Being saved. Feeling saved.

“He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.” (Acts 16:30-34)

The question asked was not to be “what must I do to ‘be’ saved?”, but what must I do to “feel” saved.

Being saved is primary. Done. It is finished, as Christ said. Coming to awareness of being saved is secondary. The proclamation of the gospel, the good news, makes possible the secondary. Emancipation on record. Condemnation in the mind, by fear, guilt and shame.

We are saved by the sacrifice of Christ Jesus. We are saved from a condemnation that we could not even fulfill. Christ fulfilled that condemnation that we were to have suffered. What God had asked of us, only God could provide because everything good thing is from above.

“For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22)

Feeling saved requires that we believe. The Holy Spirit makes such possible. We cannot rejoice in something we have not believed.

“he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.”

The weight of the Law fell off our shoulders. The weight brought upon our shoulders by fear, guilt and shame, fall off when we have been enabled (fertile soil) by the Holy Spirit to not only proclaim but first believe and thus rejoice in the hearing how we have been saved.

Even a lottery winner rejoices in hearing the news that he or she has won even before collecting the prize.

Our salvation only required that we were sinners. John 3:16, God so loved the world (the just, and the unjust) that he supplied the necessity for our reconciliation to him so that whoever takes the news to be true should not be found hopeless but overwhelmed by hope in the One who made such good news possible.

“in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19)

You will “know” that you are saved when you have rejoiced in the good news of owing nothing to God other than running to Him, not in fear, but joy, the joy of being set free from fear, shame and guilt rooted in the Law that no longer applies because of its fulfillment by Christ’s death on the cross.

We have rejoiced many times in hearing some type of good news here and there. It is not impossible for us to rejoice in the gospel, unless we only want the good news to be for us alone, for our loved ones, for our friends, and not for our enemies. If the good news is for some of us, and not all of humanity, then Christ failed at his agenda declared in John 3:17. My friends, and enemies, and whoever you consider yourself to be to me…It is finished. Not by our awareness, but by the blood of Christ Jesus.

“in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19)

The message, the gospel, the good news, is the message of reconciliation.

If someone had paid off our student loans, our car loan, our home loan, we may continue in disbelief and persist at sending in payments and realize that they’re not being cashed as expected. Our disbelief will never undo the fact that the balances have been paid off, but will only have served stumbling blocks to us keeping us from rejoicing in something that had long been accomplished to our benefit.

It is finished.

“in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19)