For the past thirteen-plus years, up until this past Monday, I have frequently, repeatedly doubted my salvation. That is why I am posting in "Struggles-By-Non-Christians." In case there are other borderline Christians/Non-Christians who are having some of the same problems as I have had.
Pastor JD Greear, in his book Stop Asking Jesus into Your Heart: How to Know For Sure You Are Saved, has an Appendix 2 with the same title as this post. (He has written another book with a foreword by Tim Keller.) I so want to share this with others that I first tried to scan in the pages of the appendix and then use Optical Character Reader software to attempt to turn the image into text. That failed. So, I laboriously typed in the appendix, word for word, into a file, over a period of several hours over a period of two or three days. The text of the appendix follows the next paragraph.
I came to full assurance, finally, be rereading this appendix a number of times, and, especially, by reading, concentrating on, and praying about, numerous times, the very last sentence of the appendix.
Text:
In this appendix, I want to show you why believing salvation comes by faith alone is essential to gaining assurance.
In recent years, many Bible-believing Christians have downplayed the doctrine of eternal assurance because they say it creates Christians who believe they can “accept Jesus” and then live however they want. Some say that salvation, in fact, is not received as a gift by faith: it comes, rather, to those who believe and do a reasonable job of following Jesus’ teachings, to those who live appropriately under the order of His new kingdom and embrace His mission of restoration.
They cite verses such as:
“For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified.”
(Rom. 2:13)
“You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.” (James 2:24)
“And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?’ So he answered and said, ‘”You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.”’ And He said to him, ‘You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.’” (Luke 10:25-28)
They deny that this equals “salvation by works,” because they insist that (a) our keeping of the law is fueled by God’s gracious work in our hearts and (b) because we all fall so far short of the standard we can only hope in Christ’s substitutionary work to meet God’s standard. Nonetheless, they insist we “obtain” Christ’s righteousness by keeping the law. To use the Levitical picture we looked at earlier, “good works” are the hand we lay upon the head of Jesus that makes his death our own.
A variation on this common teaching in some Christian circles is that Christ’s righteousness is not something that God “credits” to our account but something He “infuses” into us. God gives us the grace of wanting to act right, and then evaluates us on the basis of how righteously we act. Salvation is given according to our “good works,” though the works themselves are “of grace.”
If that is the case, however, I am still left wondering, How can I know that I’ve obeyed sufficiently to be counted righteous? Where exactly is the line of demarcation between those who will be damned and those who will be saved? Or, to ask it perhaps even more clearly: What level of disobedience disqualifies me from Christ’s righteousness?
Faith most certainly includes an attitude of repentance toward God that expresses itself in good works. These expressions of faith, however, cannot be confused with faith itself. Faith’s object is Christ and His substitutionary work alone. Saving faith looks outside of itself to what Christ has done, not back onto itself at what it has done.
That is the only kind of faith that brings assurance. When we confuse the object of faith with the results of faith, we will soon lose assurance. We will always be plagued by the question, ”Am I doing enough?” “Enough” is a question that will drive you to despair. No matter how much you do, the “accuser” will always be crying out for more. You’re never “good enough.” The good news is that Jesus has done enough. He said it was “finished.” So point the accuser there and tell him to shut up.
What, then do we make of those verses (cited earlier) that seem to imply that salvation is gained by the keeping of the law? Let’s take a closer look at them:
“For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified.” (Rom 2:13)
This verse appears in a section in Romans in which Paul is laying out a case explaining why everyone needs salvation, not explaining how people get saved.
Paul is making two points in this verse. The first is that the Jews’ mere possession of the law does not justify them before God, as many Jews seemed to have thought. Of course, if you kept the law perfectly you would be righteous, but merely possessing the law, Paul says, does not make you so. So what Paul says is true: if there is anyone who really does keep the law, they will be justified by it! But no one does. Paul says in the next chapter, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none who understands. (3:10-11) The conclusion of the law is for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (3:21-23) Paul’s words in 2:13 must therefore be read in light of his conclusion in 3:23: No one can be saved on the basis of obedience to the law. We all fall short.
In another sense, however, Paul is intonating that true faith does produce an internal righteousness that obeys the commands of the law, a conclusion he will flesh out later. The goal of salvation, Paul explains in Romans 12:1-2, is not just forgiveness, but a transformed heart that loves God’s laws. Those who have been justified by faith will begin to obey the law from their heart. Where there is no righteous behavior, Paul will say, there has been no heart change. And where there has been no heart change, there has been no salvation. Keeping the law is not the basis of justification but is the result of it. Faith is the means of salvation; good works are the fruit.
“You see that a person is not justified by works and not by faith alone.” (James 2:24 ESV)
James isn’t contradicting the other writers of the New Testament here by saying that salvation is not by faith alone. Rather, he is saying that the faith that saves will never be alone (that is, alone without good works.)
Saving faith, because it is rooted in a new, born-again heart, has in its character the impulses that produce good works.
Think of faith like a living body. A body that is alive will breathe. Coercing a dead body to breathe by hooking it up to a respirator does not equal making it alive. In the same way, salvation, or life in the soul, happens through faith. But when we are truly alive, we will most certainly “breathe” out good works!
James is not contradicting Paul – in fact, he is assuming the readers already understand and agree with Paul! James is clarifying that the faith that saves is a faith that brings life to the soul, a faith that produces the ”breath” of good works. Where the “breath” of good works is absent, the “life” of faith is also.
And finally:
“And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?’ So he answered and said, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself,” And He said to him, ‘You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.’ “(Luke 10:25-28)
Was Jesus really saying that we inherit eternal life by loving our neighbor? At first lance it may seem so, but careful attention must be paid to the story that spawned Jesus’ answer. Jesus had been asked by a man who had spent his whole life trying to earn eternal life what else he must “do” to secure it.
This was not a seeker honestly seeking an answer to his question, but a religious man trying to boost his own ego. He did not believe he needed salvation, so Jesus was willing to play his game and beat him on his own terms. He says, ‘You ask what you must do to inherit eternal life? Easy. Be perfect.’ I would rephrase Jesus’ answer this way: ‘Seriously? You really believe you have loved God and others well enough to qualify for eternal life?’
Jesus story reveals the absurdity of the man’s boast by exposing the hypocritical heart behind the man’s supposedly righteous actions. If you read the entire chapter, you’ll see that this is the last guy who should be trying to be saved by keeping the law (he hated the Samaritan!). Those trying to be saved by keeping the law well will, with a little probing, reveal that their hearts are riddled with inconsistency and hypocrisy. That’s what Jesus was doing to this man. He was helping him reckon with the actual state of his heart.
Jesus’ words actually serve to reinforce that none of us can possibly hope to be saved through obedience to the law. None of us is loving enough, none of us is a good enough neighbor. Thus, if we are to be saved, it will take more than a renewed commitment to keep the law; more than a resolve to be better people; more than a greater activism on behalf of the poor. It will take the work of another – another who obeyed the law perfectly in our place and suffered the penalty for our failures. When we believe that He has done that on our behalf, and we rest in that, His righteousness becomes ours.
Pastor JD Greear, in his book Stop Asking Jesus into Your Heart: How to Know For Sure You Are Saved, has an Appendix 2 with the same title as this post. (He has written another book with a foreword by Tim Keller.) I so want to share this with others that I first tried to scan in the pages of the appendix and then use Optical Character Reader software to attempt to turn the image into text. That failed. So, I laboriously typed in the appendix, word for word, into a file, over a period of several hours over a period of two or three days. The text of the appendix follows the next paragraph.
I came to full assurance, finally, be rereading this appendix a number of times, and, especially, by reading, concentrating on, and praying about, numerous times, the very last sentence of the appendix.
Text:
In this appendix, I want to show you why believing salvation comes by faith alone is essential to gaining assurance.
In recent years, many Bible-believing Christians have downplayed the doctrine of eternal assurance because they say it creates Christians who believe they can “accept Jesus” and then live however they want. Some say that salvation, in fact, is not received as a gift by faith: it comes, rather, to those who believe and do a reasonable job of following Jesus’ teachings, to those who live appropriately under the order of His new kingdom and embrace His mission of restoration.
They cite verses such as:
“For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified.”
(Rom. 2:13)
“You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.” (James 2:24)
“And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?’ So he answered and said, ‘”You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.”’ And He said to him, ‘You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.’” (Luke 10:25-28)
They deny that this equals “salvation by works,” because they insist that (a) our keeping of the law is fueled by God’s gracious work in our hearts and (b) because we all fall so far short of the standard we can only hope in Christ’s substitutionary work to meet God’s standard. Nonetheless, they insist we “obtain” Christ’s righteousness by keeping the law. To use the Levitical picture we looked at earlier, “good works” are the hand we lay upon the head of Jesus that makes his death our own.
A variation on this common teaching in some Christian circles is that Christ’s righteousness is not something that God “credits” to our account but something He “infuses” into us. God gives us the grace of wanting to act right, and then evaluates us on the basis of how righteously we act. Salvation is given according to our “good works,” though the works themselves are “of grace.”
If that is the case, however, I am still left wondering, How can I know that I’ve obeyed sufficiently to be counted righteous? Where exactly is the line of demarcation between those who will be damned and those who will be saved? Or, to ask it perhaps even more clearly: What level of disobedience disqualifies me from Christ’s righteousness?
Faith most certainly includes an attitude of repentance toward God that expresses itself in good works. These expressions of faith, however, cannot be confused with faith itself. Faith’s object is Christ and His substitutionary work alone. Saving faith looks outside of itself to what Christ has done, not back onto itself at what it has done.
That is the only kind of faith that brings assurance. When we confuse the object of faith with the results of faith, we will soon lose assurance. We will always be plagued by the question, ”Am I doing enough?” “Enough” is a question that will drive you to despair. No matter how much you do, the “accuser” will always be crying out for more. You’re never “good enough.” The good news is that Jesus has done enough. He said it was “finished.” So point the accuser there and tell him to shut up.
What, then do we make of those verses (cited earlier) that seem to imply that salvation is gained by the keeping of the law? Let’s take a closer look at them:
“For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified.” (Rom 2:13)
This verse appears in a section in Romans in which Paul is laying out a case explaining why everyone needs salvation, not explaining how people get saved.
Paul is making two points in this verse. The first is that the Jews’ mere possession of the law does not justify them before God, as many Jews seemed to have thought. Of course, if you kept the law perfectly you would be righteous, but merely possessing the law, Paul says, does not make you so. So what Paul says is true: if there is anyone who really does keep the law, they will be justified by it! But no one does. Paul says in the next chapter, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none who understands. (3:10-11) The conclusion of the law is for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (3:21-23) Paul’s words in 2:13 must therefore be read in light of his conclusion in 3:23: No one can be saved on the basis of obedience to the law. We all fall short.
In another sense, however, Paul is intonating that true faith does produce an internal righteousness that obeys the commands of the law, a conclusion he will flesh out later. The goal of salvation, Paul explains in Romans 12:1-2, is not just forgiveness, but a transformed heart that loves God’s laws. Those who have been justified by faith will begin to obey the law from their heart. Where there is no righteous behavior, Paul will say, there has been no heart change. And where there has been no heart change, there has been no salvation. Keeping the law is not the basis of justification but is the result of it. Faith is the means of salvation; good works are the fruit.
“You see that a person is not justified by works and not by faith alone.” (James 2:24 ESV)
James isn’t contradicting the other writers of the New Testament here by saying that salvation is not by faith alone. Rather, he is saying that the faith that saves will never be alone (that is, alone without good works.)
Saving faith, because it is rooted in a new, born-again heart, has in its character the impulses that produce good works.
Think of faith like a living body. A body that is alive will breathe. Coercing a dead body to breathe by hooking it up to a respirator does not equal making it alive. In the same way, salvation, or life in the soul, happens through faith. But when we are truly alive, we will most certainly “breathe” out good works!
James is not contradicting Paul – in fact, he is assuming the readers already understand and agree with Paul! James is clarifying that the faith that saves is a faith that brings life to the soul, a faith that produces the ”breath” of good works. Where the “breath” of good works is absent, the “life” of faith is also.
And finally:
“And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?’ So he answered and said, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself,” And He said to him, ‘You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.’ “(Luke 10:25-28)
Was Jesus really saying that we inherit eternal life by loving our neighbor? At first lance it may seem so, but careful attention must be paid to the story that spawned Jesus’ answer. Jesus had been asked by a man who had spent his whole life trying to earn eternal life what else he must “do” to secure it.
This was not a seeker honestly seeking an answer to his question, but a religious man trying to boost his own ego. He did not believe he needed salvation, so Jesus was willing to play his game and beat him on his own terms. He says, ‘You ask what you must do to inherit eternal life? Easy. Be perfect.’ I would rephrase Jesus’ answer this way: ‘Seriously? You really believe you have loved God and others well enough to qualify for eternal life?’
Jesus story reveals the absurdity of the man’s boast by exposing the hypocritical heart behind the man’s supposedly righteous actions. If you read the entire chapter, you’ll see that this is the last guy who should be trying to be saved by keeping the law (he hated the Samaritan!). Those trying to be saved by keeping the law well will, with a little probing, reveal that their hearts are riddled with inconsistency and hypocrisy. That’s what Jesus was doing to this man. He was helping him reckon with the actual state of his heart.
Jesus’ words actually serve to reinforce that none of us can possibly hope to be saved through obedience to the law. None of us is loving enough, none of us is a good enough neighbor. Thus, if we are to be saved, it will take more than a renewed commitment to keep the law; more than a resolve to be better people; more than a greater activism on behalf of the poor. It will take the work of another – another who obeyed the law perfectly in our place and suffered the penalty for our failures. When we believe that He has done that on our behalf, and we rest in that, His righteousness becomes ours.
