Assurance of Salvation

Introduction

1 John 5:13

The Bible teaches that you can know now that you are saved.

i. Satan confuses, but God clarifies.

"These things have I written unto you who believe that you may know that you have eternal life."

ii. Satan blinds, but the gospel brightens.

"The god of this world has blinded the minds of them who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:4).

iii. Satan Contradicts, but Jesus Confirms.

"Verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on Him who sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:14). "He that believeth on the Son has everlasting life; he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36). "He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because he has not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:18).
Christians can know they are saved by the authority of the Word of God: "These things have I written to you who believe...."

The vital question is: How Can we know whether or not we have believed on Jesus? Not by feeling. A certain feeling does not mean salvation. Martin Luther once wrote:

"Feelings come and feelings go,

And feelings are deceiving:

My warrant is the Word of God,

Nothing else is worth believing."

Not by experience. Experience is the result of faith, not a substitute for faith. By these four facts we know whether or not we have believed:

I. Revelation

Jesus said, "No man knoweth who the Son is but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him" (Luke 10:22).

Paul wrote - "...our gospel is hid to them who are lost" (2 Cor. 4:3).

The mystery of the gospel is beyond human comprehension. No man can naturally fathom it. It is
revealed by the Holy Spirit. Paul said, "It pleased God....to reveal His Son in me" (Gal. 1:16).

The man or born blind asked Jesus, "Who is he Lord that I might believe." Jesus said, "No man can come unto me except my Father...draw him."

Paul said, "No man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Spirit."

These verses emphasize a two-fold Divine operation:

A. The Holy Spirit Reveals Sin And The Sinner

The Holy Spirit reveals sin and the sinner for what they are. The Result Is Conviction.

B. The Holy Spirit Reveals The Savior For Who He Is

Then you must receive or reject Him.

II. Reception

"He came unto His own, and his own received him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave

He the power to become the sons of God" (John 1:11-12).

A. Have You Received What Has Been Revealed: The Person Of Jesus?

B. Have You Received What Has Been Provided: His Sacrifice For Your Sin?

"For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might brings us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit" (1 Peter 3:18).

1. God Is Just - His Justice Demanded That Sin Be Dealt With

2. God Is Merciful - He Satisfied The Demands Of His

Justice In Giving His Son To Die For Our Sin

III. Realization

"The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Romans 8:16). The witness of the Spirit is to the intellect as well as to the emotion. When we, having believed on Jesus, believe God when He tells us in the Word that we are saved the Holy Spirit gives us a settled consciousness that the Word is true concerning us. This consciousness is deeper than feeling. The Holy Spirit enables us to rest on the fact of the Word. John said, "...the witness of God is greater" (Note 1 John 5:8-9).

IV. Regeneration

Evidence of salvation lies in the newness of life: 1 Cor. 5:17 "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation" (1 Cor. 5:17).

A. A New Heart:

"A new heart will I give you, a new spirit will I put within you" (Ezekiel 36:26). While the promise of this verse is to Israel, it is true that we received a new indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said, "He dwells with you, and shall be in you" (John 14:17). "At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you" (John 14:20).

Paul said, "Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you" (1 Cor. 6:19).

B. A New Life

"In Christ"
"He who is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (2 Cor. 6:17).

If you recognize the presence of God in your life, convicting you of sin and changing you; if the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit is at work in your life, you may be assured that you have salvation. If you have love for fellow Christians, for God and His Word, this is evidence of the Life of Christ in you.