What if I don't feel saved?

"I cannot feel that I am saved." This is often said by those who think and avow that they believe in Christ, but who yet have no peace. How then is the knowledge of salvation to be obtained? Many expect some sudden accession of joy, or some inward experience to certify them of it. A young believer once came to the writer, and said, "I know I am saved now, because I feel so happy." But when he replied, "Suppose you feel unhappy tomorrow, will you come and say, "I know I am not saved now, because I feel so miserable"? she at once saw that she was building a wrong foundation. How then can it be known? By faith — faith in the word of God. For when God testifies that "whosoever believeth in Christ should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16), I am entitled, if I believe, to say that I am saved, resting my confidence on this word; and peace comes as the result of my belief of God's testimony.

Such is the divine order. First, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; secondly, knowledge of salvation, or assurance, as it is sometimes termed, from belief in the word of God; and lastly, peace as the consequence of knowing that I am saved. Take a simple illustration. If I owe a debt of one hundred pounds, and have not wherewith to meet it, I shall be under constant concern and anxiety. If however a friend comes and says, "Be under no concern for the debt. I have discharged it," my anxiety will instantly cease, if I believe his word, not otherwise. So is it with our knowledge of salvation. If I believe in Christ Jesus, I shall know that all God's claims against me have been satisfied, and consequently I shall have peace, if I believe His word, and in no other way. It is most important to apprehend this point; for many, making "assurance" to depend on feeling, are continually in a state of disquiet and unrest. But when we see that the foundation of our confidence lies in the immutable truth of God, we shall never doubt our salvation, whatever the chequered character of our inward experiences. The fact indeed is too often lost sight of (as pointed out in another chapter), that the ground of our peace is entirely outside of ourselves, in the work of Christ for us; and hence the eye is turned inward, instead of outward to His cross, His precious blood. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through out Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1).

My friend thought a moment, and then continued, "You want to be saved, but you do not feel it?" "Exactly so," I replied, "I do not feel it." He then said: "You have not got to feel saved; all you have to do is believe what the Lord tells you. Do you believe He is able to save you?" "Yes." "And that He is willing to save you?" "Yes." "And are you willing to be saved?" "I am most desirous," I replied; "I would give all the world, if I had it, to know that I were saved, but how can I know it if I do not feel it? You surely do not expect me to believe a thing which I do not feel." "Indeed I do; I expect you to believe, because God says it, that the one who believes in His dear Son is forgiven, and saved." "Well," I replied, "I do believe." "What do you believe?" "I believe He is able, and willing to save me." "And that you are saved?" "No, I don't feel it." "Ah," said my friend, "I see where you are;" and he quoted to me that remarkable verse, in the Epistle of James, which runs thus, "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble" (James 2:19). Then he added, "That is where you are."

I was utterly staggered, and like the awakened jailor in Philippi's prison, I cried, "What must I do to be saved?" My friend saw the effect of the scripture on me, and replied: "Stop, there is a difference between you and the devils. They are past mercy; you are still on ground, where mercy will meet you, if you will take God at His word." "I will gladly take it, if I can get it. What am I to do?" "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." "What! only believe?" "Yes, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." "But," I said, "I do not feel it." "Man," he replied, never mind your feelings; fling your feelings overboard as useless, just as you would an old coat. If you trust in your feelings you will wake up in hell some day, and then you will know what your feelings are worth. You are not told to feel, you are told to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You must take God at His word."

Doubts about our salvation often result from wanting to feel saved: if we don’t have the proper feelings of joy and peace, then we don’t believe we are saved. But this is the wrong order. Believing comes first, and it must continue without doubting: “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing” (Rom. 15:13).

Remember feelings always follow faith, but are absolutely unreliable as a ground of assurance. Do you believe in Christ? Are all your hopes in Him? If so, then surely this is enough for you. “All that believe are justified from all things.”

So many a trembling believer is troubled by doubts and fears, but if be realised that his security lies in Christ, and in what He has done, and not in himself, his doubts would vanish. We cannot doubt Christ nor the sufficiency of His work.

"Could I be sure," said a troubled soul to the preacher one evening, "of the very time, circumstances, and means of my conversion, I should be quite happy." Happiness resting on such a foundation, she was told, would not last long. Satan would soon beat her in argument and plunge her soul in deeper troubles than ever. Then how can I be sure, many will be ready to inquire, that I am converted? If you are now really caring to be assured that you are converted, most likely you are. Both the desire and that which satisfies it must come from God. But the word of God alone can give assurance. "Look unto me and be ye saved," are the Lord's own words. From the first moment that the eye looks to Christ as the Saviour, the soul is beyond all question saved. It may not believe it; it may be judging of its state by its feelings; it may be miserable, even on the brink of despair; but the word of God must ever be true notwithstanding. "Look unto me and be ye saved." Our unbelief cannot make the word of God untrue, but it hinders our enjoyment of Christ and salvation.

Hardly. The fact is, there is not very much said in the Bible as to "assurance of salvation," for the very simple reason that in the days of the apostles, when the gospel was preached in its unadulterated simplicity, those who received it, and believed in Christ, were saved and, as a matter of course, knew it. But in our days a very different state of things exists. Owing to the distorted way in which the gospel is often presented, mixed with law and Jewish principles, thousands are found who in a measure trust in Christ and build all their hopes upon His precious blood, but who cannot speak with certainty of their salvation. Hence the need nowadays of pressing assurance, and of showing how it comes, through simply taking God at His word. Take, for example, that well-known verse Acts 13:39, "By Him all that believe are justified from all things." What an efficient weapon such a scripture is for putting doubts and fears to flight!

How many believers on the Lord Jesus are held in bitter bondage of soul, sometimes for long years, by the fear that it is presumption on their part to take the ground of being sure of salvation. But to believe God is surely no presumption. On the other hand to refuse to believe God’s testimony is indeed presumption. How honouring to take God at His word. Here is one passage of Scripture out of many, that makes it abundantly plain that we can know for certain, that believing on the Lord Jesus we are saved, and that the very moment we believe. We read,

Is there some reader of these lines who lacks assurance? Are you a prey to doubts and fears as to your salvation? What you need is to receive the witness of the Spirit in "full assurance of faith," as verse 22 puts it. Could more reliable witness be presented to you than that of God, the Holy Ghost? No! Could His witness be presented to you in a more stable or more satisfactory form than in the Scriptures of truth, which He has inspired? We venture to say, it could not.