those who live unrepentant lifestyle or reject their faith. The problem with this objection is that we assume that everyone who calls themselves Christians are saved. The Bible says that a “true” Christian will not live in a state of continual sin and those who departs from their faith is demonstrating that they were never saved.

CONCLUSION

We are saved because God alone decided to give us salvation because we could not earn it. The action of the recipient of that grace is to accept that the giver of that salvation, who is God, is trustworthy. 

Then Paul says that the church is the workmanship of God. 

The moment we believe unequivocally that God has saved us, we were created anew and apart from being made anew in Christ, we have been given a purpose to do godly works that will witness the grace of God to the unbelieving world.

Did you know that you are now ambassadors of God to an unbelieving world? We must help other who do not know God to receive the blessings of sons and daughters of God. Share the love like a butterfly. Spread your wings. Our lives are living letters of God at work. 

Prayer

Father God, thank you for saving me because while I was estranged to you, you have rescued me from a life of sins. Now that I am saved, LORD, help me to be your witness to my family, my friends, my neighbourhood, my work colleagues, and my mates at school. May you work through all these relationships. May I decrease and may you increase and impact all those beautiful people. 

Father I pray as I transform into the perfect image of your Son, may all those around me see the light. LORD Jesus may you be glorified!