What Happened?
Have you ever ‘given your heart to Jesus’ at an alter call or after hearing the Gospel message? If you are like many, you may have received this message with joy and gladness, but found that somewhere along the way you lost your first love. You may be ‘backslidden’, doubting your salvation, or worse – have become disillusioned with God because things didn’t work out as you expected. This pamphlet was written with you in mind.
Every human being has one major defect – sin. Because of sin we cannot have a relationship with God, and are destined for eternal damnation. We are all born with this defect, and are all in need of repair. Modern repairmen (evangelists) have disregarded the repair manual (the Bible) in an effort to find quick fixes, often resulting in repairs that do not last. So we limp along on the faulty repairs until the next repairman comes along and puts more duct tape over our self-righteousness, pride and sin so we can limp along some more. We sometimes stop and wonder why we can’t find a way to fix the problem permanently, but we eventually just accept that we are flawed and there is no fixing it. What we need is to go back to the manual to troubleshoot the real problem and find the real fix.
This pamphlet was not written to get you to doubt your salvation. Obviously you and God are the only ones who can know if you are soundly saved. Neither is it intended to affirm your salvation – that is God’s work as well. The goal is to encourage you to do as the apostle Paul instructed the Corinthian church in 2 Corinthians 13:5; “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you are disqualified.”
The Proof is in the Pudding
The term ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’ came into use in the 1600’s and means ‘the true value or quality of something can only be judged when it is put to use’. A pudding may look delicious, but the proof of whether it is good is in how it tastes. If it doesn’t taste as a pudding should, something went wrong with the process! The same is true for Christianity. Even though you may look and talk like a Christian, how you actually are on the inside is what counts. If you realize that things are not as they should be, you can legitimately suspect that something went wrong.
The only true test of your salvation is to see how it your life aligns with scripture. If you really want to know if you’ve been saved, you must honestly analyze your life in light of the scriptures. These should help determine if the pudding tastes as it should:
But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the
Do you ever look back at the world? Long for the things of the world? This scripture would imply that those who look back may have never truly put their hand to the plow.
Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. (Matthew 7:17-18)
What kind of fruit is your life bearing? Galatians 5:22-23 identifies the fruit of the Spirit as “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” If these things are not evident in your life, you are not bearing good fruit and therefore may not be a ‘good tree’.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. (Romans 8:5)
What is your mind set on – the things of the sinful nature (NIV), or the things of the Spirit?
But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. (Romans 8:9, emphasis added)
In a continuation of the previous thought, Paul encourages the saints to look closely at themselves to determine if they belong to Christ. He says this can be determined by what our minds and hearts are set on.
…He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ… (Philippians 1:6)
This scripture is commonly used to affirm people’s faith, but when analyzed in reverse order it leads to this question; if God is faithful to complete the work He started in me, and the work is not being completed, was it ever started?
Remember – the proof is in the pudding, meaning the value and quality of something can only be judged when it is put to use. If we can clearly see that the fruit of God is lacking in our lives, we may begin to acknowledge that though we had a religious or emotional experience at some time in our past it may not have been true salvation. Again, many will tell you never to doubt your salvation, but if you have doubt, you owe it to yourself to settle these things in your heart. It is biblical to do so.
Why Did You Come to Christ?
The most heart-breaking aspect of those who have ‘given their heart to Jesus’ but have never come to the place of biblical repentance and salvation is that they may live their entire life believing they will go to heaven only to find out at the judgment seat that they lack salvation. Unfortunately, much of the blame for this lies at the feet of a church who has preached a soft Gospel message in the last one hundred years. You may be the victim of such a message. The Bible teaches that in order to be soundly saved, we must know the biblical motivation for coming to Christ – otherwise we are in danger of becoming false converts.
Think back and ask yourself, why did I make a commitment to Christ? Here are several reasons that modern evangelism uses to motivate people to do so:
I was told that I could only find true happiness in Jesus
I was told that Jesus would overcome all of my problems
I was heart-broken over some event in my life
I was pushed by someone else into making a commitment
I was swept up in a moment of emotion during an alter call or crusade event
I was terrified by vivid preaching of hell-fire and damnation and scared into making a commitment
If we analyze each of these appeals which have been used to attract people to the Christian faith, we can see the problem with the message.
I was told that I could only find true happiness in Jesus. Jesus did not promise happiness – indeed he promised quite the opposite, from the point of view of the world. He said; “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34); “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake.” (Matthew 24:9). Not exactly the rosy picture painted by many evangelists these days. It is small wonder that those who were promised ‘happiness’ as a result of their commitment to Christ so often fall away when they don’t find the kind of happiness the world leads them to expect. While joy and peace are the result of a relationship with God, they are not legitimate reasons to come to God. For the example of what to truly expect from a full Christian life, read Paul’s testimony in 2 Corinthians 11:22-33.
I was told that Jesus would overcome all of my problems. While Jesus certainly has the power to overcome our sins, until we fully understand His grace, we will continue in them. It is not God that lacks the power to do great things in a person’s life, it is a Gospel message stripped of its power that allows those making decisions to continue in sin. By weakening the message, we inadvertently weaken the convert. ‘Besetting sins’, as they are frequently called, are most likely a sign that a person has not believed on Christ through proper motives and does not have a true understanding of grace. If you are in right relationship with God, “sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:14) Those who were won to Christ with this appeal will almost always begin a downward spiral from the moment they first fall into temptation. Ironically, if they do become loosed from the bonds of sin and addiction, and that was their reason for coming to Christ, their problem is solved in their minds and they often have no more need or desire for God.
I was heart-broken over some event in my life. In quoting Isaiah the prophet, Jesus in Luke 4:18 said, “He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted”. He was referring to those whose hearts had been broken in a very specific way – by godly sorrow as recognized through the eyes of a repentant sinner. Disaster, divorce, sickness or the death of a loved one can drive us to seek comfort in the Lord. But there is truth in the old adage “time heals all wounds”. Often a person who has come to the Lord in a time of grief will fall away when the grief has passed. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4, NIV) Keep reading to find out what Jesus meant by mourning.
I was pushed by someone else into making a commitment. If this is true, you were likely never saved. Jesus said in John 6:44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him…” If a friend or relative pulled you to the alter, fear for your salvation!
I was swept up in a moment of emotion during an alter call or crusade event. You felt a tugging at your heart-strings. You may have heard such things as ‘there is a God-shaped vacuum in your heart that only Christ can fill’. You may have been in a meeting where a preacher was pressing for decisions as music played and you saw friends go forward. This is a common type of response among young people. The problem is that salvation is not an emotional decision, it is a spiritual one. The heart that is ready to accept Jesus as Lord and Savoir does not do so lightly. The attitude of the heart should be that of the Philippian jailor in Acts 16, who “fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he… said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’" Vv. 29-30
I was terrified by vivid preaching of hell-fire and damnation and scared into making a commitment. Because the church has all but forsaken the preaching of hell in any form, this is no longer common among younger people. But if you were exposed to this type of teaching, you may view God as cruel and unjust. Those who came to Christ out of this kind of fear are likely to fall into legalism and seek salvation through their own self-righteousness.
It is impossible to say that certain individuals have not been soundly saved through the approaches mentioned above. God may use many people and circumstances in our lives to plow, sow, and water that lead to the moment of salvation. If in light of these scriptures you can see that you are note walking by faith, it could be that you lack…
The Proper Motivation
If you will take the time to study the Bible, particularly the book of Romans, you may come to understand that there is really only one proper motivation for responding to the Gospel. It was this book specifically that brought Martin Luther to an understanding of law, sin, judgment and grace, and it can likewise bring a reformation of faith in your heart. Once you understand the true motivation for response to the Gospel, many other things will become clear to you.
Law
In his letter to the Romans, Paul teaches elegantly about the place of the law and grace in the life of a believer. To preach one and not the other is the grave error of the modern church. To lay a little groundwork, let me show you that there is a proper use of the law. The law is not made to be used as a means of justification before God - it is to show sinners their transgression and utter helplessness before God’s righteous judgment. It brings the knowledge of sin to the sinner.
But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless…(1 Timothy 1:8-9)
Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:20)
I would not have known sin except through the law. (Romans 7:7)
You can see by these scriptures (and many others) that Paul understood that no one could ever be justified by the law – its sole purpose is the show us what sin is –transgression of the law. Without the law, we cannot know what sin is.
The law helps us to understand the way that God sees our sin. Not only is the law established to show a sinner his transgression, but to show him his own exceeding sinfulness before a holy God:
…that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. (Romans 7:13)
Without being exposed to the law, we have no idea what sin really is. We may have a guilty conscience and we may even admit to some of the things we have done that we believe are sin. But without an external means by which to measure our own sinfulness, most of us consider ourselves to be good people. We may even seem good compared with other people that we know, and so fool ourselves into believing that what we have done is not so bad. God is not fooled.
Many of us were ‘won’ to Christ by a lawless Gospel that made no effort to show us our own sinfulness. Once we view ourselves in the mirror of the law (the Ten Commandments) we truly begin to understand the nature of…
Sin
You don’t have to sit through many sermons in most churches to have been told that the word ‘sin’ was an old English term used in archery and means ‘to fall short of the target’. If sin was even mentioned to us by a disciple of modern evangelism it was probably in the form of Romans 3:23; “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” While this statement is undeniable true, it fails to make us understand the exceeding sinfulness of our own sin. Leaving aside ‘falling short’, let’s look at a biblical definition of sin:
Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. (1 John 3:4)
So sin, in a real sense, is more than a generic missing the mark of God’s glory. It is our own individual willful acts of lawlessness, or the breaking of God’s holy law. Once we know that as sinners we have transgressed (broken) the righteous standards of a holy God, we can begin to understand that He is completely just when he promises…
Judgment
Some will say that they believe God would never judge us or send us to hell. The Bible certainly does not support this idea. You need look no further than Revelation 21:8:
But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
If there is anything in you that cringes as you read that, read it again. Don’t be too proud at this point to take an honest look at God’s word and measure yourself by it. The Bible makes no differentiation between the churched and un-churched in this passage. It says quite clearly that all liars will have their part in the lake of fire, as will any who willfully continue in lawlessness. There is no such thing as ‘fire insurance’ when it comes to eternity. If you made a ‘decision’ for Christ in the past, but continue in lawlessness, you will not escape judgment.
Make no mistake; according to the Bible there will be a judgment:
And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment… (Hebrews 9:27)
Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. (Acts 17:30-31, emphasis added)
We are commanded by God to repent if we are to avoid His righteous judgment, wrath and eternal damnation. In order to understand how badly we’ve broken the law of God, we will now go to Exodus chapter twenty and look at biblical law, commonly called…
The Ten Commandments
Remember that to this point we have established that the law was given that you may know that sin is lawlessness (transgression of the law). As you go through each of the commandments, take the time to honestly evaluate each one. As you would examine yourself in a mirror, so examine your heart in the mirror of God’s law:
You shall have no other gods before Me
Is God always first in your life, every moment of every day?
You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them…
Is there anything in your life that is more important to you than God? Your family, your job, your hobby – even your church? Have you created in your mind the image of a God that could never send anyone to eternal damnation? These are idolatry. According to Revelation 21:8, idolaters will have their part in the lake of fire. “For this you know, that no… idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” (Ephesians 5:5)
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain
This is the sin of blasphemy. Have you ever misused the name of God?
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates
Do you keep one day in seven set aside for God?
Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you
Have you honored your parents? Keep in mind that if you break the other commandments, you have likely brought shame on them.
You shall not murder
You must surely be innocent of this one? But remember, Jesus said in Matthew 5 that whoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of judgment.
You shall not commit adultery
Again, in Matthew 5 Jesus said that whoever looks at another in lust has already committed adultery his heart. Have you done that?
You shall not steal
This means anything, regardless of value. Included would be cheating on taxes, misreporting expenses, misreporting hours worked and other ‘white-collar’ theft.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
The term false witness is King James English for lying. Have you ever told a lie including what we refer to as ‘fibs’, ‘white lies’, or exaggerated anything? You have born false witness.
You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's
Have you ever looked at someone else and said, “I wish I had what he has”. The New Testament says that covetousness is a form of idolatry. That car that you want so bad you can taste it. The bigger house you wish you could buy just to show up your brother-in-law. The master’s degree you long for so you can prove how smart you are. All covetousness. All idolatry.
The Verdict
God’s bar is high. And you can see that Jesus raised it even higher. Romans 3:23 is now appropriate again. Once the law shows us what the target is, we can clearly see that our arrows of self-righteousness are falling far short of it.
At this point your conscience should be speaking to you one way or another. If you are soundly saved, you will know in your heart that “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2) Remember in 1 Timothy that Paul said the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless. If your righteousness is in Christ alone, you are not obligated to the law and your conscience is clear.
If you are feeling convicted by the law of God, there is a good chance that you are lacking repentance. If you are trying to justify yourself before the law, even in the smallest way, you are still living under the law and not under grace – you are unrepentant. It is God’s will that you stop justifying yourself and admit your guilt before Him, hard as that is. “…whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” (Romans 3:19)
Until your mouth is stopped and you become guilty before God, admitting that you have sinned against Him and transgressed His law, do not read further. Until every ounce of justification and self-righteousness is stripped away, you are not ready for the grace of God.
If you are ready then you are in a place of mourning and godly sorrow and as Jesus said, you will be comforted. The first step to true salvation is…
Repentance
With a proper understanding of what sin is, you can now acknowledge your own sins and repent before God – meaning forsake and turn from your sin. Without repentance, you cannot be saved. Paul said “…godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation...” (2 Corinthians 7:10). Jesus said in Luke 13, “unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”
Acknowledge where you have broken His holy standard. You might feel fear of judgment, and this is right. As Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding”. Any sane person would fear the judgment and punishment of a just and holy God - It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31). Admit to Him that you are a liar, thief, adulterer, blasphemer, murderer and idolater. Hold back nothing. Now is your chance to be honest with the God who created you and bring it all to Him. It is also the time to turn, in light of God’s holiness, away from your lawlessness. Forsake your sins and your lawless ways and come into God’s holy light!
Grace!
Now, like the Philippian jailor in Acts 16, your self-righteousness has fallen in fear and trembling before God. You cry out “What must I do to be saved?”
Paul said to that man, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved…”
This is more than believing that Jesus lived, more than knowing who He was. This is trusting in Him completely as your salvation. The sinless Son of God suffered the wrath of God and died in your place on the cross of
You need only say a simple prayer. There are no magic words. Simply acknowledge that Jesus Christ died for you and rose again that you may likewise live for Him, in His righteousness alone. “…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
Why the Motivation Matters
When we have come to truly realize our utter sinfulness relative to God’s holy law - when we stop trying to justify ourselves before God on the basis of our own self-righteousness - we can clearly see that we have nowhere to turn. Before the eyes of a holy God, nothing is hidden. All of our secret sins become known (Luke 8:17). If we wait until judgment day to make this realization it is too late. Unless we have the righteousness that we can only receive through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s law will demand punishment for our lawlessness.
From the moment we realize this, repent and turn to Jesus as our sole salvation, our lives are based on faith in Him. When we don’t find our circumstances to be pleasant, we don’t blame God and turn our back on Him because we know we didn’t come to Christ for happiness – we came for righteousness to avoid the wrath of God. We understand that we can gain righteousness from nothing else. Not by obeying the law. Not by trying to be a ‘good’ person. We understand Paul’s admonition in Philippians 2:12-13; “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”
Now What?
First of all, congratulations! You should notice quite a few changes in yourself if you are soundly saved:
God will give you affirmation of your salvation through the word and your own clear conscience
You will understand the incredible depth of God’s grace in your life
When you are tempted to sin, you will draw from the well of God’s mercy instead of gritting your teeth and trying to legalistically hold your ground
You will have an unquenchable desire for God’s word, which will open up to you incredibly. You will read passages that you have long struggled with and receive them with joy!
You will never again consider yourself to be a ‘good’ person. With the apostle Paul you will say “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25)
You should have the desire to share your faith with others. No one who has truly recognized their utter helplessness before a righteous and wrathful God and the richness of His mercy in Christ Jesus will be able to stand idly by and watch others plunge headlong into judgment and eternal damnation.
Try reading the book of Romans. In the past, you may have found this to be some of the heaviest reading in the Bible, but it is surprising how wonderfully simple God’s words are through regenerated eyes.
If you have been away from church, find a good Bible believing church and join fellowship. Feel free to share your testimony with others, and don’t feel a bit ashamed if you have some righteous anger toward the message of the modern Gospel. As you grow in grace and knowledge, don’t be afraid to speak out when you see someone misusing grace or the law. Gently share what God has taught you, “in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth…” (2 Timothy 2:25). You now know what both law and grace are and for what they were intended.
Whenever you feel tempted to come under the law once again (legalism) seek God for a fresh understanding of grace. As a regenerated sinner, the law should drive you to grace and grace make you honor the law.
Paul instructs us to live our lives “not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord…” (Romans 12:11).
Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word” (John 14:23). What is His word? “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15). Get out there and share your faith!
Resources
Check out the following resources for more faith-building and witnessing materials:
¶ Free audio – Hell’s Best Kept Secret
¶ Free audio – True and False Conversion
¶ Other evangelism resources
¶ Information on evangelism
Tract written and published by Scott Forbes,
Unless otherwise noted, scripture is taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Where quotes are noted as NIV, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of Biblica.
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