Litmus Tests for Salvation
Salvation Litmus Tests
I recently wrote that there are no litmus tests for determining whether a person is saved. As sometimes happens, someone asked about a scripture passage that seemed to contradict my assertion.
The questioner pointed out 1 John 2:3–6 “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever follows His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says that he remains in Him ought, himself also, walk just as He walked.” (NASB 2020)
My questioner went on to ask about 1 John 3:4–9 “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who remains in Him sins continually; no one who sins continually has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who has been born of God practices sin, because His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin continually, because he has been born of God.” (NASB 2020)
Taking the last passage first, you will notice that the New American Standard Bible, which I’ve quoted here, adds the word “continually” after the word “sin” in this passage. This is not an error, and it is not a faulty insertion stemming from some translator’s bias. This added word expresses the tense used in the Greek word for sin here. The word is in a tense that means that the action is not a one-time thing, but that it continues to happen. So, we are to understand that living a lifestyle of sin on an ongoing basis is in view.
Now, regarding keeping God’s commandments. The first passage is very clear that those who do not keep His commandments do not have the truth in them. That means they are unsaved. We who are in Christ have the Truth Himself living in us. Nevertheless, we may ask ourselves what God’s commandments are. In this letter, the Apostle makes it very clear what he means.
Let’s begin just two verses farther down in this passage. 1 John 2:5–8 reads, “but whoever follows His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says that he remains in Him ought, himself also, walk just as He walked. Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.” (NASB 2020)
Here we read that we should walk as Jesus walked. Jesus walked by faith, trusting the Father even to tell Him what to say and how to say it. (see John 12:49, for example) We are also told in chapter 2 verse 8, which we just read, that this new commandment is true in Him (God) and in you (us).
So, what is this mysterious commandment? 1 John 3:23 gives us the answer. There we read, “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.” (NASB 2020) Some may ask when exactly Jesus commanded this. John tells us about it in his Gospel. In John 13:34 Jesus said, “I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (NASB 2020) The other component that John said Jesus had commanded was belief. In John 6:29 Jesus said, “Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” (NASB 2020)
The litmus tests that people set up for testing whether another person is saved or not are simply not scriptural. We are well advised to remember 1 Samuel 16:7, which tells us that people look at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. God is the only one who can judge the salvation of anyone.
