Assurance of Salvation

Assurance is a subjective reality. In security, you know salvation is forever. In assurance, you know you possess that salvation. That is critically important, so important that Paul says, examine yourselves whether you be in the faith so that you don’t wind up having believed in vain or for nothing. What about assurance? Where do we go for that? Where do we go for the subjective? Where do we go for the confidence that our salvation is the real thing? Well, let’s look at 2 Peter chapter 1, 2 Peter chapter 1, and we’ll look at verse 4.

By his own glory and excellence, as it ends in verse 3, by these things the glory and excellence of God, he has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises. Again, all that awaits us in eternal glory is promised to us in the Gospel. He granted to us his precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. This is talking about, again, the nature of our salvation. We have become partakers of the divine nature.

In other words, we possess the life of God. We have escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. We have been given promises that God will fulfil. Now we come to verse 5. Now for this very reason, applying all diligence in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence knowledge, and in your knowledge self-control, and in your self-control perseverance, and in your perseverance godliness, and in your godliness brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness love. He’s saying you are secure by the promises of God. You are secure by the power of God.

You are already a partaker of the divine nature. You possess eternal life now. You have escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust, but you must add to that reality these qualities. Moral excellence, which is a word for virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. Why? Verse 8. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. If these things are characteristic of your life and they are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What it’s to say is this. If these things are characteristic of your life, you possess the true knowledge of Christ. Your salvation is the real thing. On the other hand, verse 9, he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Do you understand? You can be a real believer and forget that you really are a true believer. You can lose your assurance. So in verse 10 he says, therefore brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling, that you are truly called to salvation, certain about his choosing, that you genuinely were elect.

For as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble. Practice what things? That list, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, love. Where you have virtue in your life, you have assurance. You understand? That’s what he’s saying. If those qualities are not obvious in your life, you have lost touch, then, with your salvation. If you want to make your calling sure and your choosing, your election, sure, be diligent to make sure these things are characteristics of your life. So how do you know you’re saved? Not by a past event, not remembering a date, not remembering a prayer, but looking at your life and seeing the kinds of virtues, patterns of righteousness, godliness, that testify to a transformation.

Assurance can be hard, it can be. We can be insecure, we can lose our assurance. Assurance is hard to experience and it’s hard to hold on to. Even though you know salvation is forever, there are times when you can really struggle to believe that you’re actually a possessor of the true salvation. Why? Why is it hard to have assurance? Why do I struggle with my assurance? I’ll give you some reasons. Number one, convicting preaching. You come and you sit under the word of God. And the word of God is powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, Hebrews 4.

And it goes into you and it cuts you and it dissects you and it takes you apart and it reveals your heart. And honestly, you probably wouldn’t have that experience of wondering about your salvation if you were sitting in a place where the word of God was dealt with superficially. But when you expose yourself to convicting preaching from the word of God, you can struggle with your assurance because you are being convicted by the word of God. And the standard is so high, which leads to a second reason people are insecure or lack assurance.

It is this, guilt, guilt. There’s a third reason people struggle with assurance and it is that they misunderstand the gospel. They think that the gospel is God’s plan to save you and then you keep yourself saved, so that they would say, yes, you’re saved by grace, but you’re kept by works. And if you’re trying to keep yourself saved by your works, you will never have any assurance. Then along that same line, there’s a fourth reason why people struggle with assurance and it is because they have wrong ideas about forgiveness. I was reading this week about one viewpoint that said, when you’re saved, God forgives all the sins of your past.

That’s true. But not the present and the future. You have to work out righteousness in the future. You have to name your sins and seek forgiveness. There’s no lifelong blanket forgiveness. Forgiveness is only partial. If you believe that, of course you wouldn’t have assurance because you know you can’t keep yourself righteous. There’s another reason why people struggle with assurance and it’s because they can’t remember the time of their salvation. By the way, that’s true for most people. I can’t remember. Oh, if you’re like me or many Christians, you probably grew up in a church, you prayed to be saved a thousand times or a hundred times, and you were always trying to reach back and find out which of those was the real deal.

And you never will know, even when you think was the moment of your salvation may not have been. Maybe a moment you prayed a prayer. But the divine miracle of regeneration is God’s work on his schedule, not ours. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of assurance of salvation. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddess and may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].