This week, the profound question under discussion is, “Are You Really Saved?” It’s a question everyone should ask themselves at one point or another, but more so now. It’s a question that should underscore all others because it determines our status in eternity at the end of our lives. As important as being successful and accomplished in life is, it means nothing if one cannot answer this question in the affirmative.
Over the past few weeks, we have been discussing the works that follow Salvation, but today, in his message, pastor Exabia Dukes took a historical and creative look at the work that developed as a result of sin and what it will take to obtain salvation. I encourage everyone to revisit the sermon of 03/02/25 for this extraordinary sermon.
I was particularly intrigued when he said, “The only way back to our Spiritual work, we must divorce the 1st Adam and remarry the 2nd Adam (Jesus) to obtain Salvation.” This reminds us of our once sinful state that was caused by the first Adam, who brought sin into the world. We are born in sin and shaped in iniquity because of the first Adam, and it will take a rebirthing or born-again experience for us to be saved. The Apostle Paul tells us, “The first man Adam was made a living soul; and the last Adam was made a quickening spirit,” 1 Corinthians 15:45 KJV.
The first Adam’s birth was human, whereas the second was spiritual. After the fall of man, the first Adam could not live holy and righteous in his natural and human state. He fell all the time. But when God added the holy spirit to the human man, humans can now live in the spirit and conquer the forces of the flesh.
However, to be able to live holy unto the Lord as He asks us to in 1 Peter 1:16, “Be ye holy as I am holy”, one must divorce oneself from the first Adam, which is the works of the flesh. There has to be a divorce, which is a painful separation. There must be a complete divide between the first and the last Adam, which is Jesus. The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8:1 (KJV), “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.” Here again is that great divide between the flesh and the spirit, the first Adam and the second Adam.
How, therefore, is your walk? Is it in the flesh or the spirit? Are you led by the spirit or by the flesh? In other words, Are You Really Saved? This is where the word ‘divorce’ becomes a positive verb in everyone’s spiritual walk. When speaking of divorce, legally dissolve, separate, end, disunion of a marriage by a court or other competent body, comes to mind.
Salvation is a spiritual encounter that severs, ends, dissolves, disunion a prior relationship with the flesh, our sinful nature and connects us or binds us into a new relationship with Christ by the competent body of the Kingdom of God. There has to be that divorce of the first Adam which is our sinful nature, and a connection to the second Adam, who is Jesus Christ, the lamb of God who paid the price as the sacrificial lamb to remove our sinful nature and impute His spirit in us, the Spirit of Christ.
If we are truly saved, without knowing how, we find ourselves with a new mindset. There is an internal transformation that takes place where you find yourself no longer wanting to pursue the pleasures of the flesh. What once brought you joy and pleasure now brings you shame and disdain. Your place of interest changes, your personality changes, and your behavior as a whole changes without any effort of yours. You simply finds yourself not wanting to do the things you once did, particularly if they caused you trouble. There is a shift in your impulses.
The Apostle Paul explains it beautifully when he said, “therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corin. 5:17 KJV). To the Roman believers, he said, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9 KJV). It is the Spirit of Christ in us that creates the changes in us and makes us new individuals.
EXERCISE
Every individual should and must be able to answer the question of the week, ‘Are You Really Saved?’ No one, not your spouse, your parent, or close friend should have to answer for you, even though they would have a ready answer because our lives are the living fruit or testimony of our salvation.
Go ahead and do a self-check.
- Lifestyle: What am I still doing that I used to do? Do I feel the Holy Spirit within me convicting me?
- State of Mind: Has my thought life really changed? Can I make it an open book?
- Places of visitation: Am I comfortable with the Spirit of Christ within me wherever I go?
- My Presentation: Do I present myself differently since I began my new walk in the Spirit? Etc.
There are so many other self-checks we can use to determine if we are truly saved and we must engage in this practice for ourselves as often as possible, that we be not judged by others, for the Apostle Peter tells us clearly, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17 KJV).
This is very important because we must protect our Salvation; it is not a case of once we become saved we are saved for life. We must continuously and vigilantly work to stay saved, otherwise, we will not only lose our souls but bring Christ to open shame by the things we resort to and crucify Him afresh (Hebrews 6:6 KJV).
The ultimate work of the Cross was that Jesus not only reconciles us to God the Father now, but at the end of our days. Salvation at the end of our days is what will finally reconcile us to the Father and secure a place for us in the place Christ has gone to prepare for us so that we can be with Him. Salvation is not for this life only but for the life to come. Jesus said, “because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But, he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved, (Matthew 24:12-13 KJV). This is coming from Jesus Christ Himself, the giver of Salvation. We have to care for our salvation to the end and not allow ourselves to lose it along the way.
It is our responsibility to take the power, wisdom, and anointing Christ has given to us and imputed in us to stay saved in our corrupt world.
Again, Are You Really Saved?
Blessings!
