Know-So Salvation
6 Oct 2008
A survey of pastors reveals that the number one counseling need among church members is assurance of salvation. Many Christians struggle with doubting their salvation, and almost all Christians have struggled with doubts at one time or another. Why is this problem so epidemic? Could it be that our adversary (the devil) is aware of the fact that there is no better way to keep us spiritually anemic than to keep us second-guessing our salvation?
Doubting your salvation is most detrimental to your spiritual wellbeing. First, it ruins your prayer life by striping you of your confidence in prayer. You’ll find it difficult to believe that God will hear your prayers, much less answer them. Second, it paralyzes your faith. Doubting your relationship with God inevitably leads to doubting God s willingness to do anything for you. Finally, doubting your salvation will also rob you of your initiative by convincing you of your uselessness to God and your inability to do anything in His service.
Needless to say, all Christians need assurance of their salvation. Only by being sure of our salvation can we become all that God wants us to be, live the lives that God wants us to live, and do all of the things that God wants us to do. Gratefully, the Bible teaches us that we can be sure of our salvation. Biblical salvation is definitely a know-so salvation; that is, a salvation that we need never doubt, but can always be sure and certain about.
1. The Word of God
The first way for you to be sure that you’re a Christian is by the Word of God. In 1 John 5:9-13, the Apostle John writes:
“If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; [and] he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 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 on the name of the Son of God.”
According to John, if we believe what men say—“the witness of men”—we should have no problem believing what God says—“the witness of God.” After all, “the witness of God [God’s Word] is greater” than “the witness of men [man’s word].”
Men are often wrong in what they say. In addition, many men are liars. On the other hand, God is never wrong and God never lies. Thus, God’s Word is infallible and never fails; whereas man’s word is fallible and often false. While we can’t be sure of the word of man, we can always be sure of the Word of God.
When it comes to the Bible, the written “record” that God has “testified of His Son,” John says that God promises to give “eternal life” to everyone who “believes on the Son of God.” Consequently, everyone who has “believed on the name of the Son of God” can “know that they have eternal life.” How can they know for sure and certain? They can know because of what John and other divinely inspired authors have “written” in the Word of God.
God guarantees eternal life to everyone who believes in Jesus Christ. Therefore, if you have trusted Christ for your salvation you can know that you have eternal life. God, who cannot lie and who never goes back on His Word, has promised it to you. Here, is assurance of salvation. You can know that you’re a Christian because God says so.
Many Christians today make the tragic mistake of looking to their feelings for their assurance of salvation. They believe that they are saved as long as they feel like a saved person should. The problem with this is that feelings are fickle. Sometimes you will feel like a Christian and sometimes you won’t. Still, regardless of how you feel, your feelings make you no more or no less of a Christian.
Feelings in the Christian life are like the caboose of a train. They may follow and accompany salvation, but they have nothing to do with whether or not we are saved. They are never to be substituted for the engine. If they are, we will never get out of the station spiritually.
2. The Witness of God
The second way for you to be sure that you’re a Christian is by the Witness of God. In Romans 8:16, the Apostle Paul writes:
“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”
When we receive Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, He comes to live within us in the person of the Holy Spirit. The “witness” of the indwelling Holy Spirit—His convicting, counseling, illuminating, empowering, and guiding of us—serves as proof positive of our salvation.
THE CONVICTION OF THE SPIRIT – We will know that Christ is living in us when we have to go against the grain of our hearts to sin and our hearts are broken whenever we do sin.
THE COUNSEL OF THE SPIRIT – We will know that Christ is living in us when the still, small voice of the Spirit counsels us to do certain things and not to do other things.
THE ILLUMINATION OF THE SPIRIT – We will know that Christ is living in us when the words of Scripture start leaping off the pages and coming alive in our hearts.
THE EMPOWERING OF THE SPIRIT – We will know that Christ is living in us when we find ourselves serving Him in a power that is not our own.
THE GUIDANCE OF THE SPIRIT – We will know that Christ is living in us when we come to a fork in the road of life and instinctively know which way to go.
As the Apostle John points out in 1 John 3:24 and 4:13, you can know for sure that Christ lives in you by the Spirit that He has given to you. In other words, you can know that you’re a Christian by the daily witness of the indwelling Holy Spirit in your life.
3. The Work of God
The third way for you to be sure that you’re a Christian is by the work of God. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, the Apostle Paul writes:
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
Salvation always results in a changed life. Granted, the change may not be as drastic for some as for others. For instance, the change in a boy scout’s life may not be as pronounced as that in the life of an imprisoned felon. Still, in both instances there will be change nevertheless.
No one can come to Christ and not be changed and anyone who is unchanged has never come to Christ. Now, the change may be gradual and incremental. It may not even be that noticeable day by day, but over time it will become obvious and apparent.
If you saw a newborn baby everyday for the first year of its life, you would not be able to detect that much difference each day. However, if you saw the baby on the day it was born and did not see it again until one year later, you would see a big difference in a year’s time.
Often in our Christian lives we can’t tell that much difference in ourselves from day to day. However, if we look back to when we were saved, we will see what a big difference Christ has made in our lives. Seeing the difference that Christ is making in your life is another way that you can be assured of your salvation. You can know that you’re a Christian by the work of God in your life.
Don Walton
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