Can We Be Sure We Are Saved?

Perhaps the worst fear I have ever lived with is the fear that I might die and go to hell. I remember vividly several instances that occurred before and after I became a Christian. These I will share later; for now consider this testimony by Mr. Anders.

I had been a Christian for a number of years. I began thinking that, when I had become a Christian, it had been in a time of personal crisis, and, like a man drowning at sea, I had grabbed for the closest thing that I thought might keep me afloat, which was Christianity. But after a while I began to question if I had made the right decision. What if it wasn't true? What if something else were true? I hadn't really investigated Christianity or other alternatives at all. So what if I were wrong?

With that, I entered another period in which I lived in dread of dying. I feared flying, I feared going to sleep at night, I feared riding in a car with anyone I did not think was a good driver. It was like living with chronic pain. I became convinced that there are few things worse than the constant fear that you might die and go to hell. –Max Anders: What you Need to Know About Salvation

The purpose of this study is to investigate what the Bible says about our assurance as believers. John 6:37, is a tremendous help in understanding assurance and security for believers.  It teaches us that the Lord Jesus was not discouraged by the unbelief of the Jews, because there is an election of God which is the Father’s gift to the Son. Jesus knew that all the Father’s purposes and plans would be fulfilled.  Even if the Jews to whom He was speaking would not accept Him, then He still knew that some Jews would indeed come to Him. Jesus therefore had confidence that His work would be effective.

But people may have assurance also. The first reason is that God has given certain ones to Christ and that all of these will be saved. The other reason relates to man’s responsibility to accept the gospel. God makes a universal offer—that if a sinner will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, he will be saved. God does not save people against their will. A person must come to Him in repentance and faith. Then God will save him. Everyone who comes to God through Christ for salvation will by no means be finally rejected by God.  So believers can be assured and secure in salvation through Christ!

Can we be safe? Can we feel safe? Can we be free of that dreadful weight called fear? We can.  In this study we learn that assurance is the confidence that Christians are, in fact, saved.

Lesson:

I.                  What Is Assurance? (John 6:37;1John 5:12)

Assurance is the confidence that Christians are, in fact, saved—you can KNOW you are save.

A.     Christians Sometimes Struggle with Assurance Issues.  It is not uncommon for Christians to struggle with doubts as to whether or not they are saved. This can stem from several things.

1.       Misunderstanding Salvation.  It may grow out of a misunderstanding of what happens when one becomes a Christian. Consider the following testimony.

a.       When I committed my life to Christ as a college student, I thought I ought to feel something. Someone told me that the Holy Spirit would come into my heart, take up residence within me, and give me the power to begin to live the life God wanted me to live. It seemed reasonable to me that I would feel something, and when I didn't, I was doubtful about whether anything had actually happened when I gave my life to Christ. The person I was talking with at the time assured me that the Bible did not say that we would feel anything, but that if I truly believed in and committed my life to Christ, I was born again, saved, and that I should take the testimony of Scripture by faith, rather than looking for some subjective emotional experience. I wasn't totally convinced, but took his word for it for the time being. –Max Anders

b.       In addition, Dr. Stanley observed that those who believe that they somehow can “lose” their salvation once they have believed in Jesus Christ tend also to be those who believe that they had something to do with gaining their salvation in the first place. The fact is, you did absolutely nothing to warrant your salvation—to earn it, achieve it, or to be worthy of it. Your salvation was a gift of God, extended to you by His mercy and out of His fathomless love and made possible for you to receive through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. The initiative for your salvation was God's. It was God through His Spirit who convicted you of your sin and wooed you to Christ Jesus. It is God who saved you and then indwelt you by His Holy Spirit. It is God who promised you eternal life. And it is God who will bring you to the fullness of a life with Him in heaven. (Stanley, C)

c.       In my experience, several friends who knew the Scriptures well talked me through the salvation and security passages to help me understand the subject of salvation from a Bible perspective.  This was helpful but still confusing so I struggled with occasional doubts for another year afterwards.

d.       After I had been a Christian for about a year and a half, I was suddenly and unexpectedly afflicted with raging doubt about my salvation.  I even went as far as dropping to my knees in honest confession of sins in brokenness and tears.  I confessed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God-Savior; I confessed that His payment for sin was for me and that I fully accept Him and Him alone as my Savior.  I committed myself entirely to Christ as best I knew how.  Initially this experience did wonders for me and it soundly chased the ragging doubts and fears away. As I look back on it though, I think it was a ploy by the devil to derail me in my Christian life. However, God turned it around and used it to give me greater-than-ever confidence in His grace towards me for salvation. But my dependence upon emotions was still too great at this point.

e.       I could not completely shake the insecurity that had lingered since my salvation experience. I did become deeply troubled again at times. I lost sight of the promises of God, and peace fled from me like rats from a sinking ship. But in the midst of the worse doubts, I grabbed hold of the Scripture like a life raft and Bible-based assurance was restored. Some passages that helped me were:

                                                                                  i.      Psalm 130:4, “But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.” This passage told me that it was possible to be forgiven.

                                                                                ii.      Heb 10:16-17, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17, And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” God had forgiven me and He does not even remember my sins against Him anymore.  There is no need to re-confess sins again and again.

                                                                               iii.      John 6:37, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” I had believed in Jesus. I had asked Him to save me. So, this passage assured me that, since I had come to Jesus, He would not cast me out.

                                                                              iv.      1 John 5:12-14, “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.  13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe [keep believing]on the name of the Son of God.  14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.”  I had come to Jesus. He had not cast me out. Therefore, I had life. I was forgiven. I was saved. What a relief!

2.       Struggling with Sin.  Other times when people struggle with doubts about their salvation it might be because of the imperfection of their lifestyle. Their doubts can come from at least two directions.

a.       Attempting to Live Sinless.  People who tend toward perfectionism struggle with the inability to eradicate all sin—not only not doing the things they're not supposed to, but also doing all the things they should do. This is a tremendous burden, because we can get compulsive about perfection and never measure up to our own expectations, or the expectations we think God has of us.

b.       Grossly Backsliding.  Doubts also can come from falling back into obvious sin. There is no perfectionism at work here; these people are sinning blatantly. They know it, and usually others know it. Both of these scenarios can cause doubts about salvation, and God deals with each differently.

3.       Religious Relatives and Friends.  There are still other sources of doubt concerning a person's salvation. For example, if one grew up in another religion and converted to Christianity, the people he grew up with might accuse him of having left the only “true” faith.  This type of struggle appears in the book of Hebrews.

B.     Christians Can Have Assurance of Salvation.  But, how can we deal with our doubts? How can we know that God has saved us? I believe there are three related ways we can know we are saved and enjoy the blessing of assurance.

1.      Scripture—God's Word on It.

a.       Facts.  To deal with our doubt about salvation, we must first look at the ways the Bible tells us we can have assurance of our salvation.

                                                                                  i.      The Bible tells us that “as many as received Him [Jesus], to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:12). So true faith in Christ results in our being a child of God.

                                                                                ii.      In Romans 10:9-10, the Bible says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10, For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

                                                                               iii.      In Romans 10:13, we read, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

                                                                              iv.      The real question, then, is simple: “Do you believe in, and have you received Jesus as your Savior—have you trusted in Christ as your only Savior and given your life to Him?” Are you depending on His death, burial, and resurrection as the satisfactory payment for sin?  If the answer is “yes,” then God says “You are a child of Mine.”

b.       Feelings.  The facts are true regardless of how we feel. Our feelings can be deceiving. This was a major challenge for me. 

                                                                                  i.      “For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things” (1 John 3:20).

                                                                                ii.      Jer 17:9, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

                                                                               iii.      Don’t trust nor follow your heart, but train your heart to follow your faith in God's Word!

c.       Faith.  God does not want us to be anxious about our relationship to Him, once it has been established.

                                                                                  i.      As John 5:24 says, “, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”

                                                                               ii.      Rom 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” We are no longer condemned! Hallelujah!!!

                                                                               iii.      Since we are in Christ Jesus, as a result of our faith and identification with Him we will never face eternal punishment for our sins again (Rom. 6:13; John 5:24). We are justified, declared righteous, and therefore stand in His grace (Rom 5:2) and not under His wrath (Rom. 1:18), and possess eternal life today (Rom. 5:17-18, 21). Christ is the sphere of safety for all who are identified with Him by faith.

2.      Change—the Dynamics of Daily Experience.

a.       A Changed Life.  Assurance of salvation also can come from a changed life.

                                                                                  i.      Genuinely new life manifests itself in new attitudes, new values, and new behavior.

                                                                                ii.      Some who claim to have become a Christian manifest no change whatsoever in their behavior. In his book, Loving God, Chuck Colson tells the story of Mickey Cohen, a Los Angeles gangster in the late '40s who supposedly became a Christian through Billy Graham's early ministry. But he didn't change his behavior or his mob connections. When challenged about it, he said, “You never told me that I had to give up my career. You never told me that I had to give up my friends. There are Christian movie stars, Christian athletes, Christian businessmen. So what's the matter with being a Christian gangster? If I have to give up all that—if that's Christianity—count me out” (92). (Anders)

                                                                               iii.      His lack of outward change was a tip-off that no change had taken place on the inside.

                                                                              iv.      As the apostle John wrote, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” (1 John 2:19). He is saying that when someone turns his back on Christianity, it is probably a sign that he never was a true Christian.

b.       Spiritual Growth.  The apostle Peter says, in 2 Peter 1:5–10, that if we want to be sure of our salvation we must look at our lifestyle.

                                                                                  i.      There will be godly growth. True, we may struggle with not seeing the degree of change we would like, but we will see some change. In fact, the very existence of such a struggle suggests that the person who claims faith in Christ is truly saved.

                                                                                ii.      Scripture passages that suggest the need for change are numerous. First Peter 2:2 says, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” Romans 12:2 says, “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Many other passages trumpet the same theme. Change and spiritual growth are vital sign of spiritual life.

c.       Indwelling Sin. 

                                                                                  i.      Christians can sin, and perfectionists who doubt their salvation because of sin must recognize this (1 John 1:8) and rest in God's faithfulness when they confess this sin (1 John 1:9).

                                                                                ii.      John also reminds us that when we sin “We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).

                                                                               iii.      Only those whose pattern of living includes ongoing, willful, unrepentant sin does the Bible give reason to doubt their salvation.  A real believer is miserable while living in sin. (Stanley, C.)

d.       Personal Change. This also convinced me of my own salvation. I began to see changes in my life that I had tried to achieve before I became a Christian, and now they were happening, seemingly because of forces in my life greater than I. When I compared that to verses in the Bible that said the Holy Spirit would bring about change in my life, I became convinced that I was, indeed, a Christian.

3.      Faithfulness—Pleasing God and Caring about Others.

a.       Another evidence of salvation is increased faithfulness in obeying the commands of Scripture.

                                                                                  i.      “Whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him” (1 John 2:5).

                                                                                ii.      And again, “He that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him” (1 John 3:24).

                                                                               iii.      The apostle John also mentioned a love for the brethren as an indication of salvation: “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren” (1 John 3:14). I don't think this means that we love perfectly every single hard-to-love Christian in our life. Rather, I think it means that, generally, we love other Christians—that we enjoy their company, make friends among them, want to help them, and care about their welfare. It means, I think, that we identify with them and consider ourselves one of them. (MacDonalds)

b.       Thus we have more to go on than our “feelings” to determine whether or not we are saved. We receive assurance from God's word, from our daily walk of faith, and from our new attitude toward God and others. Always measure your claim of salvation with the Word of God, not your feelings.  We should never look within ourselves for assurance of salvation, because this could lead to discouragement and doubt. Assurance of salvation comes first and foremost through the Word of God. The moment we trust Christ we can know on the authority of the Bible that we have been born again. As time goes on, we do find other evidences of the new life—a new love for holiness, a new hatred of sin, love of the brethren, practical righteousness, obedience, and separation from the world.

c.       We really should be as confident of our relationship to Christ as we are of our relationship to our natural family or our spouse. We don't normally question whose children we are; we are part of a particular family unit. When God says we are now members of His family, we need to rest in that. Likewise, we never have to stop and think about our marital status—either we are married or we are not. In Ephesians 5 Paul compares our relationship to Christ to that between a husband and wife, loving and supporting each other forever.

God’s love gives His children assurance and security in salvation (Romans 8). We need to know this so that we can have confidence, joy, and peace in our Christian lives. The assurance that we are secure in God’s love is fundamental to the abundant life He wants to give us.  If we don’t believe we are secure in God’s love, we are likely to be tormented by doubts and fear, robbing us of our peace and joy in the Christian life. It may also enslave us to a life of legalism, trying to keep our good works in sufficient supply so that we will not lose our salvation. (Anders)