I distinctly remember sitting in a church pew as a younger man while the preacher confidently proclaimed, “If you can’t remember when you were saved, it might be because you never were.” He went on to argue, “If someone as big as God moves in and you don’t recall when and where that took place, that’s because it didn’t.” I vividly recall the emotional impact this had on me, especially as someone who does not remember the precise moment or date when I believed in Christ.
As I have grown in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, I have spoken with many other Christians who express the same uncertainty. Though they clearly believe in Christ in the present, they are unsure when they first placed their faith in Him. Unfortunately, this has become a common source of concern for many genuine believers.
First and foremost, what saith the scripture?
Our Lord declared in John 6:47,
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”
Notice that the individual who presently believes in Christ possesses everlasting life, whether or not they remember when or where they first came to believe. If a person believes in Christ now, it necessarily follows that there was a point in the past when that faith began, regardless of whether the moment itself is remembered.
How many “Christians” can vividly recount the when and where of their salvation experience, yet struggle to articulate the gospel message or the instrumental means of salvation—namely, faith alone in Christ alone? Their message is often muddied by statements such as, “I was ten years old when I asked Jesus into my heart,” or, “I was sixteen years old when I gave my life to Christ,” and similar unbiblical expressions.
In John chapter 3, Jesus teaches Nicodemus the necessity of the new birth, famously declaring, “Ye must be born again.” Later in the same chapter, Christ explains the instrumental means by which this new birth occurs—namely, faith in Him. He states:
John 3
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
The new birth, by which one becomes a child of God, is conditioned upon a non-meritorious moment of faith. That is, the instant an individual trusts in Christ alone, he is “born of God” or “born again.” This instantaneous event remains a biblical reality irrespective of whether the individual remembers when or where he first came to believe.
The same reasoning applies to physical birth. As odd as it may sound, countless people around the world are completely unaware of their birthdays. Yet no rational person would suggest that this ignorance somehow negates their existence. Are we to conclude that if a man cannot recall the day or even the year of his birth, he may not be alive at all? Such reasoning is plainly absurd.
Friend, rather than fixating on an experience, ask yourself this: Am I presently persuaded that the Lord Jesus Christ died for my sins and rose again from the dead? Do I trust in Him alone as a sufficient Savior, or am I also relying upon my own righteous deeds, religious rituals, or moral reformation? If you are truly trusting in Christ alone at present, then unless you have only just come to faith, there was necessarily a moment in the past when your new birth occurred. As believers, our assurance must rest on the objective testimony of God’s Word, not on the subjective experiences of sinful men.
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? John 11:26