Am I Really Saved? 3 Questions Jesus Asks to Check Your Faith

DJay Akers • Discipleship Pastor
June 8, 2026

8 Minute Read

Is Christianity something we talk about, or is it something that transforms us from the inside out? You can have all the right things. You can quote all the right verses. I once knew a man in prison who had memorized the Bible, who could recite any verse you could think of, and yet he lived like the devil. It made me want to ask him, what is wrong with you?

That contradiction is exactly what Jesus confronts in one of the most unsettling passages He ever spoke. It is possible to have eternal language without having eternal life. If you have ever lain awake wondering whether your faith is the real thing or just religious habit, you are asking the question Jesus wanted His followers to ask.


The Scariest Verse in the Bible

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shifts His warning. First He says, beware of false prophets, do not be deceived by others. Then the danger moves closer to home: beware of deceiving yourself. The threat is no longer out there with someone else. It is the possibility that you could be a false disciple without knowing it.

Here is the text. Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven (Matthew 7:21). I have said before that I have never met anyone with Matthew 7:21-23 tattooed on their arm. My wife has taken me to Hobby Lobby plenty of times, and I have never seen this one hanging on the wall. No church picks it as the verse of the year. Yet I believe these are the heaviest verses in the entire Sermon on the Mount.

Notice who Jesus is talking to. He is not addressing skeptics, atheists, agnostics, or people who hate God. How do we know? Because these people call Him Lord, Lord. Throughout Scripture, when a name is doubled, there is passion and intensity behind it: Samuel, Samuel; Abraham, Abraham; Martha, Martha, when Mary sat at His feet while her sister cleaned the house in a frenzy. The doubled Lord, Lord carries that same emotional weight.

These are religious people. Church people. People who know spiritual things, who use spiritual language, who sing the songs and say amen at the end. That is what makes this passage so terrifying. There are people who are convinced everything is fine between them and God, and they are deceived. So let me offer three questions to help us examine ourselves.

Subscribe To These Posts
Life or Lips: Is Your Faith Real or Just Talk?

The first question is simple. Life or lips? These people are saying Lord, Lord out loud, which tells us something important. Their faith was public, not private. If you tell me you have a private faith, I would gently push back: there is no such thing. Faith is deeply personal, but it is never private. It is a public confession.

Young people, hear this next part especially. God does not have grandchildren. He only has children. You cannot ride in on someone else's relationship. You have to come on your own. You need your own baptism moment, your own public confession, your own spot where you declare Jesus as Lord and are born again. It is not what your parents did or what someone else did. It is what you do with your own faith.

There is a verse that goes right alongside this. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9). You have to speak it. You cannot hold it as a secret. But Paul does not stop at the mouth. Something also has to happen in the heart. That is exactly what Jesus is exposing. You can confess something with your lips, but if it never drops two feet down into your heart, it is probably not real. It is a religious thing, not a living thing.

So the question stands. Is your Christianity something you talk about, or something that transforms you from the inside out? This is why God says throughout the Old Testament that He is not after your animal sacrifices or your religious festivals. He wants your heart. A transformed heart leads to a transformed life. It is heart transformation, not behavior modification. God is never impressed with empty religion. He calls it whitewashed tombs and dead men's bones. What He wants is a relationship.


Religion or Relationship: What Are You Bringing to Jesus?

That leads to the second question. Religion or relationship? Look at verse 22: on that day, many will say to Me. Pause on that word many. Last week we saw that many are on the broad road. Now we hear that many will say Lord, Lord. So there are many people on the broad road who are convinced they are on the narrow one. That tension should sober us.

Watch what they bring to Jesus. Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name? When we see people like this, we tend to think they must be men and women of God. They read Scripture from the stage. They share an impressive insight in small group. But notice what they present to Jesus: not their surrender, not their faith, not their obedience, not their trust. They bring a list. And religion loves a list.

For us today, that list might sound like this. Lord, I went to church. I did my devotions. I posted a Bible verse on Instagram. I set up my tithing. I served in kids ministry once this month. I made it to small group a couple of times. Check, check, check. We can stack up accolades, but the gospel goes deeper than that. Jesus is not asking for your activity. He is asking for your heart. We are not saved by works. We are saved by faith.


How a Marriage Explains the Difference

In a couple of months, my wife Amy and I will celebrate 23 years of marriage. She is the hero of our story, not me. But I will be honest about something. When I asked her to marry me, I had no clue what I was doing. I was 22, my brain was not fully developed, and I barely knew her. I saw a good thing and I knew enough to grab it, but I did not really understand what marriage meant. I said I do, she said I do, and we received our titles: husband and wife.

Here is the truth I love telling. I love that woman more today than the day I married her, and I loved her deeply on that day. My hope is that when people see me, they catch a glimpse of her, and when they see her, they catch a glimpse of me.

I want the same thing said about Jesus. I want to love Him more today than the day I first got on my knees and surrendered to Him. And I want people to see Him when they see me. Because here is the point. You can have all the titles. You can have the marriage certificate, the house, the cars, the family photos, the anniversary posts, and still have a dead marriage with no real relationship. Why? A title does not create intimacy. A relationship does. Intimacy is built by knowing each other over years, sacrificing for one another, covering each other with grace, being patient, and seeing God work over time.

That is what Jesus is getting at. You can have all the right words and all the religious activity and still miss Him entirely. He never signed us up for a religious arrangement. He signed us up for a passionate, living relationship. It is the very reason He died for sinners, to bring us into a relationship with God and make us one with Him.


How Do I Know If I'm Really Saved?

If these questions stir something uneasy in you, that is not a reason for despair. It is an invitation. The fact that you care whether your faith is real is itself a hopeful sign that God is at work in your heart. The people Jesus warns about were not worried at all. They were confident right up until the end.

So ask yourself honestly. Life or lips: has your confession dropped from your mouth down into your heart, or is it only language? Religion or relationship: are you bringing Jesus a list of accomplishments, or are you bringing Him yourself? You do not have to bring a perfect record. You only have to bring your heart, surrendered and His.

That is where real life begins. Not in saying the right words or checking the right boxes, but in knowing and being known by the One who gave Himself for you. If you have never made that personal, public confession, today is the day to stop talking about Jesus and start belonging to Him.

Stay connected by subscribing below so you never miss an update.

Subscribe to Blog Updates

By subscribing, you agree to receive email communication from Real Life Church of NC. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Up Next
From this Author: DJay Akers
August 31, 2026 • 7 Minute Read
Why You Need Friends Who Will Tell You the Truth
Christians need community because faith was never designed to be carried alone, and because you need at least one person who will tell you the truth about yourself. There are seasons when your faith is strong, and you carry somebody else. There are also seasons when your faith is weak, and someone else has to carry you. Both are normal. Both are grace. If you have ever assumed that a personal relationship with God is enough on its own, one of the strangest scenes in the Gospels pushes back. A group of friends heard that Jesus was teaching in a crowded house, and they could not get their paralyzed friend anywhere near Him. So they climbed up, tore open the roof, and lowered him down on a mat right in front of Jesus. It was reckless. It was a little crazy. And when Jesus looked up, the thing He responded to was their faith. Not just the faith of the man on the mat. Their faith. Their Faith Had Hands and Feet Sometimes we picture that man's helpers as reluctant participants, but he was clearly on board. Who else would let you lower them through a roof? I remember back in my days as a youth pastor, we used to do something called sermon in the box. I would write Bible verses on slips of paper, put them in a box, and a small group would draw one and act it out. It was a way for students to put themselves inside the text. This passage came up one day, and the students found a rope and a blanket and decided to lower one of the guys from the balcony. Just before they did it, I said we should probably put a mattress underneath, because this might not go well. It did not go well. I will stop the story there. It is funny now. It was not funny then. That is the point. These men did something costly and disruptive to bring their friend to Jesus. They were not just talking about faith. They put their faith into action. Their faith had hands. Their faith had feet. Their faith picked up the mat and carried the man. Their faith ripped off a roof and lowered him down. Their faith carried. Does Your Faith Carry Anybody? Maybe that is the question God wants to ask some of us. Does your faith carry anybody? It is entirely possible to build a faith that is only about you. We can become so focused on ourselves that we forget how clearly Jesus said your faith is never just about Jesus in you. He calls us into a family. He calls us into a community. He calls us into a body. He calls us into a tribe. A tribe means you are walking together. You are journeying together. You are protecting one another and picking one another up. Those men on the roof knew something simple and urgent: their friend needed to get in front of Jesus, and he was not going to get there on his own. Why Christians Need Community in Both Seasons Here is what makes this more than a nice idea. There are seasons in our faith when we are strong, and we carry someone else, and there are seasons when our faith is weak, and someone else needs to carry us. That is life group theology. Think about your own life. Who are the people who carried you? Maybe it was a parent or a grandparent. Maybe a pastor, a friend, or your spouse. Maybe it was someone who showed up at the right moment with the right word. Maybe it was simply someone who said, "I am not leaving. I am here." That is a gift. You Do Not Have to Pretend You Are Okay Some of us need to hear this plainly. You do not have to pretend you are okay. You do not have to pretend you are strong. You do not have to pretend you have all the answers. There are going to be times when we are the one on the mat, and that is okay. Many of us have quietly decided we will just carry ourselves. If there is a rope to hold, we will hold it for ourselves. We imagine we can rig a pulley system and hoist ourselves up whenever things get hard. But when you are genuinely weak, you cannot hoist yourself up. You need somebody. The Christian life was never designed to run on "I've got this." It was designed to run on "We've got you." There will be seasons when you are holding the rope, and seasons when you are hanging onto it. Who Is Holding Your Rope? So let me ask you directly. Who is holding your rope? Who knows you well enough to know when you are not okay? Who can tell when you are struggling? Who will pray for you? Who will look honestly at your life and say, "You're drifting"? Friends are great, but I want someone holding my rope who loves God more than they love me. Here is why. If they love me more than they love God, they will be afraid of hurting the friendship, and they will not tell me the truth. I need the truth. The Friend Who Loved God Enough to Offend Me This started to click for me early in ministry. My wife and I were part of a small group with a wonderful godly couple. We all went out to dinner one night and had a great time. The next morning the husband called me and asked if we could talk for a second. He said, "Hey, I love you enough to tell you this." What he meant was that he loved God enough to offend me. Then he said, "You were a jerk last night." My first reaction was to push back. Hang on, buddy. You do not get to tell me that. He explained that I had been making jokes at my wife's expense. I told him I did not believe him. We talked for a minute, and I hung up the phone, but it started to bother me. When I got home, I never mentioned the phone call. I just went to my wife and said, "Hey sweetie, last night I made some jokes that were a little out of pocket. I should not have said them. I am sorry." She said, "You did." Then she said, "I forgive you. Thank you so much for telling me that." That was the moment it hit me. This is what biblical community looks like. This is what it means to have someone who says, "I love you, and I love God more, and I will tell you the truth even if it hurts." What a Life Group Is Actually For That is why I believe so strongly in life groups. A life group is not just getting together for a study and a meal. It is taking the study and applying it. A life group is a group of people who decide together to follow Jesus, to pray for one another, to love one another, to encourage one another, and to challenge one another. We will know one another's stories. We will do this together. If one person is weak, we will carry them. If I am weak, you will carry me. That is why Christians need community. Not as a program to attend, but as a rope held by people who will not let go. So find your people, and be the kind of friend who tears open a roof to get someone in front of Jesus.

DJay Akers

Discipleship Pastor

June 29, 2026 • 7 Minute Read
What Is Faith? Why It's Only as Good as What You Trust
Some Sundays are tough on the heart. This one is tough on the mind. Working through what faith actually means takes a little mental gymnastics, so let's take the cookies off the top shelf and put them where everyone can reach them. The whole study rests on one verse: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Notice what the writer is doing here. He is not handing us a tidy dictionary definition. He is describing what faith actually does. Faith gives substance to God's promises. What Is Faith According to Hebrews 11? Start with that first phrase: faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The word assurance is rich. Some scholars translate it as confidence, others as certainty. The Greek carries the idea of substance, something solid, something you can stand on. There is a story that captures this perfectly. A Scottish missionary named John G. Paton went to the New Hebrides, a chain of islands in the South Pacific, to translate the book of John and preach the gospel. He hit a wall trying to render one word into the native language: faith. He could not find a word for belief or trust. One day, he was sitting with the local man, who was helping him translate. He sat down in a chair and asked, "What am I doing?" The man answered, "You sit in a chair." Then he leaned back, balancing on two legs, and asked again, "What am I doing?" This time the man gave him a different word entirely: "You are leaning your whole weight upon it." That was it. That was the word he had been searching for. So when he translated John 3:16, it read, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever leans his whole weight upon Him will not perish but have everlasting life." That is the essence of faith. Faith is not merely believing a chair exists. It is putting your whole weight on it. In the same way, faith is not merely the collection of head knowledge about Jesus. It is placing your entire life on Him: your fears, your anxieties, your worries, and your eternity. Is Biblical Hope the Same as Wishful Thinking? When most of us hear the word hope, we think of something uncertain. I really hope my team wins the Super Bowl. I hope the weather cooperates. I hope this works out. As a lifelong fan of a team that rarely cooperates, I have done plenty of wishful thinking over the years. But that is not biblical hope. That is just wishful thinking dressed up. Biblical hope is confidence rooted in God's promises. Christian hope is not "I hope God keeps His promises." Christian hope says, "God has promised, therefore I know He will." This is where faith and hope link together. Faith grabs hold of hope, and hope grabs hold of God's promises. That is exactly the pattern running through Hebrews 11. Noah built an ark when it had never rained. Abraham left his home with no idea where he was going. Faith says, "I do not have it yet. I cannot touch it yet. I do not even fully understand it yet. But God, You spoke it, and I am putting my full weight on that." So the focus of the verse is not on hope itself. The focus is on the faith that grabs hold of what God has promised. Picture receiving a notice today that a three-million-dollar inheritance is now in your name. The money has not hit your account yet, but you know it is coming. Does that change anything for you? Of course it does. The promise changes the present. Faith works the same way. God promises things that reshape our present circumstances, because we trust His future. Does the Strength of My Faith Matter? This runs consistently through the New Testament. Faith is never about your self-confidence. It is confidence in God. It is taking God at His Word and placing your full weight on His promise. Faith says, "God, I trust You even when I cannot see the outcome." And no, the outcome is usually not visible. That leads to the second half of the verse. Faith is not only the assurance of things hoped for. It is also the conviction of things not seen. The King James Version calls it the evidence of things not seen. The New American Standard calls it the proof of things not seen. They all capture the same idea. Faith is not limited to what we can see with our eyes. Faith sees a larger reality. It does not deny what is visible. It simply believes there is more to the picture than the surface. For a believer, there are invisible realities: God, the Holy Spirit, angels, heaven, the kingdom of God, and eternity. Faith believes God's testimony about all of it. I quote Tim Keller almost every time I teach, because he was a great mind, and he often pointed out that everyone interprets reality through a lens. Everyone is trusting something. Everyone has faith in something, whether it is money, success, science, politics, relationships, or career. The question is never whether you have faith. The question is what you have placed your faith in. Here is where it gets a little tricky. Faith is only as good as its object. You can have enormous faith in very thin ice and still drown. You can have trembling, weak faith in very thick ice and be completely safe. The issue is not the strength of your faith. It is the object you put your faith in. And God has proven Himself trustworthy and faithful again and again. What Does 2 Kings 6 Teach About Faith? Faith understands that more is happening than what we see on the surface. One of the clearest pictures of this is in 2 Kings 6, with the prophet Elisha and the Syrian army. Every time the Syrian army moved out, Israel already knew. The troops would shift, and Israel was ready. The Syrian king grew furious and gathered his commanders, demanding to know who was leaking information. One of his generals stepped up and said, in effect, "It is none of us, my lord. There is a prophet in Israel named Elisha, and he knows what you are going to do before you do it." The king's response was simple: go get him. So the army found where Elisha was staying and surrounded the entire city with troops, chariots, and horses. The next morning, Elisha's servant walked outside the tent, saw the army, and panicked. He ran back inside. "Master, master, what are we going to do?" He was looking only at the facts. He was looking at his reality, at what he could see. And Elisha answered him, "Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are against us." Put yourself in that servant's sandals. You look at Elisha, then out at the army, then back at Elisha. The math does not add up. It is two against a hundred thousand. So Elisha prayed, "Lord, open his eyes so he can see." And suddenly the servant saw what had been there the entire time. The hills were full of horses and chariots of fire surrounding the Syrian army. Heaven's angels had been present all along. Where to Go From Here That is the heart of biblical faith. It leans its whole weight on God. It treats His promises as solid ground rather than wishful thinking. It trusts the One who has proven Himself faithful, even when the math does not add up and the outcome is not yet visible. Your faith does not have to be enormous to be real. It only has to rest on the right object. The servant's eyes were eventually opened, but the chariots of fire were there before he ever saw them. God's reality does not depend on your ability to see it. So the question to carry with you is not how strong your faith feels today. It is where you are leaning your whole weight.

DJay Akers

Discipleship Pastor

Currently Reading
June 8, 2026 • 8 Minute Read
Am I Really Saved? 3 Questions Jesus Asks to Check Your Faith
Is Christianity something we talk about, or is it something that transforms us from the inside out? You can have all the right things. You can quote all the right verses. I once knew a man in prison who had memorized the Bible, who could recite any verse you could think of, and yet he lived like the devil. It made me want to ask him, what is wrong with you? That contradiction is exactly what Jesus confronts in one of the most unsettling passages He ever spoke. It is possible to have eternal language without having eternal life. If you have ever lain awake wondering whether your faith is the real thing or just religious habit, you are asking the question Jesus wanted His followers to ask. The Scariest Verse in the Bible In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shifts His warning. First He says, beware of false prophets, do not be deceived by others. Then the danger moves closer to home: beware of deceiving yourself. The threat is no longer out there with someone else. It is the possibility that you could be a false disciple without knowing it. Here is the text. Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven (Matthew 7:21). I have said before that I have never met anyone with Matthew 7:21-23 tattooed on their arm. My wife has taken me to Hobby Lobby plenty of times, and I have never seen this one hanging on the wall. No church picks it as the verse of the year. Yet I believe these are the heaviest verses in the entire Sermon on the Mount. Notice who Jesus is talking to. He is not addressing skeptics, atheists, agnostics, or people who hate God. How do we know? Because these people call Him Lord, Lord. Throughout Scripture, when a name is doubled, there is passion and intensity behind it: Samuel, Samuel; Abraham, Abraham; Martha, Martha, when Mary sat at His feet while her sister cleaned the house in a frenzy. The doubled Lord, Lord carries that same emotional weight. These are religious people. Church people. People who know spiritual things, who use spiritual language, who sing the songs and say amen at the end. That is what makes this passage so terrifying. There are people who are convinced everything is fine between them and God, and they are deceived. So let me offer three questions to help us examine ourselves.Subscribe To These Posts Life or Lips: Is Your Faith Real or Just Talk? The first question is simple. Life or lips? These people are saying Lord, Lord out loud, which tells us something important. Their faith was public, not private. If you tell me you have a private faith, I would gently push back: there is no such thing. Faith is deeply personal, but it is never private. It is a public confession. Young people, hear this next part especially. God does not have grandchildren. He only has children. You cannot ride in on someone else's relationship. You have to come on your own. You need your own baptism moment, your own public confession, your own spot where you declare Jesus as Lord and are born again. It is not what your parents did or what someone else did. It is what you do with your own faith. There is a verse that goes right alongside this. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9). You have to speak it. You cannot hold it as a secret. But Paul does not stop at the mouth. Something also has to happen in the heart. That is exactly what Jesus is exposing. You can confess something with your lips, but if it never drops two feet down into your heart, it is probably not real. It is a religious thing, not a living thing. So the question stands. Is your Christianity something you talk about, or something that transforms you from the inside out? This is why God says throughout the Old Testament that He is not after your animal sacrifices or your religious festivals. He wants your heart. A transformed heart leads to a transformed life. It is heart transformation, not behavior modification. God is never impressed with empty religion. He calls it whitewashed tombs and dead men's bones. What He wants is a relationship. Religion or Relationship: What Are You Bringing to Jesus? That leads to the second question. Religion or relationship? Look at verse 22: on that day, many will say to Me. Pause on that word many. Last week we saw that many are on the broad road. Now we hear that many will say Lord, Lord. So there are many people on the broad road who are convinced they are on the narrow one. That tension should sober us. Watch what they bring to Jesus. Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name? When we see people like this, we tend to think they must be men and women of God. They read Scripture from the stage. They share an impressive insight in small group. But notice what they present to Jesus: not their surrender, not their faith, not their obedience, not their trust. They bring a list. And religion loves a list. For us today, that list might sound like this. Lord, I went to church. I did my devotions. I posted a Bible verse on Instagram. I set up my tithing. I served in kids ministry once this month. I made it to small group a couple of times. Check, check, check. We can stack up accolades, but the gospel goes deeper than that. Jesus is not asking for your activity. He is asking for your heart. We are not saved by works. We are saved by faith. How a Marriage Explains the Difference In a couple of months, my wife Amy and I will celebrate 23 years of marriage. She is the hero of our story, not me. But I will be honest about something. When I asked her to marry me, I had no clue what I was doing. I was 22, my brain was not fully developed, and I barely knew her. I saw a good thing and I knew enough to grab it, but I did not really understand what marriage meant. I said I do, she said I do, and we received our titles: husband and wife. Here is the truth I love telling. I love that woman more today than the day I married her, and I loved her deeply on that day. My hope is that when people see me, they catch a glimpse of her, and when they see her, they catch a glimpse of me. I want the same thing said about Jesus. I want to love Him more today than the day I first got on my knees and surrendered to Him. And I want people to see Him when they see me. Because here is the point. You can have all the titles. You can have the marriage certificate, the house, the cars, the family photos, the anniversary posts, and still have a dead marriage with no real relationship. Why? A title does not create intimacy. A relationship does. Intimacy is built by knowing each other over years, sacrificing for one another, covering each other with grace, being patient, and seeing God work over time. That is what Jesus is getting at. You can have all the right words and all the religious activity and still miss Him entirely. He never signed us up for a religious arrangement. He signed us up for a passionate, living relationship. It is the very reason He died for sinners, to bring us into a relationship with God and make us one with Him. How Do I Know If I'm Really Saved? If these questions stir something uneasy in you, that is not a reason for despair. It is an invitation. The fact that you care whether your faith is real is itself a hopeful sign that God is at work in your heart. The people Jesus warns about were not worried at all. They were confident right up until the end. So ask yourself honestly. Life or lips: has your confession dropped from your mouth down into your heart, or is it only language? Religion or relationship: are you bringing Jesus a list of accomplishments, or are you bringing Him yourself? You do not have to bring a perfect record. You only have to bring your heart, surrendered and His. That is where real life begins. Not in saying the right words or checking the right boxes, but in knowing and being known by the One who gave Himself for you. If you have never made that personal, public confession, today is the day to stop talking about Jesus and start belonging to Him.

DJay Akers

Discipleship Pastor