How Can I Know that I Have Been Born Again
Studies in I John
Did you ever wonder if you are really saved or not? Perhaps you have a hard time with your attitude or with your emotions. Or perhaps you are repeatedly tempted by a certain sin and often give in to it. You think, “Would I really do these things if I were a Christian?” Maybe doubts are plaguing your mind and causing you to question your relationship with Jesus Christ. How can you be sure you are really saved?
The wonderful book of I John tells several ways you can know that you have been born again. As you read through this study, ask yourself, “Do I meet the criteria? If I do, I can know that I have been born again.”
☼ I can know that I have been born again if I walk in the light.
I John 1:7 says, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
Cleansing from sin sets you apart from the unbeliever. Those who do not know Jesus have no cleansing from sin because they have not come to the light. John 3:19-21 explains, “19And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”
If you have come to the light so that the word of God can reveal your sins, and your sins have been made manifest by the light, that is one marker by which you can tell that you have been saved. If you were not saved and continuing to walk in sin, you would want to avoid the light. But, if you have come to the light and allowed God’s light to show you your sin and have trusted in Jesus to take away your sin, you are now walking in the light. Instead of doing evil deeds, you are doing deeds wrought in God. Because God does those works through you, those works are righteous. The Bible says that, “every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.” (I John 2:29b)
You can know that you have been born again if you are walking in the light.