How can I know if I have been reborn?

In proof of this, attention may be directed to this simple word, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God." (1 John 5:1) The fact of the new birth is made dependent, not upon whether this or that fruit of the Spirit can be detected in us; but solely and entirely upon this one thing — whether we believe that Jesus is the Christ. How blessedly simple! On the day of Pentecost, Peter proclaimed that God had made that same Jesus, whom the Jews had crucified, both Lord and Christ. The Jesus who was once here on earth is now declared, on divine testimony, to be the Christ of God. He was ever that while on earth, but He is now presented in this character in a new way, as the rejected of man, and as risen out of death, and seated at the right hand of God. Jesus is the Christ, and whoever bows to this testimony, and receives it in his heart as true, is born of God. Instead, therefore, of looking within for proofs of the new birth the attention should be directed to this one simple question, Do I believe that Jesus is the Christ?*

And is it really certain, then, that I was born of God on believing? Most unquestionably; for it is written, "whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." (1 John 5:1.) The word of the truth of the gospel concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, brought to me by the Holy Ghost, led me to look to Jesus the object of faith as my Saviour, and thereby to receive life. The effect of being born again is that I love. I love Him who first loved me, and I love the brethren; "for he that loveth Him that begat, loveth Him also that is begotten of Him." How blessedly simple and true this is! and what assurance it gives me that I am in Christ and Christ in me! "Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name."

So with the new birth. We know it has taken place for we have been drawn to trust the Saviour. We may know the day and the hour when we first trusted the Saviour, but we do not know the exact day and hour we were born again. That is another matter. We have Scriptures telling us that as a consequence of putting our faith in Christ, we have forgiveness of sins, salvation, justification, eternal life, but nowhere are we told to believe, and that as a consequence we should be born again. That is a statement easily proved by any Christian having a working knowledge of the New Testament. Such a passage cannot be found.

My reader may ask, How may I know that I am born of God — that I am a child of God; how do you know that your body was ever born? Why, your very human existence proves that. So does the existence of the new nature prove that you are born of God. I do not look within or go to the glass, to see if my eyesight is good. I look out at an object; if I see it clearly, that proves I have good eyesight. Have you seen Jesus dying on the cross for your sins? Have you seen Him rise from the empty grave, for your justification? Is He your only trust? Do you see Him at the right hand of God having first purged your sins? Do you see Him interceding for you? Do you see Him clearly; glorious, yet precious, and fall of tender love to such poor, lost sinners as you? Ah! if this is your sight of Jesus, it is not the eyesight of the old man. The old corrupt human heart never thus sees and trusts in Jesus. The old nature looks within, and wants to find something good for Christ. Faith, which is never of the will of the flesh, but of the Spirit of God, looks without to Christ, and sees Him to be everything from God to the poor sinner. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." "The carnal mind is enmity against God." Therefore the carnal mind, the flesh, can never trust in Christ. If therefore my reader trusts in Christ alone, you do not need ask, Am I converted? It is most certain. But do you say, "I find so much evil in my old nature?" That is just what every child of God finds and mourns daily; if you were not a child of God you would not mourn over it. But what says the Scripture? "Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law, but under grace." (Rom. 6:15.) Precious promise! Happy state! Yes, if a child of God, however tempted — yea, though you may have fallen — though you still find it a hard conflict — yet, through the grace of God, sin shall not have the dominion. Bad as the flesh is, and it could not be worse, the believer is not a debtor to it; but more than conqueror, through Him that loved him. So be it with thee.

Ans.—The date of our natural birth is not gotten from our experience, but from our parents' testimony. In like manner we depend upon God's testimony for the certain knowledge of our new birth. (See John 5:24, etc.) On the authority of God's Word therefore we may, and should, have a present assurance that we are born of God and have eternal life through faith in Christ; but what is the need of trying to fix the date of its beginning, which we cannot prove? Many Christians can speak of the time when they found “peace with God;” but this may be subsequent, or separated in time from new birth. To trust to our experiences for assurance in such matters is a poor foundation.

Remember feelings always follow faith, but are absolutely unreliable as a ground of assurance. Do you believe in Christ? Are all your hopes in Him? If so, then surely this is enough for you. “All that believe are justified from all things.”

There is no uncertainty in divine things for those who, in faith, rest upon the word of God; and it is clear from the Scriptures that God desires His saints to be fully assured of His salvation, and of all that He has so graciously made known to us by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit. Defective teaching, and weakness of faith in God’s word, have very much to do with the doubts that afflict many true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Simply faith in what the Scripture says would dispel every doubt, giving assurance of God’s salvation and of the place of relationship and favour into which God, in His matchless grace, has set us before Him.

“These things have I written to you that ye may know that ye have eternal life, who believe on the Name of the Son of God” (JND). It may easily be the case that one may have eternal life, and yet not know it. For this very reason John has written. Not that this is the only reason, for other definite reasons are also mentioned in ch.1:3; 1:4; 2:1. The Father desires none of His children in doubt as to the precious reality of their possessing now the matchless gift of eternal life. Apart from the Word of God we could never have this assurance: it is a Divine revelation, not by means of personal introspection, feelings, or experiences, but by the written Word. This alone gives certainty. If one truly believes in the Name of the Son of God, he has eternal life, whether he realizes it or not. Scripture says so; and by Scripture alone can he realize it, and be absolutely assured. What matchless grace then that God has given us His Word!

What is it to have eternal life? It is to have Christ. "He that hath the Son hath life." "This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." Observe, it is the gift of God, and it is "in His Son." It is not in our keeping, but is secured for us in Christ. (1 John 5:12.) So we read, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear." (Col. 3:4.) Faith believes the record of God, receives Christ, and passes from death unto life; as JESUS says, "He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation" [judgment, it should be], "but is passed from death unto life." (John 5:24.) How simple! May it be yours, dear reader, if not sure of your portion in Christ, to receive what God gives in the simplicity of faith. He has given His word for the purpose of removing every difficulty. "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life." (1 John 5:13.)

I turn now to the portion before us. The apostle says (ver. 3), "And hereby we do know that we know Him if we keep His commandments." He is speaking of what every soul born from above realizes to be in operation within himself. He is conscious of the presence in him of the spirit of submission to what God has enjoined. He has heard the voice of the Son of God. He recognizes its authority. It is not that everything in him is in subjection to God, but he sees an operation within himself that is unnatural — an activity that he realizes to be from a new power producing in him what was never there before. He is conscious that now the spirit of submission to what God has commanded is in his soul.

The strength of this new principle working within him is not what the apostle has under consideration here. He is not occupying us here with the measure in which this spirit of submission to what God has enjoined is developed. That is a distinct matter, and is not the apostle's point. What he is here directing our attention to is the fact of the presence, in the soul of one born from above, of this spirit of submission to what God commands. Every truly converted soul is characterized by keeping the commandments of God. Obedience to God marks him, in greater or less degree; but whatever the measure, greater or less, it is there, and the consciousness of it.