- If you're struggling with assurance of your salvation,
a couple of things I want you to know first
before I talk about some practical steps.
One is to realize that occasional doubts are normal.
I think it's almost universal
and the older a person is in Christ
the harder it is for them to admit that.
I mean if you're a leader in your church
and you're in your fifties
how do you easily say, "You know sometimes I wonder
"if I'm even a Christian," it's hard to say that.
And yet it's normal I think to have those occasional doubts
and it's a good reflection because it speaks of a heart
that says, "I want God, I want heaven, I want salvation
"more than I want anything."
And things in our lives that may hint at the possibility
we're not going to heaven, we don't know God terrify us.
That's good to be terrified of those things.
So when Satan or when your own mind says,
"How could you do that and be a Christian?
"If you were really a Christian could you have said that,
"could you have had that thought?"
Well that's a good thing to have that concern.
Because unbelievers generally don't have those concerns.
Unbelievers don't wring their hands
wondering if they're going to heaven or not by and large.
I think Satan has made his business
to try to convince Christians they're not going to heaven
and non-Christians that they are.
Non-Christians are pretty assured
that they're going to heaven and believers
often struggle with whether they are,
but I think that can be a healthy thing sometimes.
Now persistent, unresolvable doubts
that's another thing altogether.
When no biblical remedy over long periods of time
seems to help someone then that is a real concern.
But let's also be clear about this,
that doubting salvation is not necessarily unbelief.
There is a kind of doubt that leans toward faith
and there's a kind of doubt that leans away from it.
That's a skepticism.
Almost anything, any doubt only increases your skepticism
and makes you more and more unlikely to believe
that this is really true.
But there are doubts that causes a person to say,
"I believe there are answers.
"I want there to be answers.
"I'm going to look for answers.
"Someone help me find these answers."
That kind of doubt may just arise
from not knowing the Bible well,
some person asks a question you've never
thought about before and "Wow, I've never considered that
"and if that's true then maybe Christianity
"isn't even true," and so forth, "but I believe it is
"I just don't know how to answer that question."
That's leaning toward faith.
So that's not unbelief in the classic sense.
Unbelief rejects the gospel.
So just because a person may have occasional doubts
that doesn't mean that they're not a Christian.
So what do you do if you're struggling
with assurance of salvation,
you're doubting your own relationship with God
whether you actually have a relationship with God,
whether he has saved you?
First thing I would encourage you to do
is make sure you're clear on the gospel of Jesus Christ.
If someone were to say to you, "How can I be saved?
"How can I know Christ?
"How can I be sure of going to heaven?"
what is the message you would tell them?
What is the message a person must believe to know God?
Well if you're unclear on that message
well that's going to foster doubt.
So make sure you're clear on what the gospel
of Jesus Christ is and I could elaborate here,
but I want to point you to the Bible
and to people who can give you biblical counsel on this
and help you be clear on the gospel.
It's not a complicated message.
In a word the gospel is Jesus.
In a phrase the gospel is the person and work of Jesus
or who Jesus is and what he has done.
We could elaborate on that to give hour long answers,
but to give a not so lengthy one
I mean we talk about from the creation,
God is the creator, he made all things.
He made me, he has the rights therefore
to tell me how to live.
He has done so in his law in the Bible
and yet we have broken his law, we have violated his law
and therefore we are accountable to him
and under his judgment, and there is a judgment
with a heaven and a hell at stake here.
But God in his mercy sent Jesus to live the life
we should have lived but could not live.
He lived the perfect life for us.
He kept God's law for us
and that qualified him to be a substitute on our behalf
and he willingly offered himself as such on the cross.
And we know God accepted Jesus as our substitute
because God raised Jesus from the dead bodily.
Now our response to that should be to repent,
to turn from our sin and living for ourselves
and believe in Jesus and what he has done
to make us right with God.
That's a longer view of the gospel
and then there are book length explanations of the gospel.
But a person, if they have come to Christ,
you can't come to Christ without believing the gospel.
So what is the gospel?
What is the message you've believed?
So I would say if you're doubting your salvation
first of all make sure you're clear on the message
of salvation, you're clear on the gospel.
The second thing I would encourage that person to do
is to meditate much on the book of First John.
This is a book written explicitly for that purpose.
It says in 1 John 5:13, these things,
meaning this letter, these things I have written to you
who believe in the name of the Son of God
in order that you may know that you have eternal life.
So unpack that a little bit.
These things, this letter 1 John,
he says, "I've written to you who believe."
John thought his readers had believed.
They thought they believed,
but why did he write it so that you
may know that you have eternal life.
Apparently they didn't know.
They thought they believed, John thought they believed,
but they didn't know.
So he wrote this whole letter to give people
who are believers assurance of salvation.
You know if you have one entire book of the Bible
written for one subject it's a common problem
and that's why I say that doubting salvation
occasionally doubting your salvation is normal.
And I think it can be healthy
if it drives you back to Christ.
So it is a common problem and God has written
a whole book of the Bible to deal with this problem
and that is the letter of 1 John.
So spend much time in the letter God wrote
to help us with this very subject.
Another very important help in resolving doubts
is to practice the spiritual disciplines found in the Bible
because these are the means through which
God so often grants assurance.
These are what we call "means of grace".
These are means that God has given us
through which he has promised to work.
Some of these we do alone like reading the Bible
and meditating on Scripture alone
just like I said about meditating on 1 John,
praying by yourself.
Some of these we do with other Christians,
particularly with the church.
So we hear the Bible at the church,
we pray with others at church,
we participate in the Lord's Supper at church.
So these are things that God has given us,
they're found in Scripture,
they're practices through which God works
and so often ministers his grace to us.
If we reject these things there's no surprise
that a person struggles with assurance.
This is how God sustains us in the Christian life
day to day and from week to week through his people.
Remember other Christians are also indwelled
by the Holy Spirit and so much of the Lord's ministry
to us is through them and if we cut ourselves off from them
then there's no surprise that a person
would struggle with assurance.
And if a person is neglecting
getting into the Bible on their own,
talking to God on their own,
perhaps reading Christian books and things
that will teach them and help them on their own
and that they're just simply
trying to find assurance through YouTube
or something else that they're doing in private
apart from the means of grace God has given us,
well it's no surprise that a person
would struggle with assurance.
So we want to take doubt seriously.
If a person is struggling with these things
I'm glad they're watching this YouTube video,
I'm glad they're looking for answers.
And we shouldn't blow off anything
that deals with eternity and our relationship with God.
We want to take these doubts seriously.
But I want to encourage that person
that assurance can be found, but it has to be sought.
Very few people enjoy the blessings of assurance
without seeking it.
I've written a book on this subject
called "How Can I Be Sure I'm a Christian"
and in the last chapter in particular
I give a number of these things
that are very specific applications to pursue
what do you do, what do you do if you're struggling
with assurance of salvation?
So I would offer that as a suggestion.
But I want to give hope to the person to say
God wants to give us assurance of salvation.
In fact in 2 Peter 1:10
He tells us, "Make your calling and election sure,"
and He would not mock us in telling us that command
if He didn't intend to bless those who make that pursuit.
So make your calling and election sure,
pursue assurance, use the biblical means
and there is hope therefore
that you can find that assurance.
- [Narrator] Thanks for watching Honest Answers.
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