Assurance of Salvation

 

It is important that every believer stand strong in the Lord and be not swayed by every wind of doctrine.  Realize that it is Satan's goal to make you doubt God and His Word in any one area of your life.  If he can convince you that God or His Word lied in one area, he will attempt to bring you all the way back to receiving your salvation and convince you that God lied about that also.  This is why we are commanded to give no place to the devil (Eph. 4:37).  Your salvation must be established on faith in God and His Word, not on feelings, church doctrines, or other people, because only a foundation built on the Word will stand (Matt. 7: 24-27). 

A.  God's Word is true and eternal - Ps. 119:160; Ps 119:89, 142, 152.   

However the Word can be wrongly interpreted or misapplied 2 Tim. 2:15.   Never doubt that the Word of God is true, for it will always be true.  You must first choose to believe the Word is true and as it begins to perform in your life you will come to know that it is true.

B.  God can not lie.  Titus 1:2, Heb. 6:16-18.

  He is able to perform that which He promises (Romans 4:21).  God said that Jesus is His Son and that we on earth should listen to Him (Matthew 17:5).  Jesus said that God loved us so much that He sent Him into the world to provide a means of salvation for us (John 3:16-17).  The Bible teaches that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (I John 3:8).  Satan's first deed on earth was to disrupt fellowship between God and man.  Jesus came to restore that fellowship.  This restoration occurs the instant you confess Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life.  The Spirit immediately baptizes you into the body of Christ and you stand in right standing before God (II Cor. 5:21).

C.   The witness that you are saved is in you (I John 5:9-13). We all know within our own hearts if we truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the only means provided for man to receive salvation.  (Note:  What a man believes will dom­inate his actions (Prov. 23:7).  The witness within us is a result of God having given us of His Spirit (I John 4:13).  The Spirit of God bears witness with our (the regenerated, born again) spirit that we are saved (Rom. 8:14-16).

D.  One of Satan's greatest attacks on the born again be­liever is the inner body pressure to conform to doctrines and/or personal individual convictions of others. I John 2:6 says to us that Christians should walk even as Jesus walked. This not only means that the Christian should take the same path as Jesus or lives as Jesus lived, but it also means that we should use the same means of achieving the goal as Jesus did.  The Scriptures tell us that Jesus did and spoke those things that He learned from God (John 5:19, 8:28).  Jesus was led by the Spirit in two ways.  He was led in what to do (Luke 4:1) and in how to react to those around Him (Mark 2:8).  Jesus Himself did not allow doctrines and peer pressure to hinder Him.  If He had, He would never have eaten with sinners and publicans, and He would never have talked to the woman at the well.  He allowed only the Spirit of God to influence Him. We as children of God must adopt that same means of spiritual survival - allow only the Spirit of God to lead you.  Scrip­ture says that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law (i.e. also doctrines and traditions) (Gal. 3:13).  But we are not freed to live in sin, but rather to be led by the Spirit (Romans 8:2).  We are to stand fast in the freedom that Christ has provided for us and not allow ourselves to be en­tangled by the law (Gal. 5:1).  We are told that every man, each individual should be fully persuaded in his own mind (Romans 14-l5:2).  The mind is where Satan attacks first.  Cut off Satan's attack immediately by knowing, being assured of your salvation and your freedom in Christ.  However, don't forget that our freedom is to be restrained by our love for the brethren.