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Five birthmarks of a Christian

1. The Birthmark of Confession

The first is the birthmark of confession, described in 1 John 5:1a: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” Before you can have assurance of salvation, you have to believe and be saved. You have to confess Jesus Christ as Lord.

Some people assume they are saved because they grew up in a Christian culture, or they have gone to church all their lives, or they have been baptized, or they have tried to live a good life. Yet they’ve never distinctly and personally confessed Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.

The Bible teaches that we are sinners, separated from God by a sinful nature. We can never earn, buy, or climb our way into heaven. By our own efforts or goodness, we can never be saved. That’s why God became a man who lived a wholly righteous life, died on the cross, shed His blood for us, and rose from the dead. He paid our penalty, took our judgment upon Himself, and He offers us the opportunity to be born again.

2. The Birthmark of Change

If the first birthmark is our confession of Christ as our Savior and Lord, the second is a changed life, as we see in 1 John 2:29: “If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.” When Jesus truly saves us, it makes a difference in how we think, act, speak, and conduct ourselves.

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

As we begin learning to practice righteousness, our habits change. We will not be sinlessly perfect while we’re on this planet; but if we’re Christians, we need to live biblically. If we say we’re saved but nothing has changed about us, something is wrong. We are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works, and the Gospel is a transforming agent in our lives.

3. The Birthmark of Compassion

Those who are truly saved also bear the birthmark of compassion. How can you know that you are a Christian? By what you believe, by how you live, and by whom you love.

Love is a recurring theme in 1 John, and the apostle leaves no doubt about how it permeates the lives of true Christians. In 4:7 he writes, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” And in 3:14, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.”

Do you love your brothers and sisters in the family of God? Those who are truly saved are those who enjoy and bless the household of faith, the family of God.

4. The Birthmark of Conflict

A fourth sign of being truly saved is conflict. According to 1 John 5:4, “For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”

The word overcome implies a struggle. We’re faced with an adversary whom we must overcome. Our adversary is identified in 1 John 2:14 as the evil one: “I write to you, dear children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”

John went on in the next verses 15-17 to say: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”

When you’re genuinely born of God, you’ll be growing to be an overcomer as you deal with the temptations around you-the world, the flesh, and the devil. You may not be victorious over every temptation every time, but you’ll make progress in gaining more victories and losing less battles as you grow stronger in Christ and in the power of the abiding Word of God.

5. The Birthmark of Conduct

That leads to the final point: We can see evidence for the validity of salvation in our desire to conduct ourselves in a way that pleases God.

According to 1 John 3:9, “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.”

If we’re not careful, we might interpret this verse to teach that anyone who is born of God never sins. That would conflict with other passages in the Bible that describe us as fallible and often failing.

In 1 John 3:9, the word for sin is a present active infinitive and it describes a continuous action. John is not saying that whoever sins once is not born of God. That would disqualify all of us. It would certainly disqualify me. But John is saying, in effect, “Whoever keeps on willfully sinning, violating God’s law with stubborn disregard and ongoing wickedness, cannot have assurance of salvation.”

If we are truly saved, we will grieve over our sins, confess them, and seek God’s grace to do better.

You can have assurance of salvation today.

His grace is inexhaustible and His salvation is irreversible. Make sure you have confessed Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and then trust Him with your eternal future. He will never leave you or forsake you. His word was given that you might know Jesus Christ as your Savior and that you might know that you have eternal life.

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Finding Faith is written by area pastors. This weekás column comes from Rev. Don Grant of Hillview Wesleyan Church, Flemington.

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