Question: I struggle with assurance of my salvation. Can you help me? (pt. 2)
Question: I struggle with the assurance of my salvation. Can you help me?
Pastor Bill responds (pt. 2):
It’s important to keep in mind that some people struggle with assurance of salvation more than others do. One of the reasons is that, because some have come to faith in Christ from backgrounds of particularly sin-dominated lives, that baggage from the past will sometimes come back, influencing them to give in to remaining, indwelling sin, and then making them fearful that they are not in a state of grace, i.e. saved people. Satan is very active in these cases, too. He is not only a tempter, but an accuser, a slanderer, a liar, and a destroyer.
That’s why we must resist him, always going back to the forgiveness and acceptance we have in Jesus Christ, and reminding ourselves that he is true and a life-giver. Keep coming to him as one who “did not come to call the righteous (that is, people who think they are righteous in themselves), but sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17, Luke 5:32). Keep repenting and believing, reminding yourself constantly that those who come to him he will never cast out’ (John 6:37). We all need to keep reminding ourselves of the free offer of the Gospel!
Other people have unusually sensitive consciences. That’s a good thing, but it can make the person (and, here again, Satan is very active in the ways I mentioned in the previous paragraph) dwell too much on his or her failings. And not infrequently those with unusually sensitive consciences can become anxious over false guilt - that is, feeling guilty over things that are not wrong in themselves. The antidote for these things is making sure that our thoughts (including our thoughts about our own remaining, indwelling sin) are governed by the Word of God, and not by our feelings. Its’ also important for those with particularly sensitive consciences to work on thinking more about Christ and his amazing grace than on their own failings. Humility, as many have observed, is not so much about “thinking less of ourselves, but thinking of ourselves less.” For every look at yourself, take at least ten looks at Christ!
Yet others are more constitutionally “melancholy”. Their lives are sung more in minor keys than in major ones. These are usually very thoughtful, pensive people. And when thoughtful, pensive people put the microscope of their thoughts on their own remaining fallenness and the fallenness of our world - well, that will certainly make anyone glum (Think of the character “Puddleglum” in C. S. Lewis’ The Silver Chair). Asaph - who wrote Psalms 73 - 83 was that kind of person. Read those Psalms, and let your heart rest as Asaph’s did - on the faithfulness and goodness of God.