A Test of Faith

Test yourself with all honesty, to fail at one of these points is not to say you are a false Christian...but I believe it is to the benefit of your soul to consider these questions.

"Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test!" -2 Cor. 13:5-

1. Is Christ the Lord of your life? Would you give up all for Him and deny yourself? Would you give up your possesions, family, friends or even your life for Him? (Matt. 10:37, Luke 14:26)

Christians are to be willing to give up all if asked to do so, if Christ were to ask you to sell all and follow Him (Mark 10:21) that you would do it without a second glance back (Luke 9:62). The Christian must be willing to deny them self and take up their cross and follow after Christ with their whole heart (Mark 8:34). Self-denial is an absolute must in the Christian faith, it is a question of whether or not you are in humble reliance upon God or if you rely upon your own strength.

2. Do you cherish the commandments of God? Do you wish nothing more than to be conformed to the image of the Son and to keep the commandments which Christ has given us? (Psa. 19 and 119)

The Christian is commanded to keep the commandments (Matt. 19:17). The way in which a Christian knows that they know Christ Jesus is if he loves and keeps His commandments (1 John 2:3). Thus they will abide in the love of Christ (John 15:10).

3. Do you love sin? Is there sin in your life that you attempt to hide or make out to seem not as sinful so that you may continue to have it in your life? (Rom. 6:2, Rom. 6:11) And when you do sin, do you acknowledge and confess it to God and trust in Christ for your forgiveness? (1 John 1:6-10)

Christians are to flee all youthful lust (2 Tim. 2:22), to abstain from all forms of evil (1 Thess. 5:22), to keep from foolish and crude talk (Eph. 5:4), sexual immorality, drunkeness, fornication, etc. (Gal. 5:21, Col. 3:5), to present our members as instruments of righteousness (Rom. 6:13), and to cast away those things which cause us to sin (Matt. 5:29,30). Christians hate sin because God hates sin, and what God hates we must and what God loves we must love.

4. Is every single day for you a battle to deny yourself and to fight sin with all your might? Is your battle with sin non-existent? Though you do not always succeed at defeating temptation do you wage war on it and pray to God to strengthen you against it? (Rom. 6 entire chapter)

The Christian must find their pleasure and delight in Christ Jesus, they must fight sin and strive to enter the narrow gate (Luke 13:24). The Christian must run the race with endurance (Heb. 12:1), fight the fight of faith (1 Tim. 6:12, 2 Tim 4:7), and to take on the full armor of God in order to defeat the schemes of the evil one (Eph. 6:11,13). A sure sign of whether or not you are a Christian is whether or not there is a desire to fight the indwelling sin within you. If you do not wage war on sin, or think that it is no big deal because you think God doesn't care, or you think now that you are in Christ you can do what you want, you have made a deadly mistake. See point 3 as well.

5. Is your full trust in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ? Or do you rely on some righteousness of yourself, attempting to work your way into favor with God or with men or impress either? (Rom. 4:2, Eph. 2:8,9)

Whether Christian or not, the one thing that must be understood is that it is not by any works of your own. It is not your decision, your parents decision, your church's decision, its not by your works, by your deeds, even by your faith that you are saved, but by the grace of God Almighty (Eph. 2:8). You receive that grace through faith (Rom. 5:17, John 1:12) and repentance (Acts 3:19). Christian, even as a believer it is not your works that maintain your state of grace, but once again it is God who upholds you in the faith (Heb. 12:2). So then trust fully in Christ for your justification, sanctification, and glorification.

6. Is the worship of God even enjoyable to you (Psa. 99:9)? Is Church on Sunday a burden to you, do you love the brethren and love their fellowship (1 John 3:15)? Is prayer a non-essential (Rom. 12:12)? Is fellowship, communion, and meditation with God and on the work of God in your life present at any time (Psa. 77:12)? Is reading your Bible more of a duty or do you seek to know God more and cherish His word (Josh. 1:8, Psa. 119:105)?

Ask yourself something, Christian, if you cannot stand to be in the presence of God now or in the presence of His people (1 John 4:20), how then will you do it for an eternity? You may not have to worry about it.

7. Do you give all the thanks, praise and glory to God?

This is very important in a man-centered world, and even in a man-centered church, where most theology is how can man do things without God. All thanksgiving must be given to God (Col. 2:6,7), and all praise, exaltation, and worship must be given to God for who He is and what love He has shown you (Psa. 22:23).

8. Conclusion

While there may be others I could have put on here, these are some of the ones I wished to address. To fail at one of these points is not to say you are not a Christian, in fact I do not believe 2 Cor. 13:5 to be saying test yourself at how good you are doing or how bad you are doing, but to test whether or not you rely and trust in Christ Jesus for all of your righteousness, faith, hope, love, forgiveness, redemption, sanctification, perseverance, so on and so forth.

Test yourself. Trust in Jesus Christ. And pray to God to be sanctifying you daily, handing over all to Him and casting yourself at the feet of Jesus, and have faith in Him who is faithful.

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
-Romans 5:1,2-