In our last post, I defined assurance as knowing you know and believe the gospel, as confidence in the reality of your salvation. That means, when it comes to assurance, there are only four kinds of people:
In this post, I’ll discuss the Dead and the Deceived.
I. The Dead
The dead are unbelievers who do not believe and who know they do not believe. Self-aware unbelievers need to hear one thing: you need to know Jesus Christ—that He lived, and He died, and He rose to save sinners. This the gospel message:
God: He is Creator: holy, just, wise, Almighty, Sovereign. He rules and He reigns and deserves all your love and obedience.
Man: You are a sinner, accountable to Him and yet a rebel deserving His wrath. It is not simply that you have broken a few commands but you have utterly rejected Him as the Lord of glory. For such offenses, you deserve death.
Response: And now, seeing the helplessness of your own state, the irresistible delightfulness and beauty of this Savior, you turn from your sin (that’s called repentance) cast yourself on His mercy (that’s called faith) to save your soul. Salvation is by grace alone (a free gift) alone, achieved by Christ alone (His finished work), received by faith alone (not your good works).
You must believe/trust/depend in this Savior. Knowing stories about Jesus is not enough. Living according to Christian morals is not enough. Being friends with Christians is not enough. Going to church will not save you. Jesus, the Savior, must save you.
You can be forgiven not by becoming a better person, but by making your good outweigh your bad but simply by trusting/believing/having faith that Jesus death is enough. Christ came for sinners. That’s what every dead sinner must hear and must believe to be saved!
II. The Deceived
The deceived are also unbelievers, but unlike the dead, they are convinced that they are true Christians. They are usually in the church and might even display some signs of spiritual life. However, they are in fact just as dead as the first category—but they don’t know it. They have a false assurance because their faith is false.
Often times this happens because instead of having both subjective experience and objective knowledge of the faith, they only have one.
Jesus says to those who are only superficially associated with Him, “I never knew you. Depart from me.” There is no living relationship with the Savior, only something powerless and profitless.
When I was 18, I met my best friend. I got to know him so well I could predict what he was thinking before he said it. He was bold with his faith even with strangers on campus, read the entire Bible in 3 weeks, and served God’s people well.
But by the end of sophomore year, he had left the church, left the faith, and left our friendship. Even though he had gone to small group with me, prayed with me, sung praises to God with me, dreamed about missions with me—even though he seemed to be a Christian—it wasn’t real.
True assurance—you know that you believe—is not built upon spiritual experiences alone. Just because you had a spiritual high during a retreat, or you cried during a praise song, or you really liked a specific sermon, or you stopped cursing, or you like going to church, or you prayed a special prayer does not automatically mean your faith is real. Just because you read the whole Bible, or had deep relationships with Christians, or stopped sinning in a specific way does not mean you are necessarily saved. If you appeal to something you experienced as the foundation of your assurance, be warned: are you simply deceived?
Those who are self-deceived are dangerous to themselves and to others, because they claim they walk the path to heaven, when in reality they are walking the road to hell. If they continue in their self-deception, their false faith will be unmasked when it’s too late. In Matthew 7:23, Jesus will declare to those who reportedly did miracles, who had spiritual experience without real knowledge of God, “I never knew you. Get out, you workers of wickedness!”
You cannot build your true assurance upon your experiences alone. It has to be more.
Memorizing Bible verses, agreeing with biblical doctrine and morality, knowing how to talk the Christian talk—all that is not enough to build true assurance upon. I had true knowledge, I knew the answers in my head, but my life looked just like the world. I cursed like the world, dated like the world, idolized school like the world, lusted like the world—all while putting on a Christian mask. I had truth from God, but no personal experience of God.
In James 2:19, James mocks this so-called Christian, this self-deceived person: “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.” In other words, “So what! You have good theology! You know who else has good theology? The demons. But they actually do better than you, because they know the truth about God and tremble but you know the truth of God and do nothing!“ Here’s the verdict: “...For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead” (James 1:26, NASB).
Scripture demands you examine your life honestly (2 Cor 13:5). If all the details of your life were put in the balance: your purchases, your thoughts, your words, your time, your desires, your dreams, your prayers, your books, your loves, your hates, your conversations, your convictions, your character—would it paint the picture of someone who truly knows and loves the Lord Jesus Christ?
Bad fruit reveals a false faith. A false faith cannot save. And therefore, any so-called assurance built upon a false faith cannot be genuine. Do not be deceived: those who are deceived are not believers, because they do not believe in Christ.
But, how do we know if assurance is true? I’ll discuss that in the next post. But for now, know this: God’s Word wounds that we would be healed; it chops down that we might be born again. False faith must be exposed for what it is—useless. But as the doctor cuts that he might heal, so too does God expose falsehood that we become real. If anyone would come into the kingdom of God, he must come not proud of his deeds, not boastful of his accomplishments, but humbled and humiliated—that Christ would be his all.
