Dear Friends,
As a pastor one of the recurring questions I am asked is, “How can I truly know I’m saved?” The question is usually followed by things the person sees as evidence that they may not be. They tell me of trials they are going through, slip-ups they’ve made, doubts they have, a lack of joy, a loss of spiritual passion, and so on…
Therefore, knowing it is a common question or concern, I offer two “thoughts” that speak to this issue. The first comes from Thomas Watson, in his book “A Body of Divinity” written in 1660 (I have updated the language). The second is taken from Tim Challies blog entry from Oct. 28, 2018 entitled “Eight Ways Satan Tempts You to Question Your Salvation” (I share only the first three, but you can always hop on the web and check out the last 5 if you should so desire)! Enjoy.
When a True Christian Lacks Assurance of Salvation
The Puritan Thomas Watson addresses what the believer needs to remember when he or she lacks assurance of salvation.
“We must distinguish between weakness of faith and non-existent faith. A weak faith is true faith. The bruised reed is weak, yet it is such that Christ will not break it. Though your faith be weak, don’t be discouraged – a weak faith may receive a strong Christ. A weak hand can tie the knot in marriage as well as one that is strong. A weak eye could still have seen the brazen serpent.
The promise is not made to strong faith, but to true faith. The promise does not say, ‘Whosoever has a giant faith that can remove mountains, that can stop the mouth of lions, shall be saved.’ It says whosoever believes, even if his faith be ever so small…
You may have the water of the Spirit poured on you in sanctification, though not the oil of gladness in assurance. There may be faith of adherence, and not of evidence. There may be life in the root of a tree that has no fruit on its branches; and faith in the heart where no fruit of assurance.”
Ways Satan Tempts You to Question Your Salvation
As Christians, we believe there is a devil, we believe that Satan exists… he’s not the opposite of God, he’s not equal in power or authority to God. Nothing like that. He was created by God. He’s a created, finite, limited being, but he is still very powerful. And he is the great enemy of humanity, especially the great enemy of saved humanity, or Christians. So, today I want to talk about some of the ways that Satan tempts Christians to doubt their salvation…
FIRST, he causes you to think more about your sin than about your Savior. I wonder if you’ve heard that quote from Robert Murray McCheyne. He said that for every one look at yourself, take ten looks at the cross. Ten looks at Jesus Christ. Satan wants you to do the exact opposite. Instead of looking to Christ and His great finished work, he wants you to look to yourself and your unfinished sanctification. Instead of looking to the great atoning work of Jesus Christ, he wants you to look and to fixate on your own sin… He wants you to focus on you, on your sin, rather than on your Savior.
The SECOND way Satan causes you to doubt your salvation is to have you wrongly define salvation. He helps you to define salvation as too broad a term. He wants you to define salvation in such a way that it includes complete assurance of salvation. But the Bible doesn’t say that justification, that salvation, includes that full assurance. We can go through periods of doubt, we can go through this kind of temptation, or that kind of trial. So, Satan wants you to define salvation as including assurance of salvation so that when you lack it, you’ll doubt that you’ve even been saved by Jesus Christ.
The THIRD way that Satan causes you to doubt your salvation is to have you make false conclusions from your circumstances. So, you’ve labored over something in prayer, you’ve longed to have something, you’ve claimed promises from scripture, and still, God hasn’t given it to you. What Satan wants you to do in that moment is to say, well if God really loved me, I would have this. The fact that I don’t have what I long for, the fact that I don’t have what I’ve prayed for, this is proof that I’m not a Christian, because surely if I was saved God would grant me something I long for so much, something that is so good to desire. I don’t have it, therefore, God must not love me, therefore I must not be saved…”
We always need to remember that the Scriptural admonition is: “Fix your eyes (both of them!) on Jesus…” We are not told to fix one eye on Jesus, and the other on us (ie: our attempts to be godly, or our spiritual performance). No! We must fix both eyes on Jesus, or else we will always doubt how we could ever be saved! The only person who can keep one eye on Jesus and the other on him or herself, and not struggle with assurance of salvation, is the self-righteous person (Luke 18:9-14). Or as Paul puts it, the person who does not have a “sober” estimation of themselves (Rom. 12:3), because they've been drinking too heavily from that alluring bottle called ‘human pride.’
When both our eyes are focused on Christ, it can bring peace and rest and confidence in Him. But if we have only one eye on Jesus, and the other fixed on the self (or one’s performance), it will inevitably lead to times of doubt, fear, distress, and even despair. Thus, I encourage you to do as Scripture tells us, “Fix (that word carries the thought of “glue”) your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of your faith…”
May that one change of focus bring change to your life!
Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff
As a pastor one of the recurring questions I am asked is, “How can I truly know I’m saved?” The question is usually followed by things the person sees as evidence that they may not be. They tell me of trials they are going through, slip-ups they’ve made, doubts they have, a lack of joy, a loss of spiritual passion, and so on…
Therefore, knowing it is a common question or concern, I offer two “thoughts” that speak to this issue. The first comes from Thomas Watson, in his book “A Body of Divinity” written in 1660 (I have updated the language). The second is taken from Tim Challies blog entry from Oct. 28, 2018 entitled “Eight Ways Satan Tempts You to Question Your Salvation” (I share only the first three, but you can always hop on the web and check out the last 5 if you should so desire)! Enjoy.
The Puritan Thomas Watson addresses what the believer needs to remember when he or she lacks assurance of salvation.
“We must distinguish between weakness of faith and non-existent faith. A weak faith is true faith. The bruised reed is weak, yet it is such that Christ will not break it. Though your faith be weak, don’t be discouraged – a weak faith may receive a strong Christ. A weak hand can tie the knot in marriage as well as one that is strong. A weak eye could still have seen the brazen serpent.
The promise is not made to strong faith, but to true faith. The promise does not say, ‘Whosoever has a giant faith that can remove mountains, that can stop the mouth of lions, shall be saved.’ It says whosoever believes, even if his faith be ever so small…
You may have the water of the Spirit poured on you in sanctification, though not the oil of gladness in assurance. There may be faith of adherence, and not of evidence. There may be life in the root of a tree that has no fruit on its branches; and faith in the heart where no fruit of assurance.”
Ways Satan Tempts You to Question Your Salvation
As Christians, we believe there is a devil, we believe that Satan exists… he’s not the opposite of God, he’s not equal in power or authority to God. Nothing like that. He was created by God. He’s a created, finite, limited being, but he is still very powerful. And he is the great enemy of humanity, especially the great enemy of saved humanity, or Christians. So, today I want to talk about some of the ways that Satan tempts Christians to doubt their salvation…
FIRST, he causes you to think more about your sin than about your Savior. I wonder if you’ve heard that quote from Robert Murray McCheyne. He said that for every one look at yourself, take ten looks at the cross. Ten looks at Jesus Christ. Satan wants you to do the exact opposite. Instead of looking to Christ and His great finished work, he wants you to look to yourself and your unfinished sanctification. Instead of looking to the great atoning work of Jesus Christ, he wants you to look and to fixate on your own sin… He wants you to focus on you, on your sin, rather than on your Savior.
The SECOND way Satan causes you to doubt your salvation is to have you wrongly define salvation. He helps you to define salvation as too broad a term. He wants you to define salvation in such a way that it includes complete assurance of salvation. But the Bible doesn’t say that justification, that salvation, includes that full assurance. We can go through periods of doubt, we can go through this kind of temptation, or that kind of trial. So, Satan wants you to define salvation as including assurance of salvation so that when you lack it, you’ll doubt that you’ve even been saved by Jesus Christ.
The THIRD way that Satan causes you to doubt your salvation is to have you make false conclusions from your circumstances. So, you’ve labored over something in prayer, you’ve longed to have something, you’ve claimed promises from scripture, and still, God hasn’t given it to you. What Satan wants you to do in that moment is to say, well if God really loved me, I would have this. The fact that I don’t have what I long for, the fact that I don’t have what I’ve prayed for, this is proof that I’m not a Christian, because surely if I was saved God would grant me something I long for so much, something that is so good to desire. I don’t have it, therefore, God must not love me, therefore I must not be saved…”
We always need to remember that the Scriptural admonition is: “Fix your eyes (both of them!) on Jesus…” We are not told to fix one eye on Jesus, and the other on us (ie: our attempts to be godly, or our spiritual performance). No! We must fix both eyes on Jesus, or else we will always doubt how we could ever be saved! The only person who can keep one eye on Jesus and the other on him or herself, and not struggle with assurance of salvation, is the self-righteous person (Luke 18:9-14). Or as Paul puts it, the person who does not have a “sober” estimation of themselves (Rom. 12:3), because they've been drinking too heavily from that alluring bottle called ‘human pride.’
When both our eyes are focused on Christ, it can bring peace and rest and confidence in Him. But if we have only one eye on Jesus, and the other fixed on the self (or one’s performance), it will inevitably lead to times of doubt, fear, distress, and even despair. Thus, I encourage you to do as Scripture tells us, “Fix (that word carries the thought of “glue”) your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of your faith…”
May that one change of focus bring change to your life!
Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff
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