Posted on 05/23/2019 6:24:10 AM PDT by Gamecock
How, then, do we receive assurance? The Scripture declares that the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. This inner testimony of the Holy Spirit is as vital as it is complex. It can be subjected to severe distortions, being confused with subjectivism and self-delusion. The Spirit gives His testimony with the Word and through the Word, never against the Word or without the Word.
Since it is possible to have false assurance of salvation, it is all the more urgent that we seek the Spirit’s testimony in and through the Word. False assurance usually proceeds from a faulty understanding of salvation. If one fails to understand the necessary conditions for salvation, assurance would be at best a lucky guess.
Therefore, we insist that right doctrine is a crucial element in acquiring a sound basis for assurance. It may even be a necessary condition, though by no means a sufficient condition. Without sound doctrine we will have an inadequate understanding of salvation. However, having a sound understanding of salvation is no guarantee we have the salvation we so soundly understand.
Coram Deo
Thank God for the testimony of His Spirit and His Word, which provide assurance of your salvation.
Passages for Further Study
Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,
Romans 10:10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Ping
If you wonder if you are saved or have the Holy Spirit, it has to do about your relationship with Christ. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, you have the assurance of your salvation. If you cannot make this confession, you are not a Christian and not saved.
Romans 10:9
that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:10
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Ephesians 2:8
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God
Ephesians 2:9
not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Islam has no assurance of salvation while one is living. Think about it.
A further thought.
There is false assurance of salvation and real assurance of salvation.
Our eyes many times look at the false assurance situation but NEVER let that fool you into thinking there is no real assurance.
One test might be the question. “Did you chose God or did God choose you?” If you did the choosing you also have the power to unchoose so you absolutely have no assurance, it depends on how you feel that day.
If God chose you, his word is Good, and you can rest in that promise.
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
“When you find men who have been enlightened, who have experienced salvation and received the Holy Spirit, who have known the wholesome nourishment of the Word of God and touched the spiritual resources of the eternal world and who then fall away, it proves impossible to make them repent as they did at first. For they are re-crucifying the Son of God in their own souls, and by their conduct exposing him to shame and contempt. Ground which absorbs the rain that is constantly falling upon it and produces plants which are useful to those who cultivate it, is ground which has the blessing of God. But ground which produces nothing but thorns and thistles is of no value and is bound sooner or later to be condemned—the only thing to do is to burn it clean.” - Hebrews 6
The Jews were the Chosen People, yet:
“But if some of the branches of the tree have been broken off, while you, like shoots of wild-olive, have been grafted in, and don’t share like a natural branch the rich nourishment of the root, don’t let yourself feel superior to those former branches. (If you feel inclined that way, remind yourself that you do not support the root, the root supports you.) You may make the natural retort, “But the branches were broken off to make room for my grafting!” It wasn’t quite like that. They lost their position because they failed to believe; you only maintain yours because you do believe. The situation does not call for conceit but for a certain wholesome fear. If God removed the natural branches for a good reason, take care that you don’t give him the same reason for removing you.” - Romans 11
As translated in the NASB: “Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; 21 for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. 22 Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. 23 And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.”
If you trust God for your salvation, He will. If you stop believing...”Do not be conceited, but fear; 21 for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either.”
Of course, that always raises the question, “Were they REALLY saved?” But taking the Bible at face value, it seems they were: “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away...”
Keep on believing, rejecting any possibility of earning your salvation and trusting God’s promise. God will not fail.
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
No, to this: “One test might be the question. “Did you chose God or did God choose you?” If you did the choosing you also have the power to unchoose so you absolutely have no assurance, it depends on how you feel that day.”
Based on the passages I quoted, and others, it seems someone CAN chose to reject Jesus after believing. Folks can argue if those who believe for a few years and then turn against Christ were ever saved at all. But since none of us can totally know our own soul, let alone someone else’s, it seems reasonable to me to say someone can think they are a Christian, act like one, maybe for a few years, and then choose to reject Jesus Christ. It isn’t common. But I’ve seen it.
That is the problem with “assurance”. We can lie to ourselves as well as others.
1 John 2:3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
1 John 2:5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.
1 John 3:18-19 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.
1 John 3:24 Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
Based on the passages I quoted, and others, it seems someone CAN chose to reject Jesus after believing.
I said eyes will go to the idea of false assurance. It exists. But real assurance also exists.
You present a prime example of the person doing the choosing, not God. Read your Bible about God choosing.
“Read your Bible about God choosing.”
I have. Probably more than Calvin did.
We are chosen “in Christ”. Lots of folks read the New Testament while skipping over those two words.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places IN CHRIST, just as He chose us IN HIM before the foundation of the world...” Ephesians 1, emphasis mine.
chosen “in Christ”
What is your point?
“What is your point?”
Read the link I posted. God has chosen to save the set of people who believe and has known from all eternity who will. To believe is to be placed “in Christ”, and those “in Christ” are chosen.
If at some point in the future we reject God’s offer in Christ, then Hebrews 6 applies. “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away...”
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