Doubting Your Salvation
April 2018
The reasons people fall into doubting their
salvation can generally be summed up in two categories:
-
The person really isn’t saved.
-
The person is saved but has lost confidence in his or her salvation for some reason.
Not Saved
2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
There are a number of reasons why a person might think they are saved when they are not, then eventually come to rightly doubt their salvation.
There are people who confess faith in Christ without understanding what they are doing and why. This may happen because others are doing it or it seems like the right thing to do. Perhaps they are afraid to go to hell, or they just want to go to heaven, but they don’t really understand what it means to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They don’t have a concept of sin and righteousness and judgment and they have not been convinced by the Holy Ghost.
John 16:7-8 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
This can happen especially to children. There may
All three of my siblings came to a point in their
teens when they began to question whether their early salvation
experience was real or not. The Holy Spirit was convincing them that
they had not really done that in sincerity and truth, for whatever
reason. Thankfully, all three of them made that confession of faith
later, knowing they were sinners and why they were
doing it.
My own earliest confession of faith was when I was
three. I know a lot of people would say that was far too young to do
that, but the truth is I actually have a cloudy memory of kneeling
beside my parents’ bed with my mom in our tiny house in Ethiopia and
“asking Jesus to come into my heart.” I didn’t understand a lot of
things, but some years later, when I was somewhere around 8, the
Holy Spirit impressed me strongly that I had never “told God I was sorry
for my sin.” I knew by then that it was an important thing to do this,
and also that I was a sinner. I didn't fully understand the word
repentance, but I remember sitting up in bed that night
and taking care of that right then and there. Was I “saved” in the
complete sense before that? I don’t pretend to know the answer to that.
What I do know is that God knew my intentions and knew that I was
destined for salvation and, although it is not a process, in His
foreknowledge He kept me alive until I could finish what I began at age
three.
For my siblings' parts I don’t know if their
early confessions had any substance to them or not. At least one of them
couldn’t even remember it at all. But, God still acted on His
foreknowledge and brought them to that point where they made their
calling and election sure.
It can be really difficult when other people tell
you that you are saved because they remember something you did that
seemed like the right thing - you prayed the right words, you went
forward at an invitation, etc. But, the thing is that
"...the LORD seeth not as man seeth;
for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the
heart." 1 Samuel 16:7 Man can only see outward appearances, and sometimes we’re tempted
to put way too much trust in that.
I do not recommend re-examining your salvation over and over again. We'll talk about that more in a minute. But, if the Lord is clearly dealing with you about your salvation there is a time to "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith..."
Sometimes people make it sound like doubting
one’s salvation is a terrible sin against the Lord. Sometimes we or
others may have the idea that it’s shameful to admit you’re not saved. Why should it be shameful to acknowledge one isn’t genuinely saved and
then get truly and genuinely saved? It isn’t something that a person
should be doing over and over again. That is highly questionable and
shows a person has a lack of knowledge about what true salvation is.
But, if, like
my friend Theresa, someone realizes that they are not
truly born again, then there is no time like the present to make their
salvation
sure.
Another reason, and one that goes with the one we
just discussed, is that a person may make a profession of salvation when
the Holy Spirit is not even dealing with them. It may be the expected
thing in that person’s environment - like it was for my siblings growing up in a
Christ-centered home and in Bible-based church fellowship. It may be that it seems
reasonable to the person and so, without any real drawing or convincing
of the Holy Ghost, they say they want to believe and that they do
believe and they just go with it because it makes sense, and after all,
who wants to go to hell?
When I was in my teens I met a girl about my age
who had made a confession of faith in Christ because she wanted to see
her mother again someday. Since her mother had passed away and was a Christian,
she had
gone to heaven, so it made sense to the daughter that she should do this
to secure that hope. There was no evidence that the girl had been convinced of her need of
salvation by the Holy Ghost. In fact, she had no concept that Jesus
Christ was the only way of salvation and to God and heaven. She told me in
essence that it didn’t matter what someone believed about God, they
would still make it if they were sincere in their belief. But it isn’t
possible to believe this and be truly born again. Yet this young lady’s
relatives who were caring for her were telling people that she was saved
and they were so glad that she had “gotten saved.” So far were they
determined to protect her from the truth that, as I recall, I had been warned to be
careful with her because she “didn’t understand some things.” Actually,
she didn’t understand the basic things necessary to be truly born again,
and there was no evidence that the Spirit of God was guiding her into
all truth (John 16:13).
If you are doubting your salvation and there is a
good reason to question your earlier confession of faith, then it may
well be that you need to do it "again" and do it according to the
scripture. It isn’t something to be ashamed of or to make complicated or
hard. If the Holy Spirit is working in your heart and mind on this, just
answer and believe with your heart and confess with your mouth. It’s as
simple as that. It isn’t a big deal, and yet it is the biggest deal in
your entire life. Don’t let yourself be talked into resting in a false
salvation.
Saved But In Doubt
John 10:28-30 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one.
The spectrum in this area is much larger. It is tremendous, in fact. There are so very many ways that we
can be led to doubt a true and genuine salvation.
Obviously the devil and his servants will plant
doubts wherever they can to make us believe that we were never saved or
that we can lose our salvation. The devil can’t get you unsaved, and
Jesus has promised not to lose one sheep that trusts in Him, so the next
best thing Satan can do is convince us that we aren’t saved or that we
have lost our salvation. If he can do this and then impress on us that
our case is hopeless, he can keep us in a state of constant defeat.
I think that almost every believer at some time
in life will wonder about their salvation. A Christian who
understands what is at stake and who has come under the attack of the
roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, will, I think, at some point
question his or her salvation - at least temporarily. I have been in
that place myself a few times, especially with my struggles with anxiety and
depression.
When we reach a really low point in life, it can
be a natural thing to begin to wonder if one is truly born again. I had
a friend who suffered 12 years from depression. During the early stages,
before she got treatment, she was sure there was some hidden sin in her
life. She said she confessed every sin she could think of and then sins she
had never committed. Then when that didn’t solve the problem, she got
down on her knees and “got saved” again, thinking that must be the
solution. But it wasn’t, because her problem was not that she was
unsaved, it was that she was in need of help for a physical and
emotional problem. The devil was attacking her when she was weak.
It should
also be noted that our flesh can tell us we are not born again. My friend
and I both were also suffering from the weaknesses of our flesh when we
thought we were not saved. Listen, the Lord understands. He knows our
weaknesses better than we know them ourselves.
Psalm 103:13-14 Like
as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them
that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are
dust. He isn’t going to get His
feelings hurt if we are so confused and afraid that we come to Him
at a time like that and confess our faith in Him again.
As I mentioned before, we don’t want to get into a holding pattern here. Some people spend their lives deciding over and over again that they are not saved and making confessions of faith over and over again. This is defeating. When you can’t or won’t accept the assurance of salvation, you put yourself in a vulnerable and weak situation. Jesus didn’t die to give us a half-way salvation that we need to keep polishing up by “getting saved” again “just in case.” If this is the way you live, I really encourage you to seek the Lord for assurance of your salvation and peace and rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ. The work of your salvation and mine was done when Jesus said, “It is finished,” on the cross (John 19:30). We are not supposed to be laying the foundation of repentance over and over again, as it says in Hebrews 6:1, Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God...
Another thing that can cause us to think we are
not really saved is sin.
A friend’s young daughter had been cheating on
her school work. She was homeschooled and her mom figured out what she
was doing. Rather than jumping right on the situation, she waited to see
if her daughter, who had confessed her faith in Christ already, would do
the right thing. One night the girl came to her parents after they were
already in bed and told her mom that she didn’t think she was
saved. Her mom wisely asked her if she was really just hiding a sin her
life. The girl broke down and confessed her sin of cheating and they
prayed together and she confessed it to the Lord as well.
You see, sometimes “getting saved again” can be
an easy out for confessing a sin that we are harboring in our lives. We
are guilty, we know we’re doing or have done wrong, but it’s hard to
admit it or to go back and make it right with people who were involved.
So, instead of doing the harder thing, we may convince ourselves that we
are not even saved and so “getting saved” will resolve the whole issue.
The problem is, it doesn’t work that way. This is either a way to avoid
responsibility for sin, or a way to avoid even acknowledging that there
is a sin problem in the first place.
My Grandpa Van Nattan was in a church once where the
pastor’s daughter got into fornication and, one way or another, she was
caught and exposed. Instead of confessing her sin and taking
responsibility for it, she decided that she “wasn’t really saved” and
she “got saved.” Instead of the church mourning over the sin in their midst, and
instead of her humbling herself and showing genuine repentance, there
was “rejoicing” over her alleged salvation. Even worse, she went right on
teaching Sunday School as if nothing had happened. Because she allegedly “wasn’t
saved” when she committed that sin it supposedly “didn’t count” now that she was
a “real Christian.” My grandpa was very disappointed at how the whole
situation was dealt with because he could see it was an avoidance tactic
which kept the young woman from having to face the true consequences of
her sin, and it protected her father from any question as to his ability
to govern well his own house (1
Tim. 3:4).
There are no geographical boundaries on forgiveness. Sadly,
some groups have turned “the altar” (the area in front of and
around the pulpit) into a sort of Protestant or Baptist
confessional, to the point that some people actually think
that they can’t get “really right with God” unless they “walk
the aisle” and kneel in front the preacher and pray. This is
really sad and anti-biblical. It keeps people in bondage as
well. |
Another aspect of this problem is allowing
unconfessed sin to accumulate in our lives. When we choose to go on and
on without confessing things we know to be wrong, we can dig ourselves into such a deep hole that we lose sight of our salvation and come
to think we weren’t saved to begin with. This is why it’s important to
“keep short accounts with the Lord,” as my dad calls it. Confess
your sin now, today. Don’t wait till you’re in
the “right” place, or there is an altar call, or you hear a “super
convicting” sermon. To day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your
hearts...
One of the hardest things to learn to do in this
life is be completely honest with ourselves. With our sin nature, we
also inherit an amazing ability for avoidance. Just take a look at Adam
and Eve's behavior in the Garden of Eden for the first example of that. This can affect our lives
in so many ways. It also affects our ability to live in the victory that Jesus
Christ wants us to have, that He died for us to have. This is one reason
why it is so important to "...walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit."
(Rom. 8:1)
Because it is the Spirit's job to guide us into all truth (John 16:13), He will show us when
there’s something we need to deal with in our lives. But, if
we refuse to listen, we handicap ourselves, and Him.
A close problem to this is when there is
sin that we can’t make right. Sometimes something has happened, we have
done something, we have reacted to something, and there is no going back
and fixing it. It may be some small thing like a “white lie” or
something really “big” like an unbiblical divorce or sexual sin. It may be something
that changed the whole course of life, like refusing to take a path that
God clearly marked for us. Sometimes this kind of regret or guilt can
make a person decide that they are not really saved.
The thing is, God is not limited by these things, and His salvation is never “less than.” Jesus Christ saves us to the uttermost, as we read in Hebrews 7:25: Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
It’s true, we may not be able to go back and correct some situations. Sometimes we can’t even apologize for something without making the whole situation worse. But, the Lord’s forgiveness is still good, and He is still faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness if we confess them to Him! 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It doesn’t say, “…if we go back and make it right.” There is one simple reason for that - we can’t always make it right. Thank God He in not hindered by that!
Another reason people will doubt their salvation
when they are truly saved is because of preachers and other Christians
who think it is their job to talk them out of their salvation. Some
years back I heard the man preaching
say that the only person in the room that he knew was saved was himself.
While this may make sense from a human standpoint, it is not the mind of
Christ that we see in scripture. More than one apostle wrote in the New
Testament with complete confidence in the salvation of those to whom he
was writing. We should be able to discern the fruit of the Spirit in the
lives of those who are bearing it, and the Spirit in us should bear
witness of this. Yes, I know there are some situations where it is hard
to tell. That will always be there, and Paul did
address some issues along those lines. But to question the salvation of
everyone else except our own? No. That is not a biblical model in any
way.
| I’m not much impressed with men who can talk some women out of their salvation anyway. What with PMS and having babies and menopause and “empty nest syndrome” and all the hormonal stuff that women sometimes have, I think it’s little more than bullying tactics - it is cruel to the women, and the man doing it is a brute. Just my two cents... |
There are preachers and evangelists who will scream, “You’re
wicked,” at the tops of their lungs and blast and harass the Christians
in front of them and do everything in their power to convince them they are
not saved so that they can “see the altar full” and go around boasting
about how many “got saved” at their last meeting. There are pastors who
will insinuate and suggest and make covert accusations (or even bold
ones) to plant doubt in the minds of people so they can convince
them to “get saved” again for the first time. Yes. Truly. Friend, this
is not a ministry of the Holy Spirit. Those men are completely out of
the will of God. I wonder more about their salvation than the salvation
of those who are repeatedly convinced of their “lost” condition and get
saved over and over. Don’t let a mere man do this to you.
Christians may do this to each other. Spouses,
siblings or friends may
do this to each other, especially when they are fighting. Have you ever
said or had someone say to you, “You’re behavior is so bad, I don’t even
know if you’re saved!” Yes. That happens too. This is spiritual
bullying. If it were done in sincerity and truth it would not be done in
anger or the midst of conflict. Instead, as happened to a man my dad was counseling, the people who were concerned would sit down
quietly and calmly and discuss the reasons for their concern with
compassion. Casting doubt on another believer’s salvation because you
are angry with them is just plain wrong. It says far more about the
accuser than it does the accused.
Conclusion
Romans 3:4 ...yea, let God be true, but every man a liar...
Doubt is a powerful thing. It can ruin a
friendship, a home, a marriage, a life. When we allow it to rule us in
the face of all God’s promises and revelation of Himself, we are
essentially saying that we don’t believe Him, that He is a liar. We may
even be giving place to the devil. And, yet, it is so amazingly hard to
overcome at times. I know. I have confessed my faith in Christ again at
least once in my life when I became so doubtful that I felt I must.
Years ago, when I was going through a particularly dark time in my life, my mom and I had been reading scripture together and just talking things out. One day I told her that I didn’t think I was saved. She told me that she knew I was saved. At the time it comforted me and helped to reassure me because my mom and I had lived together all my life to that point, and I knew that she had observed the Lord working in my life in many ways.
This is something that we need to remember when someone we know well has doubts about their salvation. If we have seen and known the fruit of the Spirit in the person's life, we should tell them so, not encourage them to doubt. If we aren’t in a position to know for sure, then, yes, we possibly should encourage that person to examine their salvation to be sure, but not to belabor them with doubts.
1 Thessalonians 1:2-5 We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father; Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.
Paul said his gospel came to the Thessalonians with much assurance. Assurance is a ministry we can do for others. We cannot make them believe. We cannot stop them from doubting. We cannot even show them how to rest in the Lord. But, we can let them know where we’ve seen the active working of the Holy Ghost in their lives - the fruit of repentance, of righteousness, and of the Spirit. We can minister through prayer and scripture. We can "...lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed." Hebrews 12:12-13
Our work is
not to convince Christians they are lost. We cannot even convince
sinners they are lost. That is ever the job of the Holy Spirit of God. Our job
it to edify (to build up) our fellow saints, and to preach the gospel to
the lost.
Jesus, I Am Resting, Resting
Jesus! I am resting, resting
In the joy of what Thou art;
I am finding out the greatness
Of Thy loving heart.
Thou hast bid me gaze upon Thee,
And Thy beauty fills my soul,
For, by Thy transforming power,
Thou hast made me whole.
Oh, how great Thy loving kindness,
Vaster, broader than the sea:
Oh, how marvelous Thy goodness,
Lavished all on me!
Yes, I rest in Thee, Beloved,
Know what wealth of grace is Thine,
Know Thy certainty of promise,
And have made it mine.
Simply trusting Thee, Lord Jesus,
I behold Thee as Thou art,
And Thy love, so pure, so changeless,
Satisfies my heart,
Satisfies its deepest longings,
Meets, supplies its every need,
Compasseth me round with blessings,
Thine is love indeed.
Ever lift Thy face upon me,
As I work and wait for Thee;
Resting ’neath Thy smile, Lord Jesus,
Earth’s dark shadows flee.
Brightness of my Father’s glory,
Sunshine of my Father’s face,
Keep me ever trusting, resting,
Fill me with Thy grace.
Jesus! I am resting, resting
In the joy of what Thou art;
I am finding out the greatness
Of Thy loving heart.
- Jean Sophia Piggot
except where otherwise noted.
Vintage graphic - original source unknown.
updated 2022;
CA