What is assurance of salvation

Many who lack assurance are sincere, but they have actually never been born again. We did not get the assurance of our salvation last week; we got saved. They were thrilled as they related their experience in going home the week before and getting down on their knees and actually receiving Christ as Savior; this experience gave them assurance. Some depend upon an emotional experience, and they do not have the knowledge of their salvation. The gospel has not been given to them accurately, and they merely rest upon an emotional upheaval.

If the experience was significant, then they fall back upon it to fortify their faith. When the emotional experience wears thin and there is not much to rest upon, then doubts and uncertainty creep in to make the heart disturbed.

Many of these people do not know the assurance that there is in the gospel:. That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.

Colossians Again, permit me to resort to a personal experience to clarify this point. One Easter Sunday, two couples came forward at the invitation. One couple was overcome with emotion; the other couple was stoical.

The elders who dealt with them could not get a clear statement from the emotional couple because they were weeping so. The contrast was so great that some even doubted the genuineness of the couple who shed no tears. However, time proved that emotion was no indication of a real experience of conversion, for the emotional couple were pulled out of one ism shortly after that incident and then became involved in a second ism.

The couple who seemed to have no emotional experience at all grew in grace and the knowledge of Christ. It became a joy to see them take their regular places in the services of the church. Unconfessed sin in the life of a believer is the greatest single factor in robbing one of the assurance of salvation. God wants us to have the full assurance of faith; this comes experientially through fellowship with God.

Sin breaks our fellowship, and this, in time, sets up a chain reaction that breaks our assurance. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. We can bluff our way through before others by putting up a front that all is well.

We dread the light because it makes us more conscious of our doubts. God is still our Father nonetheless, and a conviction of sin is pretty good evidence.

We have lost our fellowship — not our salvation. The Christian should come to the light, which is the Word of God. It reveals our sin, but it also shows us the remedy. The blood of Christ is still potent, and it is the basis of forgiveness for the sins of a child of God. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.

The believer who walks in the light and discovers sin in his life knows that the blood of Christ keeps on cleansing him from sin; consequently, he goes in confession to Him:. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Immediately, fellowship is restored for the sinning saint. The family fellowship is resumed and confidence and assurance are restored. You see, the child of God is always disturbed by sin in his life, as he knows it breaks fellowship with God.

In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth [practices] not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. Deliberate and continual sinning, without remorse or without repentance, is a clear indication that one has not come into the place of sonship. The child of God is distressed, disturbed, and distraught by the presence of sin.

He hates the sin in his life and longs to be delivered from it. The presence of sin robs him of his assurance. The legitimate child of God can never compromise with the sin in his life. And by this we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He wants to know the will of God, and therefore he wants to know the Word of God.

So he goes where he can hear the Word of God:. Oh, how love I thy law! It is my mediation all the day…. I hate vain thoughts, but thy law do I love…. I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.

Psalm , , He finds that he not only has an appetite for the Word of God, but he also begins to understand it, and thereby growth takes place:. But he that is spiritual judgeth [understands] all things, yet he himself is judged [understood] of no man. There are other tests that indicate to a trembling but trusting heart that he or she is a child of God. God urges us to make the tests so that we may have assurance:. Examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith; prove yourselves.

Know ye not yourselves how Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are discredited? A reality in prayer is evidence that we are children of God. There is a very remarkable statement in this connection made in the third chapter of 1 John:. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. As the child of God approaches the Father, a holy boldness confirms the heart.

This is not presumption — it is the assurance that a child has in approaching a father. However, sin or some other impediment may make us hesitant and reluctant to approach the Father.

God does not hear us because of our reluctance but because of Christ, and He hears us regardless of our condition:. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Nevertheless, when our hearts are rightly related to Him, then there is a confidence given to us:. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.

And whatever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. Answered prayer is an argument that one is a legitimate child of God. The prayer life of the believer is vital in assuring the soul of salvation. A love for the brethren and a passion for the souls of men are evidence that we are children of God. One of the most convicting and confirming facts sealing assurance to the heart is love of the brethren.

Scripture is positive at this point:. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Animosity and hatred in the heart will rob the child of God of assurance.

Malice toward another Christian produces bitterness of soul and is therefore not a fertile soil to cultivate assurance. Malice is condensed anger. Lack of love for another believer robs more Christians of real enjoyment and satisfaction in the Christian life than perhaps any other single factor. It not only blights the soul of the Christian, but it also destroys any public testimony:.

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. These things I command you, that ye love one another. Do not let a little root of bitterness rob you of assurance. Make things right with other believers. Not only will the believer love those within the Christian fellowship, but there will also be a desire for those outside the fold to come to a saving knowledge of Christ.

It is impossible for Christ, the One who died for sinners, to be in the heart and there not be a longing for the salvation of sinners. A consciousness that we are children of God comes to the soul and says that we are the sons of God. This is the gracious work of the Spirit of God and not the product of psychological presumption.

By this know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. This does not mean that we are conscious of the presence of the Holy Spirit, but it does mean that we are conscious of the work of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself, but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and he will show you things to come.

Part of the work of the Holy Spirit is to make us conscious that we are the children of God. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. Romans There is a counterfeit humility going the rounds today, and it sounds very pious, but it does not have the ring of the genuine. Some say that we are to grovel in the dust and act like worms — this is the modern way of putting on sackcloth and ashes.

It is true that we are sinners; there is no good within us, no good comes out of us, and we have nothing in which to glory save the cross of Christ. No, He encourages us when we are in times of weakness and trembling, and in spite of all our failure says that we are the children of God.

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The word Abba is an untranslated Aramaic word. The translators of the first English Bibles, who had great reverence for the Word of God, who believed it was indeed the Word of God, would not translate it.

But the Spirit affirms it and causes us to realize that God is our very own Father through regeneration and by adoption. While I was praying one morning shortly before Christmas, my little seven-year-old daughter tiptoed into the room and placed a letter before me.

Since I was getting nowhere in my prayer, I paused to read the contents of the letter that she had scribbled in her childish hand Before Christmas, a father always comes into his proper position in the home and is treated with due respect. Nevertheless, the letter caused me to drop to my knees and be conscious anew and afresh that God was my Father.

You have been gracious to me, and I know You always will. This was the gracious work of the Spirit of God. There is an experience of salvation for the child of God that he does not have to seek. It will come, for it is impossible for the Holy Spirit to regenerate a sinner and for Christ to dwell in the heart and there not be a corresponding experience. One day he had the sad office of conducting the funeral of a young wife and mother from his congregation.

After the service, friends gathered around the young husband and the little girl who were left. The friends urged the father to go with them to their homes for a few days. He refused with the statement that he would have to face the reality of life without his wife and, therefore, he would begin at once.

He took the little girl back to the lonely house where everything in it reminded him of his wife. The little girl, sensing that something was wrong but not old enough to appreciate the situation, kept calling for her mother. The child did not make it any easier by constantly reminding the father that he was not feeding her or putting her to bed as her mother was accustomed to do. Take me in bed with you.

Then she reached over in the darkness and felt the face of her father. The anxious father thought over this incident and the simple faith of the child in him. The Holy Spirit, in a time of darkness and emergency, confirms to the sad spirit of the child of God that he is a son of God and that the heavenly Father does not have His face averted from His own. Perhaps these words have not been convincing to many anxious souls because they cannot establish, with any degree of certainty, a moment in time when they had a transforming experience with God.

If you have had such an experience, it certainly must be gratifying. But many others have not been that fortunate; yet they, too, are born-again believers. If I may be permitted a final personal reference, this is my experience. Just as salvation comes from believing in Christ alone, so does assurance.

Third, assurance comes through the inward witness of the Holy Spirit. In actuality, no preacher, evangelist, parent or friend can give us assurance. Neither can we work it up within ourselves. Only the Holy Spirit Himself can give us the absolute certainty of our eternal salvation.

Fourth, assurance comes through the evidence of a changed life. Ultimately, assurance is confirmed within us as we see God conforming us into the image of Jesus Christ.

All who have been born again will see clear evidences of a new life in Christ. While we will never become perfect in this life, we will, nevertheless, experience a changed life. It is this inward transformation that provides strong confirmation of our salvation. The book of First John details what are the vital signs of our new life in Christ. Likewise, John writes, other vital signs will follow: Love for other people, 9 love for God, 10 refusing the world, 11 understanding biblical truth, 12 righteous behavior, 13 opposition from the world 14 and answered prayer.

Here are the four sturdy pillars on which the assurance of our salvation rests. As I told the woman on the plane, we can be wrong about earthly directions but not about our eternal destiny.

If anyone were to say that they had known a person for thirty years and yet doubted him, it would not be very creditable: and when we have known God for ten, twenty, or thirty years does it not reflect on His veracity to doubt Him?

Could Paul and the early Christians and martyrs have gone through what they did if they had been filled with doubts, and had not known whether they were going to heaven or to perdition after they had been burned at the stake? Why, these creatures would soon perish if they were always doubting and fearing as to whether they had a right to use providential provisions. Now let us come to the Word.

John tells us in his Gospel what Christ did for us on earth. In his Epistle he tells us what He is doing for us in heaven as our Advocate. I went twelve hundred miles down the Mississippi in the spring some years ago; and every evening, just as the sun went down, you might have seen men, and sometimes women, riding up to the banks of the river on either side on mules or horses, and sometimes coming on foot, for the purpose of lighting up the Government lights; and all down that mighty river there were landmarks which guided the pilots in their dangerous navigation.

Now God has given us lights or landmarks to tell us whether we are His children or not. What we need to do is to examine the tokens He has given us. Has He failed in His mission? Is He not able to do what He came for? Did ever any heaven-sent man fail yet? And if the truth make us free, we shall be free indeed. And hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us. If I am meek, gentle, and forgiving; if I have a spirit filled with peace and joy; if I am long-suffering and gentle, like the Son of God- that is a test- and in that way we are to tell whether we have eternal life or not.

Not one. There never has been, and never will be, a soul on this earth who has not sinned, or who will not sin, at some time of their Christian experience. We are not to make provision for them; but God has.

Bear that in mind. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is here writing to the righteous. He attends to our interests at the very best place- the throne of God. He went away to become our High Priest, and also our Advocate. He has had some hard cases to plead; but He has never lost one: and if you entrust your immortal interests to Him, He will.

The past sins of Christians are all forgiven as soon as they are confessed; and they are never to be mentioned. That is a question which is not to be opened up again.

If our sins have been put away, that is the end of them. They are not to be remembered; and God will not mention them anymore. This is very plain. Suppose I have a son who, while I am away from home, does wrong. I am sorry. He wipes away his tears, and goes off rejoicing. Would it not grieve me to have my boy doubt me? And if, the next day, he were again to bring up that old sin, and ask forgiveness, would not that grieve me to the heart? And so, my dear reader, if God has forgiven us, never let us mention the past.

Let us forget those things which are behind, and reach forth unto those which are before, and press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let the sins of the past go; for. And let me say that this principle is recognized in courts of justice. And, when it was known that he had forgiven her, the judge said that the thing was settled.

The judge recognized the soundness of the principle, that if a sin were once forgiven there was an end of it. And do you think the Judge of all the earth will forgive you and me, and open the question again?

Our sins are gone for time and eternity, if God forgives; and what we have to do is to confess and forsake our sins. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

Now examine yourselves. Try your religion. Put it to the test. Can you forgive an enemy? That is a good way to know if you are a child of God. Can you forgive an injury, or take an affront, as Christ did? Can you be censured for doing well, and not murmur? Can you be misjudged and misrepresented, and yet keep a Christ-like spirit?

Another good test is to read Galatians 5, and notice the fruits of the Spirit; and see if you have them. If I have the fruits of the Spirit I must have the Spirit. I could not have the fruits without the Spirit any more than there could be an orange without the tree.

And Christ says:. Make the tree good, and the fruit will be good. The only way to get the fruit is to have the Spirit.