“So, Bill…are you saved?”
I was shocked that he would ask me that question. I had grown up in a Christian home, gone to church my entire life, and I saw myself as a pretty good kid. I even knew most of the Bible stories, including the most important message of Jesus Christ dying on a cross. At sixteen, it’s not like I had ear piercings or a Guns ‘N Roses t-shirt on, so where was this guy coming from? Who was this guy anyway? I thought he said his name was Randy.
“Yeah,” I responded confidently, as if the very question itself was unnecessary. The next question, however, stopped me dead in my tracks.
“Do you mind sharing with me how you got saved?”
Oh boy. I think I know how I got saved, but what if the answer I give isn’t good enough? There were two particular memories in my upbringing that I immediately recalled. Regardless, the answer I gave him was far from what the Bible said…
I was blessed to be born into a saved household in the western suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My father grew up in a Baptist and reformed household with a saved father who gave him the Gospel early in his childhood. My mother, on the other hand, grew up Catholic with very high expectations placed upon her by well-to-do parents at a very young age. It would take an abusive marriage and painful divorce from her first husband for her to come to a saving knowledge of the Creator.
Although my parents knew Christ, they lacked teaching and sound doctrine as I spent my elementary years attending an Assemblies of God and later a Pentecostal church.
At that Pentecostal church we attended, I first grappled with salvation. On one particular Sunday at age seven, as the communion plate passed around, the Lord would draw my envious heart to the truth and consider the Gospel. As I glanced around the auditorium at kids my age and even younger ones taking communion, I couldn’t. For some reason my parents prohibited me from receiving the elements. I doubt that I was ambitious in wanting to remember the Lord’s death on my behalf, but rather I thought it was pretty cool that we could drink grape juice and munch on white bread during the church service.
When I asked my dad later that morning why I couldn’t take communion, he sat me down and proceeded to go over the Gospel with me. First, he showed me from the Bible how I was born a sinner and on my way to hell:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23
“As it is written, ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God, they have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.'” Romans 3:10-12
“For the wages of sin is death…” Romans 6:23
At seven years of age, there was no need to rack my brain for personal examples that confirmed this truth. There was no question in my mind that I was a stinker who had violated God’s righteous, holy standard and, apart from divine intervention, I knew that I was on my way to hell.
My dad then proceeded to share with me how God in His love had sent his only Son to make a payment for my sin by dying on the cross and rising from the dead three days later. In order to escape the wrath of God that I deserved, I needed to believe that what He did was enough. It would only be my unwillingness to believe that would send me to hell.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:16-18
It was at that moment that I might have gotten saved. The problem, in my case, was that without sound teaching, I was given little follow-up from the word of God to cement these truths into my thinking. Although I was blessed to grow up in a saved household, I did not have the advantage that Timothy had in sound teaching from the word of God.
“And that from childhood you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ.” 2 Timothy 3:15
Only the Lord knows whether I believed or not, but the events that followed in my adolescence revealed that, had I been saved, I had no real assurance of my salvation.
The second memory from my childhood that would remain with me was from my middle school years. At about 11 years old, I would attend a Vacation Bible School on the north side of town hosted by a Baptist church. Given that I grew up with a largely charismatic perspective, this was bit of a spiritual culture shock to say the least. From the moment I set foot into the church with its large auditorium and Bible verses posted to the walls, I knew that they meant business.
It wasn’t long after the preacher began his message that I began to get convicted about my sin and how I wasn’t being an obedient child as I should. As the message concluded, the gentleman invited all of the children who wanted to get saved to come forward to the altar. As I saw other kids leaving their pew and heading towards the front, I didn’t want to be left out and, feeling a little guilty about my own sin, I followed suit.
As we gathered into small groups, the leader first explained the Gospel and what Christ did for us. I was familiar with the story and probably could have recited what he was going to say before he even said it. In fact, it reminded me of what my dad had shared years earlier.
Next, he told us that if we wanted to receive Christ, all we needed to do was pray the sinner’s prayer and ask Jesus to come into our hearts.
Seemed easy enough for me, so I heeded his instruction. I even did the very same thing a year later at the same Vacation Bible School.
But one thing that nagged me was whether I undoubtedly possessed eternal life. I would read my Bible from time to time, but as an adolescent, I never put my heart towards seeking answers. Instead, I let it go until the Lord brought it back to the forefront of my thinking in the form of Randy’s question.
“Well…I asked Jesus into my heart and said the, ya know, the Sinner’s Prayer,” I sheepishly responded.
“Okay. Well, do you mind sharing a verse that you know that speaks of asking Jesus into your heart or saying a Sinner’s Prayer is how you receive eternal life?” he inquired.
Now Randy was starting to bug me. Is he questioning my salvation? I sat dumbfounded as he took his Bible and handed it over to me. “Feel free to take a peek,” he said. With my parents looking on, I began my futile search, but after thumbing through a few chapters of the Bible of where I thought the answer might lie, I soon realized that I had no support.
Once he saw that I had surrendered my search, he took the Bible back and began to show me verse after verse that ‘faith’ is the only condition that pleases God.
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” John 1:12
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
As the verses settled into my thinking, the veil began to lift from my eyes. It wasn’t a matter or asking, praying, making a commitment or anything that I do. It was completely a matter of what Christ did. Trusting in His work alone was how to be saved.
This also made sense. Why should the God of the universe share His glory with a sinner such as myself who quoted some prayer? It was either take God at His word and receive
His gift of salvation by faith alone or don’t accept it at all.
The very Son of God had shed His own blood for me at great cost. These truths finally dawned on my thinking and I recognized the full impact of the cross. Faith is the only hand that receives His work. Most importantly, I finally had the assurance that I was looking for. Praise be to God for His indescribable gift!
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.