NEGATIVE TESTS
Here are the things that neither prove nor disprove saving faith.
1. Visible morality
2. Intellectual knowledge
3. Religious involvement
4. Active ministry
5. Conviction of sin
6. Assurance
7. Making a 'decision'
POSITIVE TESTS
These things show you have saving faith.
1. Love for God
Matthew 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
2. Repentance from sin
Proverbs 28:13 He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.
3. Genuine humility
Luke 15:21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
4. Devotion to God's glory
Phillipians 1:20 My earnest expectation and my hope is this, that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all boldness as always Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death.
5. Continual prayer
Job 27:10 Will he delight himself in the almighty? Will he always call upon God?
6. Selfless love
1 John2:9 He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness. He that loves his brother abides in the light.
7. Separation from the world
1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
8. Spiritual growth
Mark 4:26 And the Kingdom of God is like a man who throws seed into the ground and should sleep and rise night and day and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how for the earth bringeth forth fruit of itself. First the blade, then the ear, after the full grain in the ear, and when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he puts in this sickle because the harvest is come.
9. Obedient living
1 John 2:3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.
From John Macarthur:
http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/45-32A/
http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/45-32B/
