The Believer's Assurance

One of the hallmarks of Reformed faith is its insistence that the believer can know with complete assurance that he or she is right with God in this life. Such assurance is sorely lacking in the Roman Catholic and many other churches that teach being righteous is a kind of partnership between us and God. They teach that sin mars that partnership so you really can't be sure of your destiny because you don't know the future state of your soul at the moment you die. That's why priests rush to the bedside of the dying to deliver that last pardoning Eucharist to be sure that all recent sins are covered. There is nothing in Scripture that teaches such a cruel superstition.

It was against such insecurity and ecclesiastical abuse that Martin Luther and the other Reformers recovered the teaching of the early church and the Apostle Paul that we can have confidence before God, the complete assurance of our saving faith.

There are three convictions by which believers are assured.

1. The Objective Cognitive Conviction of Scripture

The Bible is the word of God. What it says is true. It's testimony is objective. The witness of the Scriptures is that our salvation is entirely God's doing and, as such, we can be confident in His eternal faithfulness.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30)

God has never called someone that he also hasn't justified. To be called and justified is to know that God means to finish his work of sanctifying salvation in our lives. God does not abandon the redemptive work he starts within us.

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19-22)

Jesus opens a way for us to live in his presence. He assures us that because we are able to believe we can know that our hearts and consciences though darkened from time to time by doubt cannot condemn us.

We can stake our lives on the promises of God's Word. The Bible is our great comfort and the next two convictions spring from it as evidence that we are saved.

2. The Subjective Conviction of the Internal Witness

We can also have assurance that we are right before God by the fact that "God's Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God" (Romans 8:14-17). The Holy Spirit assures us that Jesus includes us.

We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. (I John 3:24).

Now, this internal witness is not merely some inner voice telling us whatever we want to hear. The Bible says we are test these spirits, these messages, these convictions to see which are of God (I John 4:1). What about that inner voice that criticizes you, tells you that you can't be certain, dredges up old forgiven sins? This is not the witness of the Holy Spirit. You can apply this simple test to the voices in your head: ask the voice to confess Christ. Call it by name, "Spirit of criticism, spirit of doubt, spirit of depression -- confess Christ." Any spirit not of God will flee. Your conscience is not the Holy Spirit. your conscience can fool you. Your conscience is usually the voice of your Mom or Dad or some other authority figure. If your conscience can confess Christ, you can trust it. Otherwise, ignore it.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

3. The Behavioral Conviction

God's Word also tells us that in addition to the subjective internal witness of our spirit, we can also be assured of our salvation by our behavior.

By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments (I John 2:3. 3:24).

These texts in I John used to bother me because they sounded like earning points with God by keeping commandments (covenant ofworks). But in the Greek, the word for commandments is not nomos (law, ten commandments) but a word that means teachings or precepts. So the third way we can know we are saved is because we genuinely want to obey the teachings of Jesus. We don't have to be perfect and get it right, but we can be assured of our standing with God if we want to obey Christ and follow Him.

My six-year-old grandson called me this week to tell me he had invited Jesus into his heart. I was so happy and so was he. But that night his nine year old brother couldn't get to sleep. He cried and cried and would not be comforted because he told his parents that he had doubts about God and was afraid that if he died he wouldn't be in heaven. He called me the next day and I used these three points to help assure him of his salvation.

"Do you think about God and what he wants?" I asked.

"All the time," he answered. "Every day."

"Sinners don't care about pleasing God, I explained. "They don't care about spiritual things, but God has given you the Holy Spirit because he wants you to know that you belong to him and there's not a doubt you can have, not a mistake that you can make, not a sin you could commit, not a decision you can make that will ever separate you from God's love and God's faithfulness to see us through all the way to glory."

"Wow," he said. "That makes me so happy."

"Me, too," I said choking up a bit. "Me, too."