Dear brother,

The fact that I have been looking closely into my failures due to trials, I have found myself wondering if I am truly born of the spirit. I can tell you that I don’t think I would be part of the first resurrection if I died today. I don’t believe I have overcome in faith. Is there a way to know? Even Paul was hoping to attain it.

Thank you,

F____

Hi F____,

Thank you for your question.

You asked:

…I have found myself wondering if I am truly born of the spirit. I can tell you that I don’t think I would be part of the first resurrection if I died today. I don’t believe I have overcome in faith. Is there a way to know? Even Paul was hoping to attain it.

Like the apostle Paul, we must never take our salvation for granted and fall for the false “once in grace, always in grace” doctrine. If there were any truth to that doctrine, then Paul would never have said the words you reference:

Php 3:12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

So Paul was ever vigilant to keep his flesh under subjection and to never to give any occasion for the adversary, and he admonishes us to do the same:

1Ti 5:14 I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.

But none of this is meant to lead us to think that he or we are to doubt our position with Christ. Just look at the context of him telling us that he does not count himself as “already perfect”:

Php 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Php 3:15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Php 3:16 Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
Php 3:17 Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.
Php 3:18 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
Php 3:19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
Php 3:20 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
Php 3:21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

The old English of the King James Version does not serve us well in this instance, so let’s look at these verses in the ASV:

Php 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,
Php 3:14 I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Php 3:15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you:
Php 3:16 only, whereunto we have attained, by that same rule let us walk.
Php 3:17 Brethren, be ye imitators together of me, and mark them that so walk even as ye have us for an ensample.
Php 3:18 For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
Php 3:19 whose end is perdition, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.
Php 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
Php 3:21 who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself. (ASV)

“Our citizenship is in heaven”. Paul had no doubt concerning his standing with Christ, and he lived out these words of King David:

Psa 107:2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;

I hope this shows you that, as in all things, the way of our Lord is a narrow way which does not permit us to be overly confident in ourselves, and yet we can say with confidence with this very same apostle in this very same book in the very next chapter:

Php 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

You may not yet be able to say you are the Lord’s redeemed, but the day is coming when you will know who you are in Christ, and He is in you and that you are His.

It is all a matter of being obedient to His commandments as our Lord made so very clear:

Luk 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
Luk 6:47 Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
Luk 6:48 He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
Luk 6:49 But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

“The flood and the stream” are the doubts which are the direct result of “doing not the things which I say”, as the apostle John makes so very clear in supporting the words of our Lord:

1Jn 3:24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

It is only through obedience to His commandments that you will know that I love you, and it is only if you are obedient to His commandments that I will know whether you really love me:

1Jn 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

Can anyone in good faith gainsay those words? Come to know the voice of the True Shepherd through those who already know His voice, and you will be on your way to knowing that you love the children of God and that “He abides in [you]”.

Your brother who is praying for just that in you, as I pray you see the same in me.

Eph 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
Eph 3:10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

Mike