What if you were asked to give evidence that you are saved? What would you say?
Take a minute and think about it. Chew on it. Perhaps you need to wrestle with this question. Take your time.
I believe that many people in our churches are not actually of the household of God. That is, they are given to a false gospel. Though not many will read this post, I believe if many were asked this question, they would give answers such as "before I was saved I drank, smoked, shot up, and slept around. But now I don't. I haven't done those things since I got saved 20 years ago. That is how I know I am saved," or, "I am different from those around me. I don't ___ and I ____."
While I whole-heartedly believe that Christ changes lives and makes us different from the world, to offer a changed or different life as the proof for salvation is to subtily (sometimes not so much subtle!) suggest that one truly relies on his own efforts for his salvation. The Gospel is life-encompassing. To say one can be saved by grace, and then mistakingly live sanctification by works because he is immature is to walk a dangerous line of possibly providing a false assurance for salvation. There is no fine line between grounds for salvation and grounds for sanctification. One may claim salvation by grace but prove with his life that he really believed in salvation by works. A catholic may believe in salvation by grace through faith and protect this belief militantly. But a discussion on purgatory will reveal what they really believe about Christ's sacrifice for sin. I believe many in our church believe in purgatory...only in life, rather than after death. We live like our acceptance before God is relative to our standards and lifestyle.
Check out 1 Corinthians 1:8-9. This passage pretty much sums it up. We are 1. Called to salvation according to the faithfulness of Christ, 2. Kept by Christ's faithfulness, and finally 3. Completed by Christ's faithfulness. Where do our works have a place? Check out Hebrews 3:6 - their part in this story is merely responsive to Christ's faithfulness. Christ is not faithful to us because we are faithful. Rather we who are in Christ are faithful because Christ is already faithful to us. We are proven to be of His household through our faithfulness only because Christ is faithful to His house and will not let any of us go. On these grounds does our salvation - past, present, and future - rest. It's easy to get this backwards in a world that teaches that we must earn anything good, or that good only comes to those who deserve it. But the Gospel teaches that salvation only comes to those who DON'T deserve it! What wonderful news, if we will claim our sin and then claim Christ's faithfulness! So why do we try to deserve it through our reformed lives and standards? Because we give ourselves over to a false Gospel. What evidence do we have for salvation? Christ's faithfulness. That's it. Not ours, not our church's, not an enduring legacy of goodness. Christ's faithfulness to us is our proof. The church needs evangelized just as much as the world does.