Truth Unites - How to Get Assurance of Salvation

Episode Date: June 5, 2023

In this episode I argue that assurance of salvation is possible and then suggest practical steps to pursue it. Truth Unites exists to promote gospel assurance through theological depth. Gavin Ortlund (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) serves as senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Ojai. SUPPORT: Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/truthunites One time donation: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/truthunites FOLLOW: Twitter: https://twitter.com/gavinortlund Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TruthUnitesPage/ Website: https://gavinortlund.com/

The purpose of truth unites is gospel assurance through theological depth. I've thought a lot about this lately. I've come into greater clarity about, you know, what unites all the different kinds of videos I do together. Theological triage, theological retrieval, general education about church history and historical theology, apologetics, defending Protestantism, those five mainstreams. Those are my kinds of videos I do, then occasionally devotional videos. how do they all flow together?

These five words, gospel assurance through theological depth. I can talk about this more sometime, gospel assurance, because there are so many anxieties and so much unrest and so much disillusionment and falling away. I want to be a re-centering, hopeful voice, a friend to people. And then theological depth. I don't know if there's a better term than depth. I'm trying to think of that, but I don't want it to seem like braggy,

like, oh, look how deep this is, but it's more just that's the desire. So anyway, I'll keep thinking about tweaking the language, But that's how I'm wording things. In connection with that, I've been thinking about assurance. And I want to make this video about how do you get assurance of salvation? And should we have assurance of salvation? Let me introduce it with a scene from Surprised by Joy. One of my favorite books, C.S. Lewis's autobiography, he describes how basically it was very easy

for him as a boy to become an atheist because he was desperately ready to get rid of his religion. He explains why. he says, in spiritual technique, I had rendered my private practice of that religion a quite intolerable burden. It came about in this way. Like everyone else, I had been told as a child that one must not only say one's prayers, but think about what one was saying. At first it seemed plain sailing, but soon the false conscience, St. Paul's law, Herbert's Prattler, came into play. One had no sooner reached amen than it whispered, yes. But are you sure you were really thinking about what you said? and then more subtly, were you, for example, thinking about it as well as you did last night?

The answer, for reasons I did not then understand, was nearly always no. Very well, said the voice, hadn't you then better try it over again? And one obeyed, but of course, with no assurance that the second attempt would be any better. I like that passage. It speaks to a common human struggle, whether it's in our prayer life like that or just in our general relationship with God. where you have this sense of uncertainty and unsettledness, like wondering where do I stand? As a pastor, I've discovered Christians frequently feel this way in their relationship with God, you know, and it's very unsettling. It's like in a human relationship, if you have a boss who never gives you

feedback and you're never sure and he's hard to please and you're not sure, you never know where you stand, or maybe you have a friend who's an extreme introvert and they never tell you what they're actually thinking. And it leaves you always wondering, you know. And that's very unsettling. lots of people feel that way in their relationship with God. Lots of true Christians have this unsettled feeling in their walk with God. Is God pleased with me? Have I done enough? Am I on the right path?

And what I've discovered so much on my YouTube channel in these ecumenical conversations we have and debates and so forth is, am I in the right church? And I have just known so many people who go through this crippling anxiety trying to figure that out. And so a lot of what I'm trying to do is to be a help and a friend to people with that work. I really feel that deep in my heart, a calling to that. And I'll say more about Isaiah 58 and my calling to that sometime. But here I just want to address this. So, you know, should we have assurance of salvation?

You know, is that actually a good thing at all? Lots of people wonder about that. In some Christian traditions, there's an ambivalence about assurance of salvation. And then in other Christian traditions, it's confused with presumption. And so we're going to have to speak to that as well. Here's what I want to say in this video from my heart plainly and honestly. You can have assurance in the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can have a sweet, overflowing assurance that flows through your heart like a river from the Holy Spirit

that is more wonderful than you can possibly express. And I don't think that's overstating it. So let's do two things. Two steps. First, I want to make a theological case for assurance of salvation from the New Testament. and second, I want to give pastoral counsel for how to get it. I'm not saying every Christian will have that. First, assurance of salvation is one of the blessings held forth in the New Testament for those

who have faith in Jesus Christ. In fact, the very definition of faith includes the word assurance and also the word conviction, sometimes translated certainty in Hebrews 11.1. This word assurance comes up all throughout the New Testament, in fact. Now, that doesn't mean, as we will discuss, that a true Christian will never have doubts. Absolutely not. The disciples frequently doubt. Even in Matthew 28, when there's the resurrection of Christ, they doubt some of them. The Book of Jude commands us to have mercy on those who doubt. So that assumes this is going to be a Christian experience that people have. We need to deal with

it. Second half of the video will talk about what to do about that. But for now, we're just pointing out there is such a thing as assurance and it's held forth in the New Testament as a good thing, in fact, as characteristic of faith in Christ. Just to stick with the book of Hebrews for a moment, You see these wonderful words like confidence and boldness used to describe what our worship should be like. Hebrews 416 with confidence drawn near. Hebrews 10, 19 through 21, because of that confidence, draw near in full assurance of faith. Think of it like this as a metaphor. When I call my kids in from the backyard for dinner, as I do most nights, and I'm there slowly filing in.

I don't want them to come in and kind of slink into the back door wondering, I wonder if dad will let me eat tonight. No, I want them to jump through the door. Well, not through the door. Jump inside. Leap into their chair. Grab their knife and their fork in their hand and be ready. And then, you know, just like ready. I want them to know, you belong here.

You've got a seat at the table. You're my child. and I love you. Not only that, I want to talk with you during the meal and hear about how your day was, right? And here's a question, just right out of the gate to put out there. What if? Because you always know you're getting a sense of the gospel

when your heart responds by saying, wow, could it really be that good? What if? If that's how we feel about our kids, God's heart for his children was similar. Jesus himself, this first just comes into my mind. If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, How much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

It's actually a wonderful thing about being a parent, is you realize, I love my kids so much that it actually hurts. It's the rest of your life, you're extremely vulnerable because you love these little things more than you love yourself. You see, you think, what if something ever happens to them, you know? But the good thing about that is it gives you a tiniest little fraction into the love of God. Now, the thing that's encouraging about this is what usually causes a lack of assurance is sin, but the whole point of these passages in Hebrews has come with confidence for help in your

time of need where you need help, where you need mercy, where you need grace, you can come with confidence to Christ for help. Sometimes it's helpful to just put the simple gospel message out there, and I find that mature Christians, and I find myself as a pastor, we need the gospel continually. We need the gospel every day. We need the gospel all the time. We relentlessly need the gospel. in all kinds of seasons and struggles, and the basic gospel message is often helpful to come back to.

Put it like this, because of the death of Jesus on the cross, we have a reconciled relationship with God when we trust in Christ. That's a way to sum up the core of the gospel. Jesus died on the cross to give us a restored relationship with God. That restored, reconciled relationship with God is of the nature of a settled, secure. pure status. Romans 5-1, we have peace with God. Romans 8-1, there is no condemnation for those in Christ. You're not sort of, there's a permanent status.

You're not in this constantly maneuvering, shifting position, spiritually speaking. You're united to Christ. You're already seated with Christ in the heavenlies. You are adopted as a son or daughter of God. And you're clothed in the perfect spotless righteousness of Christ. And therefore, you can have assurance in your relationship. relationship with him. One of the passages that's meant a lot to me in this regard is 1 John 319 to 20. There's so many passages actually about assurance, but this is an interesting one because it calls

us to take an active role in our assurance. Actually, as we are keeping in step with the gospel, walking in obedience to the God, walking with the Lord to the best of our ability, taking an active role in quelling the doubts and condemnations in our hearts. We reassure our heart before God. There's a lot of other passages we could talk about, but just real quickly, I want to mention Acts 15. I preached a sermon on Acts 15 recently. As you know, famous, really important passage in the New Testament about the, it's the first council.

It's about whether Gentiles coming into the church had to obey various Jewish laws like circumcision. What I saw more deeply in preaching on it is the pastoral burden underneath that theological issue, which is assurance. Basically, what you have is this group of Christians. They're called the party of the Pharisees, and they're saying you have to get circumcised to be saved. That's how the whole passage starts off in verse one. I'll put up on the screen.

Man, that reminds me so much of so many of these things that go on in the ecumenical space of people. Because the thing is, this group that was saying this, they were within the church. They came from the church in Jerusalem, and they're not denying Jesus. They believed in Jesus. They were just saying Jesus isn't enough. You also have to be circumcised to get saved. And you could understand how that could get some traction and confuse people because it's like, well, you know, circumcision is in the Bible. It had some verses that they could quote.

And so, but what's amazing about Acts 15 is the harsh language used for it. Peter in verse 10, it's putting God to the test to require that. Now, why is that? Because it's, listen to the pastoral burden in these verses. Peter says it's placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that they cannot bear. Later, James expresses concern that this will trouble the incoming Gentiles. The letter to the church in Antioch summarizes their conclusion by saying it troubles them and unsettles their minds. Think about that word unsettled. Think about C.S. Lewis wondering, have I done enough? Verse 28, they describe their desire to minimize the burdens being set upon these believers. So the pastoral burden here is don't put yokes and burdens and troubles that leave

people unsettled and aren't a part of what the gospel requires. Don't add on these. extra things that are going to leave people unsettled. Think of it playing out like this. Let's say there's a merchant in Antioch who became a Christian six months ago, still very new in his Christian walk. He's at the church there. He's been baptized. He's, he's worshiping, he's following God with all of his heart, and he's filled with joy. He's sitting in the church thinking, I am so thankful that I found the one true God. I have peace with God. I know I'm going to heaven when I die. My family is now knows the one true God as well. My sins are completely forgiven. As far as the east is from the west, my sins have been taken away. Psalm 103, verse 12. God has cast all my sins into the depths of the sea, Micah 7-9.

You know, he's just so grateful for the forgiveness to be of the gospel. And then he's in church, and a guest preacher shows up. Somebody from Jerusalem, he's never heard of. And the guest preacher says, the sermon today is from Genesis 17, and the title is, unless you're circumcised, you cannot be saved. And by the end of the sermon, this Christian in Antioch is unsettled and troubled. He's got a yoke on his neck. He's burdened. All of that assurance and peace and joy is down the drain. He's wondering, like C.S. Lewis is wondering, have I done enough? Where do I stand? Honestly, this fear, which so many people have, am I going to be damned? I'm amazed at how many people are just living in dread fear of that. Happens so much today. It's not circumcision that people require to David's other

things. There will always be forces in the church and out of the church that say, Jesus is good, but he's not enough. If you want to get saved, you also need fill in the blank. And they disturb the consciences of the laity and they leave people unsettled. There are so many people I know like this. They're crippled with anxiety over these ecclesial debates over the way, frankly, people have yoked people's consciences. And so I want to say, as plainly and clearly as I can and ask you to believe this because it is the very word of the gospel. If you sincerely surrender your life to Christ and you are trusting in Him and His work on your behalf of your salvation, you will be saved. That is the pastoral burden of Acts 15 that

I feel for people today. I don't want people unsettled and wondering and shaken and the clarity of the gospel message and what it should do, shining a light onto the fallen human heart, and it gets clouded over, and I don't want that to happen. Three clarifications. Number one, assurance is not presumption. What's the difference between assurance and presumption? The Puritans have a great treatment of this. I'll sum it up briefly. Presumption is when you say, I'm good enough. Assurance is when you say Christ is good enough. Presumption is when you say, I'm good. Assurance is when you say, I'm good. Assurance is when you say, Jesus is enough. Assurance is Christ-focused. If you're interested more in that distinction, let me know in the comments. I'll recommend some good resources from the Puritans.

Second qualification. There is a difference between burdens and yokes and troubles on the one hand and costly discipleship and costly obedience on the other. When we say the gospel takes away burdens, we don't mean it gives you an easy life. God demands our awe. The same Jesus who says, take my yoke, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. Also says, take up your cross and follow me and die. Some of the people watching this video, maybe God will call you to suffer, maybe as a martyr. What a privilege. There's no better way to go out of this world than as a martyr.

God calls us to obedience. But there's all the difference in the world between obeying in order to gain God's favor and obeying because you already have God's favor through the merits of Christ. When you face the cross that God calls you to bear, that costs the obedience that hurts, you don't have to do that wondering, I wonder if this will be good enough for God. Because it's not our suffering that makes us right with God, it's Christ suffering. You can go into that knowing I live under the fatherly approval and smile of God Almighty. That makes all the difference for how you get through it.

Third qualification, does assurance cause laziness? This is the great worry. People think, well, if you give people too much assurance, it'll cause people to get lazy. But this is not, this misunderstands how the gospel motivates us. John Bunyan understood this. There were people, he was emphasizing the grace of God in his sermons. People said, Bunyan, if you keep on talking about the grace of God so much, people are just going to do whatever they want. And he said, no, no, no.

If they understand the grace of God, they'll do whatever he wants. Bunyan understood that all true obedience comes out of love for God and that love, the seat of that is grateful response to the gospel. So the same thing happens in human relationships as well. It's not threats that actually produce love and healthy relationship. So for example, if a husband says to his wife, she doesn't have assurance in their marriage. she's worried that he's going to leave her and so he says to her i will never leave you you can be secure in this relationship have assurance of my love and she genuinely loves him is she going to say oh cool now i can be unfaithful and be a bad wife and live however i want of course not somebody who

thinks that doesn't understand marriage at all they don't understand love at all okay what about opposite scenario someone a wife is scared of her husband being unfaithing So she says, just so you know, I might leave. I'm not sure about whether I want to be in this marriage. Jury's still out. I'm undecided. And she's thinking, ah, this will motivate him. This will make him love me and be a better husband.

It's like, if you have the most basic of common sense about how relationships work or a friendship or any kind of, you realize, that's not how it works. You don't produce a healthy love and a healthy relationship through fear and threats. So it is with our relationship with God. It is not a mercenary matter. It is the wildest form of love you can possibly imagine. That's where obedience comes from and it all flows out of the gospel. And in the gospel of Jesus Christ, God says to you and to me, I will never leave you or forsake you. No one can snatch you out of my hand.

If you trust in me, you will be saved. I don't know how to say this other than just to ask you to trust the Word of God. Put it like this, straight from the mouth of Christ himself. He says, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but is passed from death to life. Jesus is not a liar. He didn't say, if you trust in me, you'll probably be saved thinking, oh, this will motivate him to obey. No, he gave us assurance.

We can know that we are secure in the love of God if we've sincerely surrendered our life to Christ and are following him to the best of our ability. By the way, if you ever have moments where you feel like, you know, you can tell the gospel's landing, I said a moment ago, you can tell the gospel is really landing on your heart when you realize, wow, it's really that good because that's what the gospel means. It's good news and it's really, really, really good. You can also tell it when it produces hope. That's the effect in Acts 15. When the Christians in Antioch get the letter, it says, when they read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. This is the effect of the gospel. It doesn't leave you with storm clouds. hanging over your head. Imagine that merchant getting this letter. Imagine the relief, the anxiety draining from his heart and mind. He's saying, I don't have to live with a threat of damnation hovering over me. I can be assured that Jesus is enough. If I have Jesus, I will be saved. That is what the gospel gives us. And it just allows us to let our guards down and be honest. We don't have to posture before God or others. We can just be honest knowing, I'm loved. I'm accepted through the merits of Christ,

my Savior. So I guess a question to ask, this video is kind of turning into more of a sermon, I guess, that's cool. Question for viewers, because I know people struggle with this, is do you have assurance of your salvation? Do you have that relief and that sweet, you know, what Wesley called the strange warming of the heart? You can. It is available to you. It's not guaranteed. See, so let's second half of the video. Let's talk about that. How do you get that? Assurance of salvation doesn't just automatically happen. There are factors that contribute to it. It's kind of like a garden, you know, that you have to cultivate. To get a good garden, you have to have sunshine and water. You can't just leave it out there with no water. It's going to wither away. Similarly, with your

assurance of salvation, you could be a true Christian and be at 80% sure, 20%, 90%, 50%, you know. So what do we do to cultivate and grow and protect our assurance of salvation. Well, both the Canons of Dort and the Westminster Confession of Faith to great reformed confessions, essentially give three answers. Number one, faith in the promises of God. Number two, the testimony of the Holy Spirit testifying in our hearts that we are children of God. And number three, a serious and holy pursuit of a clear conscience and good works.

By the way, whenever people accuse Protestantism of easy believism, all they show is they have not really sympathetically understood Protestant theology. All you have to do is you dip in anywhere, and you'll see that. So stemming from those three, let me give four or five, five pieces of pastoral advice specifically to finish with. Number one, find a verse to memorize. Take a verse out of scripture. Maybe John 524 would be a great one. Maybe 1st John 319 through 20. maybe Hebrews 416, these that I've mentioned, there's many others that could be useful.

And just every time you're anxious, go to it. You know, think of it like the mental wallpaper in your mind. Put sticky notes of that verse everywhere. And any time the anxiety comes to attack you, go straight to the Word of God, and this stems from that first principle, I just said, trusting in God's promises, say, look, God is not a liar. The promises of God are more certain than the rising of the sun tomorrow morning. The sun may or may not rise.

God will never fail his word and just put your heart's posture into trust in the promises of God. Find just one verse and just cling to it whenever you need that. Number two, ask someone to pray for you and lay hands on you. Don't do it alone. We really need other people sometimes with this. Share, you know, I have a discord. and I have someone graciously contacted me about setting up a discord and so I'm connected with that but I play a support role.

You can see the link. The link is in every video description. It's for people with anxiety. It's a community. It's not the only community you need. You also need a local church, but it's something. And so we talk and people come there and it's also just fun. You know, we hang out.

But you can join the Discord and talk, but you also need someone in your real life who can lay hands on you and pray for you. And this comes out of the second thing that Romans 816, you know, it says, the spirit, himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, the Holy Spirit can give you that testimony. And a lot of times I think that happens through prayer and ask someone to lay hands on. I really believe this. As you know, I'm pretty charismatic. Lay hands and pray for the Holy Spirit and just, I mean, things happen. God is a real God. He does things and assurance is one of them. Number three, be active in Christian service and missions. You know, it's a real God. It's a real God. He does things. And assurance is one of them. Number three. You know, It's amazing how taking your eyes off yourself and serving others can be so healthy.

This is one of the biggest keys to happiness. This is actually, this may be the greatest mystery at the heart of the universe. It's in love that you find joy. It's in giving that you receive. It's when you give your life, you spend your life. I was talking about this in my sermon yesterday on Acts 20 for Paul's phrase constrained by the spirit. That verb, he says, I'm going to Jerusalem to suffer, but I'm constrained by the spirit

to go. That verb constrained means tied or bound as with a rope. saying, I can't not do this. I must do this. We're talking about how to be constrained by the spirit to something in your life, to be called of God is actually freedom. There's no better way to live as a human being than giving yourself to a cause, a good cause. And so I think, you know, find a way to serve. Just like someone who's depressed often is helped by serving others, so also someone with anxiety can be helped by trying to serve others in a practical way that comes out of a place of joy and fullness for you where it's maybe out of your spiritual gifts and you can bless others.

It's really helpful. It's really joyful to bless other people with your spiritual gifts. It's one of the great joys of the Christian life. Number four, examine your life for any areas of disobedience. Are there any areas where you're consciously not yielded to Christ? Where you're holding on to something and you're saying, God, you know, I'll follow you in this 80% of my life, but this 20% over here I want for myself. assurance comes to us as we walk in the light and as we yield 100%. And so you just have to, in your heart, decide I'm just going to repent. I'm going to let the light in.

I'm going to let God in and I'm going to surrender that area of my life to him. You're not going to get assurance as long as you're refraining from that step. And number five is cling to Christ himself. Robert Murray McShane said, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Learn much of the Lord Jesus. for every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely.

Such infinite majesty and yet such meekness and grace and all for sinners, even the chief, live much in the smiles of God, bask in his beams, feel his all-seeing eye settled on you in love and repose in his almighty arms. What a wonderful passage, but this is the key to it all. I think it really does come down to something so simple. Trust God. the simple old Sunday school answer, right? You know?

But it's important to know that because a lot of people think, well, quantitative increase in theological study is where I'm going to get assurance. And 15 years later, they may have three PhDs and they're still in the same amount of anxiety. I'm not kidding. I mean, I don't know anybody who really gets three PhDs. But you know what I'm saying? You get really smart about things. That's not really where you're going to get existential certainty and assurance.

Theological study is great. I mean, do that. Study hard for 15 years. Awesome, but don't think at the end of the tunnel, then I'll somehow get to assurance. It comes in a more existential way, and really I think the key is simple, trust in God. Put it this simply.

Take John 524 and literally stake your everlasting soul upon it. Your everlasting happiness or your everlasting damnation hangs on the edge of it and basically say, God, I will trust you that it will be the one and not the other. Stake everything on trusting God. And there's real freedom in that.

I'll leave you with the final image. Some of us I know, this final image is to encourage somebody who feels like, I don't even think this is possible. I don't even think, I'll never get to assurance of salvation. It feels unattainable. You may feel like C.S. Lewis, that unsettled voice, always whispering, have you done enough? Will God forgive you for that sin?

That's always, you feel like it's. always going to be needling you and you'll never get to assurance. Let me give you a concrete picture of what Christian death and assurance can be like. Tim Keller died recently. I was very moved by reading his son's account of some of his final moments. He wrote, I think he put this up. This is the first thing I read because it, so it was very moving to me because I'm kind of connected in some of the Keller circles. I'm in the Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics and that kind of stuff. I've looked up to Tim and learned a lot from his ministry. So this is the first time I heard, you know, here we are at the end. It's always moving when you, you know, someone you love is about to

take the ultimate great adventure we all will take of what awaits us after this world is over. Here's what happened. Here's what his son wrote. Over the last few days, he has asked us to pray with him often. He expressed many times through prayer, his desire to go home and be with Jesus. His family is very sad because we all wanted more time, but we know he is very little at this. point. In prayer, he said two nights ago, I'm thankful for all the people who prayed for me over the years. I'm thankful for my family that loves me. I'm thankful for the time God has given me, but I'm ready to see Jesus. I can't wait to see Jesus send me home. That is a beautiful picture of what assurance looks like. When you get to the end of your life, you can say that. That's what

the gospel makes available to us. You can get to the end of your life and we get to a point where you say, take me home. I can't wait. I know exactly where I'm headed and I can't wait to get there. My granddad, another great godly man I looked up to, he used to say at his funeral, he said, at my funeral throw a party because I'll be in heaven. And there was, there was this incredible feeling of joy at a life well lived. So I will say to everyone watching this video, if you have Jesus Christ in your life, you can face death in the same way with that same level of assurance. There is no reason why you cannot have that. It's one of the promises, it's one of the things the gospel offers to us. So I hope that video is helpful

for somebody out there. Even if it just helps one person, it was worth the time. Thanks for watching everybody.