Receiving Assurance of Salvation (Protestant/Evangelical Devotional)

How, then, do we receive assurance? The Scripture declares that the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. This inner testimony of the Holy Spirit is as vital as it is complex. It can be subjected to severe distortions, being confused with subjectivism and self-delusion. The Spirit gives His testimony with the Word and through the Word, never against the Word or without the Word.

Since it is possible to have false assurance of salvation, it is all the more urgent that we seek the Spirit’s testimony in and through the Word. False assurance usually proceeds from a faulty understanding of salvation. If one fails to understand the necessary conditions for salvation, assurance would be at best a lucky guess.

Therefore, we insist that right doctrine is a crucial element in acquiring a sound basis for assurance. It may even be a necessary condition, though by no means a sufficient condition. Without sound doctrine we will have an inadequate understanding of salvation. However, having a sound understanding of salvation is no guarantee we have the salvation we so soundly understand.

Thank God for the testimony of His Spirit and His Word, which provide assurance of your salvation.

Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,

Romans 10:10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

EIGHTEEN QUESTIONS ON ASSURANCE

1. Did Jesus die for me personally?
2. Did the Saviour fail in His effort to save me?
3. Did the Saviour blot out my sins? Or did He not?
4. Are my sins gone or do I still have them?
5. Do I believe God or doubt Him?
6. Is it possible that the blood of Christ is not sufficient to save me?
7. Did I trust Christ and yet God did not give me eternal life?
8. Do I believe the first half of John 3:16, but not the second half?
9. Is the Bible true about everyone else except me?
10. Did the Saviour leave me out of His plan of salvation?
11. Did the Saviour put away the sins of others and neglect to make provision for me?
12. Do I want some other Saviour beside Jesus (such as myself)?
13. Do I want Jesus to do something more to save me?
14. What did Christ fail to do at Calvary to save me?
15. Can I believe what the Bible says without any other evidences?
16. Will I believe the Lord Jesus without any feelings?
17. Do I want to be saved some other way then by the blood?
18. Did these questions help you to come to a decision for Christ?

There is so much conjecture about the Holy Ghost and knowing you are saved. These conjectures, some of them any way are little more than opinion. My father once told me that opinions are like peoples rear ends, everybody has one and most of them stink.

The Holy Ghost testifies of Jesus Christ. Once you receive the testimony it is up to you to decide what to do with it. If you feel Godly sorry for your sins, repent, make restitution where possible and be baptized, then, you have met the qualifications for Eternal Life. You must continue to follow Jesus to continue to qualify, you must endure to the end.

Once you know Jesus Christ you know that He knows you and loves you and that you are His as long as you want to be, BUT, you do have agency, you could reject Him at any time and part company with Him. Unless you commit an unpardonable sin however you can always come back, albeit with all the same conditions as before.

Once you taste of the Love of The Savior you experience true pain when you leave Him. For some people the flesh is weaker than others. Christ understands this, after all He suffered our pains and agony in the Garden but He expects us to give up allowing our flesh to control us and put our spirits in charge of our bodies. When the Holy Spirit is with us, the two spirits together can much more easily follow The Christ. When you are His you know it.

My assurance is the finished work of Christ on my behalf. Period.

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance : that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures...”

Do you believe THAT, for yourself? The rest is subjective nonsense, depending on the various levels of self-deception ALL humans are prone to. I’ve met more self-satisfied people in my life than broken and contrite ones. How about ya’ll? (Yeah, I used a mirror too.)

“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, YOU WERE MARKED IN HIM WITH A SEAL, the PROMISED HOLY SPIRIT, who is a deposit GUARANTEEING OUR INHERITANCE until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1

Go ahead and call the Father a liar re: the above. If you dare!

There is a difference between assurance of salvation and security in salvation. Security is the actual state of believers who Peter says are “kept by the power of God.”

1 Peter 1:5
Who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time...

Assurance is our awareness of this security. There is an emotional component to it. It is that we feel secure. Those who have truly trusted in Christ with their whole heart are just as secure as those already in Heaven. However, even though those who have received the gift of eternal life can never lose their security, they can lose their assurance.

Assurance is partially based on knowing what God’s word says about the believer. But it is also based on the confirming testimony of a transformed life. When we sin we no longer feel this assurance, and we must get right with God in order to experience it.

1 John 5:13
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

1 John 3:19-23
And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall ASSURE [emphasis added] our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.

There is a real danger of false assurance as well. Those who merely go through the motions of conversion, those who do not believe with their whole heart, those who never truly surrender to Christ’s Lordship but merely pay lip service to it, those who engage only in the outward trappings of the Christian religion may certainly feel assurance but will be shocked when they give account to God and are cast out from His presence forever.

Matthew 7:21-23
Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”

Notice here that Christ does not say He once knew these people but later forgot them. No, He NEVER knew them. Among them are preachers, miracle workers, and others who, by all outward appearances, were Christians.

We can see by comparing the multitude of passages relevant to this subject that a true believer is one who goes on believing, continues in Christ’s words, and keeps God’s commandments. Trusting in Christ is the first commandment we must obey. Fortunately, the security of our salvation does NOT rest in our own abilities but in Christ’s righteousness. From a human perspective there are those who appear Christian in every way but are not secure in Christ. But there are those who stumble and get back up again who are completely secure in the salvation. And when they are walking with the Lord, keeping His commandments, they experience an empowering assurance of this security.

This assurance is called “hope” in the Bible. Hope in the English language does not convey the full meaning of this word. In the original it implies not doubt but assurance. We have a blessed hope or assurance that Christ will complete the good work He began in us in the day He returns to receive us to Himself.

Philippians 1:6
Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

2 Timothy 1:12b
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.

1 John 3:3
And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Hebrews 6:19
This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.