- 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. Don't forget to subscribe. (music)
