WORDS OF VICTORY
Assurance of Salvation
June 20, 2014

From the Pastor's Keyboard:
There are a number of believers who struggle with assurance of salvation. Oftentimes they keep this to themselves, not wanting anyone to know they are having doubts. Now, they don't doubt the Bible. They don't doubt God's trustworthiness. They know God is merciful and longsuffering. And they know God wants to save sinners. The fault, though, lies in their experience. Were they truly convicted of sin? Did they pray the right prayer? What was their motive for “coming to Christ,” if indeed they came at all? All these and other questions can arise in the heart of a person who wonders whether their salvation experience was genuine. So why do believers struggle with the assurance of salvation? There are several reasons.

First of all, believers struggle with assurance because their salvation experience does not line up with someone else's experience. Many preachers are guilty of “preaching” their own salvation experience as the pattern that others' experiences must fit into. They were convicted a certain way or endured conviction for a certain span of time. The struggles of conviction weighed heavy upon their souls but were removed once they found the Saviour. When struggling believers hear the preacher declare his experience as THE pattern, they immediately begin to question the genuineness of their own experience. They may even try to “repeat” the experience to be sure they were saved the “right way.” When they do not get peace, they sink back in despondency, wondering if they will ever be able to enjoy assurance.

A second reason some believers struggle with assurance is their prayer. Many converts struggle with assurance because they did not pray a specific, formulated prayer. I remember hearing a man who had professed Christ and had a solid testimony of salvation, begin to question his salvation when another believer (who was young and inexperienced in the faith) asked him “When did you pray the prayer?” It was as if a person could not be saved without praying a specific “sinner's prayer” verbatim from the back of a gospel tract or soul-winning booklet. One cannot have assurance who thinks that peace can only come through praying a formulated prayer. So, they will continue to pray what they think is the “right prayer,” but peace doesn't come, and true assurance of salvation eludes them.

A third reason people struggle with assurance is their motive for being saved. After all, why did they come to Christ? Preachers have been guilty of discouraging young converts by well meaning but misguided statements. They preach that a man must have the glory of God in mind, and to be truly saved their motive must have been that God be glorified. Any other motive – including not wanting to go to hell, to have one's sins forgiven, or to be reconciled with God – is selfish and does not constitute a true conversion experience. Needless to say, one cannot have assurance if, as a preacher told them, they came for the “wrong” reason. Others preach that a man must be willing for God to damn them to hell to show true repentance and to have a real conversion experience. Is it any wonder that many believers fight a constant battle with assurance?

Doubtless there are other reasons I could have listed as to why true believers struggle with assurance, but these seem to be the most common. So what is the answer? Can those struggling with assurance be helped? Thank the Lord the answer is “Yes!” and the answer is to be found in the pages of God's word. The primary reason that believers struggle with assurance is that they have their eyes on men and not on Christ. Those lacking assurance do not compare what they hear preachers say by the word of God. To gain the blessing of true assurance, believers must cease focusing on men and focus on Christ. This was true in the Old Testament where God said,

Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:22)

The same idea is found in the New Testament when Paul tells the Hebrew Christians,

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

The answer is very clear. We are to keep our eyes on Jesus. Looking to him brings peace, joy, and yes, assurance. When the believer rests in Christ's finished work, he is resting in the only work which satisfies God for the salvation of sinners. Each of the problems listed above (and many others I could have listed) has one thing in common: they have the wrong focus. In other words, the focus is on the sinner and not on the Christ who saves the sinner. Let's look at this in more detail.

First of all, no two salvation experiences may be exactly alike. God is not a cookie-cutter God. By that, I mean that He doesn't necessarily deal with one person the way He does with another. For instance, we could list many conversions in the Bible – that of Levi (Matthew), the woman at the well, Zacchaeus, Paul, Lydia, the Philippian jailer, and many others – and we could see there is only one Damascus Road conversion experience. Each one was different. Yet each one was genuine. And in each, it was God who did the saving work. This is proof enough that our conversion experience doesn't have to match someone else's experience. It is also proof that God ought to be the focus and not a particular means He employs in dealing with sinners.

Also, the exact wording of the prayer that one prays isn't imperative. Of course, there will be humility and repentance, but two persons may not employ particular words when calling upon Christ for salvation. The prayers of Paul, the Philippian jailer, and the humble publican our Lord mentions in Luke 18:13 were all different. And that is perfectly normal because each man was different. Paul explains how a man is saved, and it's not by a particular prayer. It's a matter of the heart:

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Romans 10:10

Salvation is a heart matter, not a prayer matter. It's the attitude of the heart before God that matters. There will be repentance toward God and there will be faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. But a man will be saved by believing in his heart, not by the particular words he may or may not say.

And what about a person's motive? Nowhere does the New Testament tell the person that he must have the glory of God as his motive for being saved. Peter, Paul, and the other apostles preached that men are to repent and come to Christ, but they did not give the glory of God as the primary motive. In fact, Peter told one crowd to “save yourselves” by coming to Christ (Acts 2:40), hardly something that sounds like having the glory of God for the primary motive. Paul says that Noah “moved with fear” when God told him of the flood and “built an ark to the saving of his house” (Hebrews 11:7). It's pretty clear that fear was the motive: he built the ark to save his family from the flood. But may I say that both groups, whether those listening to Peter or Noah listening directly to God, did in fact bring glory to God by believing what he said. Though the glory of God was not their primary motive for believing, yet God was indeed glorified when they believed him.

If you are a believer who is struggling with assurance, I encourage you to stop looking to men and start looking to Christ. Men can disappoint and even lead astray. Christ never disappoints. He is true, his word is true, and all the promises of God in him are “yea and amen” (2_Corinthians 1:20). Look away from your sins, your self, your circumstances, and your experiences, and look to Jesus. Look to Him – Look to Jesus Christ and Live! In the chorus of the old song:

“Look and live,” my brother, live,
Look to Jesus now, and live;
’Tis recorded in His word, hallelujah!
It is only that you “look and live.”

Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:22)