Feb 3, 2016 /

He That Hath the Son Hath Life!

Do you want the simple way of knowing that you are saved? Read as Billy Ingram explains that assurance of salvation is not based on performance but based on the “infallible” character of God and His Word!

And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.

1 John 5:11-13

When regarding the matter of a Christian having assurance of their salvation, might it be stated and understood from the very outset that what we are dealing with is an exceedingly simple matter! Really, it is simple. It is tremendously easy and uncomplicated to resolve the conflict between being saved and knowing it, even when one may not “live as a saved person should be living.” In fact, we shall observe the Bible’s teaching of the kind of imminent assurance that all believers ought have and enjoy concerning their salvation that is foolproof, airtight, and surefire and entirely disconnected from the one’s manner of living.

An honest look at this precious truth as offered in the Bible should engender at least three facts regarding the assurance of salvation:

  1. The truth of assurance is possible due to the will of God.
  2. The truth of assurance is promised as declared by the Word of God.
  3. The truth of assurance is to be a perfect assurance since it is dependent upon the work of God.

The assurance made possible by God and guaranteed in His word IS INFALLIBLE. This assurance is infallible since it hinges entirely upon God’s salvation and God’s keeping instead of the believer’s performance or sin pattern.

Let us examine this all-infallible assurance offered by God.

Explanation of Assurance

Assurance is the absolute certainty the believer has when he accepts by faith God’s promised security. Thus, assurance of one’s salvation is not based upon how one performs, feels, acts or thinks, but rather on Christ’s finished work, sustained by God’s sure Word. See Romans 5:1 and Ephesians 2:8.

Assurance is foundational to effectiveness within the Christian life. One can actually be saved and yet not have assurance of their salvation. Yet the doubting that plagues too many Christians inevitably debilitates their vitality for the Lord, rendering them joyless and defeated.

“I have never known a Christian who was any good in the work of Christ who did not have the assurance of his salvation.”

D. L. Moody

Enemies of Assurance

But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

2 Corinthians 11:3

The seriousness of doubting God perhaps can be more clearly understood by absorbing the concept that doubting God at any time is blatant sin! Therefore, to doubt one’s salvation is also wicked sin.

Romans 14:23 tells us “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Hebrews chapter three is a history lesson describing the failure of God’s people to enter the Land of promise due to their evil heart of not believing God. The purpose of the chapter however is to warn the child of God “today” of the danger we have of entering the Life of promise through the same sin of unbelief.

“I believe hundreds of Christians have not got the assurance of salvation just because they are not willing to take God at His word.”

D.L. Moody

This sin of doubting God can neither be tolerated nor minimized as being insignificant or normal. It is a sin to doubt your salvation and must be treated as such. Any system or a person that engenders a Christian to doubt is an enemy to the truth of infallible assurance of salvation.

For example, John Piper (who, by the way, claims to be a seven-point Calvinist) said, “No Christian can be sure that he is a true believer. Hence, there is an ongoing need to be dedicated to the Lord and to deny ourselves so that we might make it.”

John MacArthur attempts to answer the question as to how one can have assurance of salvation by providing two “important tests” as he calls them. The first test is based upon the objective Word of God. He says that the true Christian’s salvation “should rest first of all on one’s faith in the objective truth of God’s Word, Jesus Christ, and the gospel.”

Then MacArthur adds and emphasizes a second test for the Christian to try to gain assurance of salvation, which is a subjective test, by basing one’s salvation “on the reality of a changed life marked by obedience, a love for Christ and His righteousness, and a hatred for sin.” He then concludes his argument by saying that the Christian should “take heart if these things are true in your life, and (should) trust God to continue to work out His salvation in your life.”

What is the enemy of assurance of salvation? Any ideas, individuals or institutions that pervert the simplicity in Christ thereby pointing believers from absolute confidence in what God says to focus on what they themselves do.

Examples of these kinds of “enemies”:

Subjective Tests of salvation

The idea that evidences found in the believer’s life are critical to providing assurance of salvation.

Calvinism

The fifth point of Calvinism, known as the doctrine of Perseverance, demands that if one does not persevere in their faith as evidenced in their daily living, then one should conclude they were never really saved. (Calvinism is the soteriological vein of Reformed theology.)

“According to Calvinism, as election determines who will be regenerated, believe in Christ, repent, be saved, etc., so regeneration guarantees that the regenerated will persevere in faith, which – Calvinistically speaking – cannot be distinguished from practice.”

This system teaches that election determines who it is that will become regenerated and this regeneration determines that the true believer must persevere in their faith in order to evidence that they truly are saved. If there is no evidence then there can be no assurance.

Armstrong teaches, “Perseverance is a necessary attribute of justification. God justifies, but man must have faith and obey.”

Piper says, “We must also own up to the fact that our final salvation is made contingent upon the subsequent obedience which comes by faith.”

This system is heretical and an enemy of God’s truth.

Unbelief

Essentials of Assurance

The saving message of the Gospel must be understood.

Before you can have an assurance of your salvation there first needs to be a determination and understanding of your salvation. Again, keep in mind that this is easy and simple.

Salvation answers the question as to how one can be saved while assurance answers the question of how one can know they are saved.

I must know what it is that God promises.

I must recognize my responsibility in having assurance.

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Billy Ingram (@evangelistbilly) serves as the Pastor of Canaan Baptist Church in Covington, GA, a board member of Minutemen Ministries, and a former team leader of The War. He and his wife, Christy, have three children, two pit bulls, and a Harley.