Assurance of Salvation

As Paul makes clear to the Philippian believers, the assurance of salvation is important for the greater progress of the Gospel.  Yet many believers struggle with the issue of assurance because they are depending on a feeling rather than looking to the Word of God. 

An elderly man said to H. A. Ironside, “I will not go on unless I know I’m saved, or else know it’s hopeless to seek to be sure of it.  I want a definite witness, something I can’t be mistaken about!”  Ironside replied, “Suppose you had a vision of an angel who told you your sins were forgiven.  Would that be enough to rest on?”  “Yes, I think it would.  An angel should be right.”  Ironside continued, “But suppose on your deathbed Satan came and said, ‘I was that angel, transformed to deceive you.’  What would you say?”  The man was speechless.  Ironside then told him that God has given us something more dependable than the voice of an angel.  He has given His Son, who died for our sins, and He has testified in His own Word that if we trust Him all our sins are gone.  Ironside read I John 5:13, “You may know that you have eternal life.”  Then he said, “Is that not enough to rest on?  It is a letter from heaven expressly to you.”  God’s Spirit used that to bring assurance to the man’s heart.

Let us find assurance in God’s Word so that we might further the Gospel of our Lord! 

By His Grace,

Pastor Tim