The Assurance of Salvation, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. You've got one or two postures in relationship to Jesus. You are either believing that it really is finished, that you really were beyond hope, God did it all, and you are resting and that is your only hope of salvation, where you are standing in your own righteousness.

Absolute, 100% assurance can be yours right in this moment. How? By believing the testimony God gave about His Son. Welcome to Summit Life with pastor, author, and theologian J.D.

Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. You know, history is filled with stories of believers who courageously faced death peacefully because they were confident in what awaited them beyond the grave.

How did they have so much confidence? Today, Pastor J.D. answers that question, describing how we can know whether or not we're saved with absolute certainty. It's the final message in our essential teaching series called Gospel.

If you've missed any of the previous messages, you can hear them all online at jdgreer.com. Pastor J.D. titled this message, The Assurance of Salvation. You know, I've explained to you several times in this series that John, the apostle, takes the themes that are introduced in John 15 and he basically writes a holy pistol around them. 1 John, that's one of the things I've learned from this series is how wonderfully this book, 1 John, correlates to John 15.

Okay, here we go. 1 John 5 in verse 13. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may, what's that word? Know that you have eternal life. Not that you may hope, not that you may be reasonably sure of or even beyond reasonable doubt. I write these things to you that you may know that you have eternal life.

So what are these things that he is referring to? We'll go back to verse 10. He'll explain it to you, verse 10. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.

Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar because he's not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

All right. There are two components that he gives you in those four verses that he wants you to use to give you the assurance of eternal life. Number one, there is a testimony to be believed and then number two, there is a manifestation of that testimony in your life.

Let's talk about number one. There is a testimony to be believed. What is the testimony to be believed? Well, you get a little hint there in verse 11. This is the testimony that God gave to us eternal life and this life is in his Son. That eternal life is a gift that God gave to us and that it was not something that we had in ourselves. You got your Bible open, flip back four chapters to 1 John 1 where he's going to basically build the case for this.

Watch this. 1 John 1. If we say we have no sin, then we deceive ourselves and the truth or the testimony, those words are interchangeable, the truth is not in us. If we say we have not sin, we make him a liar and his word or the testimony is not in us. The first part of the testimony is that we are sinful and utterly empty of eternal life.

Right? So he goes on. He says if you acknowledge that, that's the first part of the testimony, and if you confess your sin, acknowledge your sinfulness, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and then to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In other words, if you acknowledge that you're utterly unworthy before God, you will be accepted. If you maintain that you're worthy before God, you will be rejected and that is the Gospel.

Jesus in my place, Jesus taking and absorbing the penalty for what I had earned so that I could receive the blessing that he had earned in my place. And when you believe that unbelievable testimony about what God has given you, God gives you eternal life. And it is really hard to believe that, isn't it? Because it's humbling. It's hard to admit that you could actually be that wicked and God could be that gracious. And so you know what we're always doing?

We're always trying to tweak it, aren't we? We're always trying to tweak it to say, well, yeah, and Jesus died for us, but you know, I mean, come on. You got to accept Jesus as your Savior and live a good life. You got to add to what he did and then you'll get to heaven. The Apostle Paul said it like this, Romans 4-5, to the one who does not work but instead believes in him.

To the one who does not work means you realize that there's nothing you could do to make yourself worthy to God. There's no good work that you could do. There's no way you could up your claim. There's nothing.

You're totally helpless. But instead you believe on him who justifies the ungodly. You believe that he did it all.

Not based on your worthiness but entirely out of his grace. To him, his faith is counted as righteousness. Your faith that God did what God said God would do is counted as righteousness and you believe that and you just rest in it and it becomes yours.

Eternal life is yours simply by believing the testimony that God has given about his son. Just acknowledging that God told the truth. Listen, it's not a ceremony that you go through. It's not even a prayer that you pray or it's not being baptized.

That's what we turned it into. It's like this little ritual you go through that you pray this prayer and you get baptized. Listen, please don't misunderstand me, but not one time in Scripture ever will you ever find the instruction to pray and ask Jesus to come into your heart.

Never. It's okay if you express your faith that way, but what you do is you just believe that God told the truth about what he did with Jesus. And because we've turned it into this ceremony, here's what happens. People start to base their assurance on how well they did that ceremony.

That's what I did. You start to look back and think, did I repent enough? Was I sorry enough? Did I ever shed a tear?

How could you really repent of your sin and not shed a tear? Did I not understand the Trinity because I didn't get the whole deity of Christ thing? Did I understand all the stuff that was going on in the cross?

What's the actual minimum amount of knowledge you got to know before it actually came? Did you ever go through this? Was I sorry enough? Did I believe strong enough? Listen, as if repentance and faith were the Savior. Repentance and faith are not the Savior.

Jesus is the Savior. So when I think about how I know that I belong to God, I'm not, listen, I'm not basing my assurance on something that happened to me 10 years ago. I'm basing my assurance on something that happened to me 2,000 years ago. I may have started resting and trusting in it 10 years ago or for me 21 years ago, but I am still in a posture of what I began 21 years ago and I'm trusting in what he did back then. When somebody asks me when I was saved, when and where were you saved, JD?

If I'm feeling a little sarcastic, I say this. Let's see, when and where was I saved? I was saved in this little hill about a 20 minutes walk from downtown Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. That's when I was saved. I began a posture of believing back when I was 16 that Jesus did what Jesus said he would do.

Let me use an illustration that's almost a little childish. You're sitting on a chair. Most of you made a decision to sit in that chair.

All of you did. If you're sitting there, you made a decision. How do you know that you made the decision to sit in the chair? Is it because you remember making the decision? You walked in and said, I can remember. I looked at that chair and I thought, man, that chair will hold me up. It looks like a good chair. My feet are so tired.

I can't wait. Do you remember that thought process? Anybody? Maybe one or two of you, but most of you just sat down. How do you know you made the decision to sit in a chair? It's not because you remember the decision.

It's because you're seated there right now. How do you know that you put trust in Christ? Is it because you remember what happened in the Sunday school classroom when you were eight years old?

No, it's because right now you're trusting in Jesus the testimony that was given about him that God spoke in his word. That's all that it is. It's not a prayer that you pray. It's not a transaction.

It's not a ritual. It's just believing what God says. Just saying, God, you told the truth. I started to believe that when I was 16.

21 years later, I'm still believing it. How do I know? Because that's the posture right now. You've got one or two postures with Jesus. Either you are submitted to him as Lord and you're sitting in his Lordship, you are believing that he has completely paid it all, or you are standing in your own self-will and standing in your own righteousness. You've got one or two postures with Jesus.

The question is, which is it? That's why people are like, well, I can't remember when I was saved. I don't care. You're like, but don't you need something in your Bible where your grandma and Billy Graham signed it that actually proved?

No. No more than you need to remember when you sat down. The proof that you sat down is the fact that you're sitting there now. I base my assurance, see, not what happened on what happened when I was 16.

I based on what happened 2,000 years ago, and I believe. Assurance is the present possession of those who are currently trusting the testimony that God gave about his son. Do you see that? There's a testimony to be believed. The one who believes, the one who just acknowledges that God is true has that because your faith is counted as righteousness. Which posture are you in toward Jesus right now?

I can remember when this finally dawned on me, and this seems like a totally nerd thing to do. You see this? This is a copy of Martin Luther's commentary on Romans. Somebody gave me this when I was 18 years old, and I still got all the notes in it from where it was on Friday night as I went through this, and it finally dawned on me that Jesus had done it all, and I just had to believe it.

I stood up from the desk. I was studying it, and it felt like my soul was free because I realized that it was done, and I just believed the testimony that God gave about his son. Believing.

Does that make sense? By the way, some of you that thought that it's presumptuous to know that you're saved, I would submit to you that it's more presumptuous to doubt God's word than it is to believe that God did what God said God would do. Talk about presumption. I think when you start saying, God, I really don't think that the testimony you gave about your son was true. Assurance is a testimony to be believed. Did God tell the truth, and if so, are you just sitting in that belief right now? That's it. There's a testimony to be believed.

Here's number two. There's a manifestation of that testimony in our lives. There's a manifestation of that testimony in our lives.

Go back to verse 10 in chapter 5. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself, in himself. Whoever has the Son has life.

Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. So he says what happens is you start to have this life in yourself. You start to manifest the signs of life. What are the signs of life?

Well, it's these five things we've been going over for the last several weeks. That when the gospel is at work inside of you, you develop this passion to read the Bible. You develop godly character. You start to grow in your love for the church. You start to tell other people about Jesus, and you start to overflow with generosity.

Those are the signs that Jesus is inside of you because that's how Jesus lived right there. We'll return to our teaching in just a moment, but I wanted to take a moment to tell you about our featured resource this month meant to help you take this gospel study further. We've been learning over the past few weeks that the gospel is the sweet message of the power of God, and not just once, but always every single day.

It's more than a prayer. It's the power and the pathway to holiness. Take the time to personalize these teachings that you're hearing on the program with an eight-session video-based Bible study featuring further gospel teaching from Pastor J.D. It comes with your generous gift to the ministry right now, so give us a call at 866-335-5220 or check it out at jdgrier.com.

Now let's return for the conclusion of our teaching series. Here's Pastor J.D. Listen to what John says, by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected or completed or manifested. By this we may know that we are in him.

Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. When Jesus is inside of you, he begins to live through you in a way that your life begins to resemble his. This is kind of a cheesy illustration, but I had a friend whose six-year-old girl prayed to receive Jesus. My friend told me that about a week after this she comes to her daddy with this little perplexed look on her face of just of consternation and says, daddy I got a big question.

It's like okay what is it? She said, daddy I'm so confused. Daddy how tall was Jesus? Her dad said, well I don't know, I mean Jesus was a grown man, he was Jewish, he lived like they were shorter back then, I don't know five eight. Daddy how tall am I?

I don't know, you're like six years old, four two, four foot two. Daddy wait a minute, if Jesus is five eight and I'm four two, you told me last week that he came to live inside my heart, shouldn't he be kind of sticking out everywhere? Her dad said, well yeah he should be because when Jesus has come inside your life begins to resemble his life. And one of the ways that you know that he is inside of you is you begin to develop the same passions that he has because that is the fruit, that is you walking as he walked because the life is inside of you.

He has this testimony in himself, you begin to develop the same passions that Jesus has because he's working on the inside. So here is the million dollar question, what do you do when you notice that those signs aren't really strong in you? What do you do when you look at your life? You're like, oh desire for the word? I don't leap out of bed in the morning just excited about what God's going to say to me that day. Yep, and I struggle to pray.

Generosity, I like my money, I like to keep it. I just, I don't manifest these signs. Do you ever go through this? Do you ever start looking at your life and say, how could I actually be saved and still have all these attitudes that I have? Anybody do this?

Are you tracking with us? Yes you do, I know that you do. I do, I'm a pastor. I'm like, how could I still struggle with these same areas of pride? Seriously, I should have gotten over this when I was 18 years old, two years after walking with Jesus. I still am consumed by all these petty little jealousies. How could I be saved and have Jesus and still have this jealousy in my heart?

How could I still have this problem with my temper? This is like elementary stuff I should have gotten rid of. Right, you ever had this? So you start to have these questions like, is he really at work? Do you ever do this? So the question is, what do you do when the signs are not nearly as strong in you?

What do you do? Rest in Christ, that's what you do. There is only one treatment for the disease of sin, only one.

Believe the testimony, abide in God's love, abide in the testimony that your acceptance is not based on how well you do these things, it's based on what he has done. Do you know the difference between diagnosis of a disease and prescription for the disease? I know you're not all medical students, but you know the difference, right?

Diagnosis tells you what's wrong, prescription tells you how to fix it. God's prescription is always faith in the gospel. God's prescription is always faith in the gospel. So you see a lack of fruit in your life? Great, confess that to God, but then put faith in the gospel. Rest in the fact that God's acceptance of you is not based on how much fruit you produce, but it's based on what Christ has done. We've got a lot of people in this room that are trying to find assurance in their fruitfulness. You're trying to look at yourself to prove that you really know Jesus. God never told you to abide in your fruitfulness. It will always lead you to despair. What he told you was to abide in Christ. So it means whatever your situation right now, no matter how discouraged you are, the prescription is always the same, always the same. God's prescription is always rest in the finished work of Christ.

Your eyes should always be on him. Here's the secret, when you are resting in the work of Christ, you'll start to see these fruits begin to grow in your life. That's been the whole point of this series. Spiritual fruit is not developed in your life by focusing on the development of those fruits. Spiritual fruit comes by focusing on what Christ has done for you. It is not a list of things that you need to do better for God that bring spiritual fruit.

It is dwelling in the news of what he has done. Here's the little gospel secret. Those people who get better in Christ are those people who realize that God's acceptance of them is not based at all on their getting better. That's the gospel secret. Those people who get better, those people who grow spiritually are only those who realize that God's acceptance of them is not based on their growing spiritually or getting better.

It's based on what God has done on their behalf in Christ and they believe the testimony. People are like, you know, I just don't feel saved. Sometimes I feel so far from God. I just don't feel Jesus in my... So, this is what I always want to say, and I'm saying it right now, my feelings are not the final arbiter on reality. I don't feel safe.

Who cares? Got him, Watchman Nee, who was a Chinese theologian, the underground church in China, made this statement I thought was brilliant. He said, it's kind of like this. He says, imagine you got three guys walking on the top of a little narrow wall, okay, a little narrow wall.

One of them is named Fact, the second one is named Faith, the third one is named Feeling, like they're walking around a city wall. He's like, so, Fact and Faith and Feeling are walking along this wall. He says, as long as Faith keeps his eyes on Fact and Feeling keeps his eyes on Faith, everybody's going to be fine. But the moment that Faith turns around and starts to check on Feeling, both he and Feeling fall off the wall.

Now, the point is this. Feelings come when you have faith in the facts that God has given in the testimony about his son. Feeling is a fruit of assurance. Feeling is not the basis of assurance, which is why we tell you not to feel your way into your beliefs, but instead believe your way into your feelings. Your faith is on the facts and the Feelings are what follows. You're like, I don't feel saved, I don't care. You should acknowledge the testimony that God has saved you in Christ and by believing that, see, eternal life becomes yours and that Feeling will come. What I'm trying to explain to you right now is this. Listen, absolute 100% assurance can be yours right in this moment, now.

How? By believing the testimony God gave about his son. You've got one or two postures in relationship to Jesus, like that chair. You are either believing that it really is finished, that you really were beyond hope and God did it all and you are resting and that is your only hope of salvation or you are standing in your own righteousness. I mean, I can't remember when I prayed the prayer. Who cares?

Are you seated there right now? He that believes has the son. He that does not believe does not right now. Assurance is a present possession for those you trust in Christ. You got time for one more word picture?

I'll make it quick. There's a lot of people who treat salvation like this. They almost look at it like you got Jesus over here and you come up to Jesus and you want to receive him as your savior, so he's going to give you a certificate of salvation. You come up and you're like, Jesus, would you please come into my heart and forgive us the sins of salvation?

Jesus says, sure. He reaches in his pocket and he writes you a little certificate of salvation, signs it, stamps it with his name, puts Billy Graham's name at the bottom, puts it in your Bible, bam, you're saved. You're like, bam, you're saved.

You're like, awesome. Then what happens is three or four years later, you're like, I'm not really saved because I've really had a rough week. So you go back and you pull back out the certificate, but then by this point, it started to wear a little bit and you're like, oh, no, it's fading. How do I know it was really Jesus? How do I know that wasn't a dream?

How do I know that maybe this is like a forgery or a fake? I better go get another one. So you go back to Jesus and you get him to fill out another certificate.

This was my entire life for eight years between the ages of 13 and 20 because I'm always going back, get a new certificate because you can't have too many. That is the predominant idea people have about salvation. That is totally wrong. That's not how salvation works. A much better picture is the one that God gives in the Old Testament. When you would bring a lamb for sacrifice, they would lay the lamb on the altar and right before they slit its throat to symbolize the atonement for sin, the pain for sin, whoever was offering the sacrifice would lay out his hand and he would grab the head of this lamb, showing that the penalty for his sin was being transferred onto this lamb. To put faith in Jesus means you recognize that he is the lamb of God given once for all for your sin. He is the propitiation. He was the one who died in your place and you reach out the hand of faith and you put it on his head and you leave it there. How do I know that Jesus is my savior? You can't see it because it's in my soul, but right now my hand is on the head of that lamb.

And tomorrow when I wake up, it'll still be on there. And the day after that, when I wake up, and whenever I have questions, I'm not going to go back to a prayer I prayed when I was 16. I'm going to lay my hand on what he did 2,000 years ago. Salvation is a posture. Faith is a posture that you begin, but that you maintain for the rest of your life. So my question is this, right now are you trusting in what Christ has done as your salvation? Forget the prayer.

Forget the baptism. Right now are you seated in the promise of what he said he did 2,000 years ago? If not, then never before you're saved right at this moment. If not, I don't care how many prayers you prayed, you're not saved.

The good news is you can do that right now. I told you it's not a prayer. There really isn't. It's a posture. Right now are you seated in submission to the lordship of Christ? And are you seated in belief that he did what he said he did and that is that he did what he said he did and that is that he paid it all? You're listening to Summit Life and the conclusion of our Hallmark series called Gospel from Pastor J.D.

Greer. If you missed any part in this series, you can listen again online at jdgreer.com. Now, Pastor J.D., today you talked about how we can't earn God's favor by saying a certain prayer, getting baptized, or even by doing good deeds. There's nothing we can do to become more accepted in God's sight. But is there actually a right way to work for God?

Yeah, we've got to be sure first off. God doesn't need us, but even though he doesn't need us as recipients of his grace, he uses us. And as an act of worship, the Bible says we want to offer our lives in response to him proclaiming his worthiness and then also as an act of love to others, seeking to love them the way that he has loved us. I continually go back to 1 John 4.19.

We love because he first loved us. It's the love of God for us that creates love for others in us. And so you're going to find that as a Christian, your greatest joy comes when you are living like Christ, not when you are accumulating and running that race of endless acquisition of stuff, but when you're pouring your life out for others. It's what you were created to do.

It's what being like Christ is and where Christ is is where joy is. So one of the things we're making available this month is something that I produced a few years ago called the Gospel Bible Study Kit. And I'm so excited, Molly, we are bringing this back out. We would love to provide this for our partners. You can just reach out to us and reserve your copy of this Bible Study Kit. Just go to jdgrier.com. 335-5220.

That's 866-335-5220. I'm Molly Vidovitch, encouraging you to join us tomorrow as we kick off a new teaching series in the book of 1 John on this same topic of assurance. Listen Wednesday to Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.