Assurance of Salvation

Introduction:

We might find ourselves doubting our salvation based on our ability or inability to overcome sin. In a book by Sinclair B. Ferguson titled The Whole Christ we find “…others have suggested that on the one hand it is possible to be a self-deceived hypocrite and on the other hand all too possible to be a genuine Christian who finds it difficult, and is often too hesitant, to draw the glorious conclusion that he is truly the Lord’s.”

It was around 1996 when I fell into my own lack of assurance, wondering if I was a self-deceived hypocrite, suffering depression for about five years. I was taught that a true Christian would be able to overcome his sin and if he couldn’t then there was real question as to him ever truly accepting Christ. Statements from the pulpit like “a true christian would never do...” plagued me constantly. I tried even harder to be obedient and continued to fail. My depression went deeper and deeper until it became so impossible that I sought professional help.

In the Sinclair Ferguson book I mentioned earlier a very important observation is made. “...believing giving rise to obedience, not obedience giving rise to assurance irrespective of believing. Such faith cannot be forced into us by our efforts to be obedient; it arises only from larger and clearer views of Christ. Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016), 204.

A clearer understanding of God’s grace and how He provides everything we need for salvation is the remedy. We need to lean on Him and his power in our lives to become more obedient, not to force obedience in our lives in order to be assured.

Does God provide everything we need for salvation?

English Standard Version (Chapter 2)

2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Our state before regeneration is pitiful. We were dead spiritually. We had eyes but couldn’t see, we had ears but couldn’t hear. Satan had us covered in a sphere of influence we could not escape. Our minds were continually focused on ourselves and how we could satisfy our evil desires. And the world around us enticed us to follow satan wherever he would lead us. We were slaves and could not resist.

But God provided the means of our salvation.

Let’s look at verse 4. The grim, hopeless condition of humanity, in the first three verses, is shattered by a lightning bolt from heaven.

BUT GOD! Not judgement but mercy with love beyond human understanding. Those two words by themselves should tell you that God and God alone has done the work we could not do. In a sense they contain the whole of the Gospel.

Chapter 1 tells us that God chose us and predestined us for adoption in love. It’s out of this love that he shows us mercy when we deserve death. There’s nothing here of us, we cannot love him unless he loves us first 1 John 4:19.

In verse 5 Paul repeats verse 1 with a little change. Instead of “you were dead in” he says “we were dead in our trespasses.” By repetition the point is made clear, we were spiritually dead, unresponsive to anything of God. We were a decaying, stinking corpse But God made us alive.