Evidence and Assurance

Evidence and Assurance

It is common for us as true believers to want to see some evidences within ourselves of our salvation and the blessed and powerful work of the Holy Spirit within us. We want to see genuine faith in Christ, true repentance and godly sorrow over sin, love for Christ and our brethren. We want to see a sincere desire to follow Christ in the obedience of faith as motivated by love, grace, and gratitude. But, if we are honest, when we look within ourselves, we ask, “Why isn’t my faith stronger, my sorrow over sin deeper, my love for Christ and the brethren greater, and my desire to be obedient without any rival in my flesh?” The problem is not that God by the Holy Spirit imparts these graces as sinful or imperfect. But we are aware of the imperfections of all of these graces because of the remaining contamination of our flesh (Gal. 5:17). This is why we must all be very careful not to try to draw our assurance of salvation from what we find within ourselves, because no work of the Spirit within us can produce the righteousness we need by which God justifies us. Such righteousness can only be found in Christ and based upon the merits of His obedience unto death which HE alone accomplished for us on the cross. What we find, then, for our assurance is a blessed and powerful reality. The faith, repentance, godly sorrow, desire for obedience, and love for Christ and our brethren, all cause us to look outside ourselves and to HIM alone for all salvation, forgiveness, righteousness, and eternal life. We find our assurance in Him alone and what He has done and is doing for us by God’s grace. The main evidence of our salvation, then, is looking to and resting in Christ for all salvation and forsaking all else – “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee” (Isa. 26:3).

—Pastor Bill Parker