John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

The question for every Christian is, if you have you been born-again. Some have been told that they were born-again by their cult or by their church or by a priest or pastor who declared this on their behalf. The problem is the sinner was never born-again, thus they live a life of confusion and deception and grief regarding their faith. The argument with sin and their salvation never ended.

Thus as Jesus declared, unless you are born-again you cannot see His Kingdom. The Kingdom and its glory can be described to you by the Gospel, but it is never realized or seen. Christianity to you seems boring or just plain stupid or hypocritical or much too hard to follow according to what you desire. You were told that without Jesus, you will go to hell, so out of guilt you may try to listen and repent of your sins, but this is totally unnatural and hard to live that way. You continue to question the existence of God, and His promises. Scripture seems to be a boring juggernaut, a unexplainable riddle to you. Some parts you can get on board with, some parts need to be avoided. Going to church is out of guilt, not out of desire to worship. This is the way of the false converts, and those who have not been born-again.

When the argument with God ends, and you have actually been born-again, there is really no mistaking it. There is a realized change, a lasting one. Because you now know who you are in God’s sight, your lustful desires are now something you are embarrassed of and repent of naturally. The natural desire to sin, to hide your sins, has changed to not wanting to do so. You realize that you now represent the name of Jesus Christ deep in your core so it is no longer a nagging chore to worship and follow Him.

Those who ask the fallacious question, “now that you are saved, does this mean you can sin freely and remain saved?” have not realized a regeneration, being born-again, by God. Because IF you have been born-again, living in and seeking sin is not your desire. Jesus paid for all your sins on the Cross with His life, so why would you want to see if you could out-sin God’s grace and mercy on the Cross and sin as you did as if you had not been saved? If saved, it is not a license to sin freely, it is a freedom from the ultimate penalty on your sin which is God’s wrath. Those who have been born-again now naturally seek and desire holiness, the argument to sin freely as ended.

If you are part of a religion leading you to eternal hell such as Roman Catholicism, the argument with sin never ends, they won’t allow it. Even after death, the argument with sin and God continues in purgatory. Other world religions teaching legalism won’t allow it to end either as they teach “you are one sin away from hell”. So the sinner out of fear of sin and not being born-again, lives a life of despair and paranoia and guilt. Repentance of sin is never realized, it is totally unnatural still. Some who have been part of such false churches give up, and rightly so based on the false gospel of trying to be perfect or the impossible notion to be saved by the law instead of the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Again, when the argument with sin ends, you know you have been born-again! Each sin committed will have been paid for by Jesus Christ who gets ALL the glory for your salvation. Your new natural desire is to repent, to turn away, from that sin in thanksgiving and in a new desire to strive for holiness. It isn’t a chore, it isn’t hard to live this way now. Your behavior and attitude has naturally changed, so some friends and family and certain places may not be so enticing now to hang around as they continue on in sin. And since you have been saved, you aren’t doing this to be saved, it is because you have BEEN saved.

Examine your faith, did the argument with sin end? Or is it still warring and raging on in your core. If it has ended, there is absolutely NO DOUBT in your mind you have been placed in Jesus Christ, you are in His peace, His rest for an eternity and your new behavior will show this while your new life’s testimony is now growing.