by Wayne Greeson<\/p>\n
Are you saved? How do you know you are saved? “I know I am saved because I feel it in my heart,” many often say. But are the feelings of your heart the proper standard to determine your salvation? We do not use this standard in other matters. No one says of his bank statement, “I know it is right because I feel it in my heart,” while they ignore to properly add and subtract from their balance. No carpenter says, “I know the board is 10 feet long because I feel it in my heart” – he checks the board with the proper standard, the measuring tape! But, when it comes to a matter far more important than bank balances and board lengths – salvation – many are willing to trust their eternal welfare to their feelings.<\/p>\n
Can you trust the feelings of your heart to tell you whether or not you are saved? The Bible says “No!”<\/p>\n
Feelings are subjective, they change from person to person and even within the same person. Truth is objective, it remains fixed and does not change, regardless of the person or the year.<\/p>\n
The way you feel about salvation does not change God’s truth concerning it, just as the way you feel about math, does not change the truth of it. Whether or not you are saved is an objective fact, not subject to the whims of how you feel from moment to moment. So how can they know they are saved? The Scripture says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding<\/em>” (Proverbs 3:5).<\/p>\n You do not have to rely upon your own faulty and deceptive feelings concerning your salvation. The Lord has given “the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation<\/em>” (II Timothy 3:15). The knowledge and confidence of salvation can only come from the objective standard of God’s Word. God will judge you by His Word, not by how you feel. Jesus proclaimed, “the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day<\/em>” (John 12:48). What is your salvation based upon? Many people feel in their hearts they are saved because they have “simply believed” in Jesus. While salvation certainly requires faith in Jesus, faith alone does not and cannot save according to God’s Word. James wrote, “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only<\/em>” (James 2:24). Other people have prayed and “asked Jesus to come into their heart” and now they feel they are saved. But nowhere does the Bible teach one must simply pray to Jesus in order to be saved. God’s Word teaches to be saved you must: hear the gospel (Romans 10:17); believe Jesus is the Son of God (Mark 16:16); repent of your sins (Acts 2:38); confess Jesus (Romans 10:9; Acts 8:36-38) and be baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38; Mark 16:16). Those who obey God’s Word do not have to guess whether or not they are saved based upon the feelings of their heart. They know they are saved because their salvation is based on the unchanging Truth of God’s Word.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Wayne Greeson Are you saved? How do you know you are saved? “I know I am saved because I feel it in my heart,” many often say. But are the feelings of your heart the proper standard to determine your salvation? We do not use this standard in other matters. No one says of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[546,47],"class_list":["post-60630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-feelings","tag-salvation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28235,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-we-trust-our-feelings-about-salvation\/","url_meta":{"origin":60630,"position":0},"title":"Can We Trust Our Feelings About Salvation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mike Johnson via\u00a0simplebiblestudies.com Some people claim to rely solely on their feelings for assurance of personal salvation. They may say, \"I know that I am saved because I feel that I am.\" They will often ignore very plain passages in the Bible about salvation because of a \"feeling\" that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/deli.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":26207,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/ive-accepted-jesus-so-many-times-how-can-i-be-sure-that-christ-lives-in-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":60630,"position":1},"title":"I’ve accepted Jesus so many times! How can I be sure that Christ lives in me?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How do I\u00a0surely know that Christ lives in me? Because every time that I'm at my church and they ask who wants to receive Christ, I always feel something in my heart. But I've accepted Jesus so many times! Almost every Sunday I pray: \"Lord I don't know if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36039,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-dont-i-feel-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":60630,"position":2},"title":"Why don’t I feel God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I'm 15 and I have accepted Christ. You see I always say I'm sorry for my sins. But my friend told me that when he repented he could feel God in him like all of him was being hugged like a warm feeling. I don't understand. 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Several years ago, I started going to a church because I was really convinced that God was sending me to do it.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26564,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/evidence-of-pardon-how-can-i-know-i-am-saved\/","url_meta":{"origin":60630,"position":4},"title":"Evidence of Pardon: How Can I Know I Am Saved?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Kenneth E. Thomas Christianity is a system of faith, but it is not a leap of faith. 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