What to do when you doubt your salvation

"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).

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).

The cause of so much uncertainty on this subject springs mainly from looking within instead of looking without to Christ — looking within to discover something that will give confidence that there is a real work of grace begun in the soul, instead of looking without to perceive that the only foundation on which a soul can rest before God is the precious blood of Christ. The consequence is that, perceiving the corruption, the evil of the flesh, the soul begins to doubt whether after all it has not been deceived. Satan thus entangling the soul, plies it with doubts and fears, in the hope of producing distrust of God, if not utter despair. The effectual means of foiling his assaults in this direction is to appeal to the written word. In answer to all his evil suggestions we should reply, as our blessed Lord did when He was tempted, "It is written," and then we should soon find that nothing could disturb our enjoyment of that peace with God which has been made by the precious blood of Christ, and which became ours as soon as we believed.

Again, you may easily conceive there were some inside the blood-stained door-posts who were the subjects of doubts and fears, and otherwise lacking comfort. Why? Because they forgot that all their safety was in the blood. If they were taken up with self, their own doings, feelings, fitness, and the like, they would surely be unhappy; but if their minds and hearts rested on the two things God had given them — the blood for a token, and His word for assurance — they would find it an effectual remedy for all doubts and fears. Trusting, then, wholly in the blood, and relying only on what God said about it, would be enough to keep them in perfect peace. And so now, God declares that Jesus has made peace by the blood of His cross, and He now proclaims peace to every one that believeth. And those who do believe, trusting only in the blood of Christ, and relying on what God says, that "whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish," they have peace with God. Oh yes, God's testimony to the all-cleansing virtue of the blood of Jesus is the remedy. for all doubts and fears. That precious blood withers up all fleshly confidence, and silences every accusing of conscience; for it tells of sins judged and cleansed. The blood speaks to us of God's perfect love, even when we were dead in sins; it tells us of peace made, of redemption accomplished, of a new and living way into the holiest, of title to everlasting glory.

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.

There is no uncertainty in divine things for those who, in faith, rest upon the word of God; and it is clear from the Scriptures that God desires His saints to be fully assured of His salvation, and of all that He has so graciously made known to us by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit. Defective teaching, and weakness of faith in God’s word, have very much to do with the doubts that afflict many true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Simply faith in what the Scripture says would dispel every doubt, giving assurance of God’s salvation and of the place of relationship and favour into which God, in His matchless grace, has set us before Him.

Only the Word of God can give certainty as to salvation. Redemption is secured through the work of Christ. Since He performed the work that was required, we need not worry. The certainty of our salvation derives, through faith, from the declarations of the Word of God. We are called to behold “the salvation of the LORD” and to stand still, resting fully on the many passages of the word such as Romans 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” and John 3:36: “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life.”

And if in simple faith thou dost accept Christ as thy Saviour, and on the authority of God’s Word learn that thou art saved, thy sins forgiven, thy future assured, thou wilt be able, like the blind man in John 9, to defeat all the brow-beating sophistry of infidel friends. The blind man was no match in argument or learning for the Pharisees and leaders of the synagogue, but one thing they could not shake him from. “One thing I KNOW, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.” The infidel cannot follow the believer into the region of experience. St. Augustine has given us very sound advice in charging us not to let that which we do not know shake us in that which we do know. The word of God commends the assurance of faith. “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may KNOW that ye have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).

But some one may say, “Am I always to be doubting whether I shall reach heaven in the end?” I answer, you ought never to have a single doubt in your mind. But the way to have the assurance that you shall eventually get to heaven lies in having the light of heaven clearly in your soul now. Read carefully the first chapter of second Peter. You will find there the way to make your calling and election sure, and you will find he does not give you a dogmatic statement of doctrine to rest on, but all is accomplished by getting heaven into your heart. I do not think much of a man’s profession to be going to heaven while his heart is full of the world. Neither is there a single text of scripture which will give a man the assurance that all will turn out well in a path of departure from Christ. The uniform testimony of the scriptures is that the soul who abandons Christ will perish. Again, I beseech my reader not to place his confidence of salvation in a past experience, but in the Lord’s ability to keep him, and the effect of this will be that he will cleave close to Christ, and not depart from Him. If anyone might have trusted in what he was, surely that one was the blessed Lord Himself, and indeed it was the very way by which the devil sought to overthrow Him, “If Thou be the Son of God,” and “cast Thyself down from thence,” quoting the scripture to prove that no harm could come to Him. But that ever perfect Man lets the enemy know that there were other scriptures which had their place as prominently in His mind as those used by Satan. He put His trust in God, and not in anything that was in Himself. He says, “Preserve Me, O God, for in Thee do I put My trust” (Ps. 16:1).

The object of faith is the person of the Lord Jesus, and the redemption accomplished by Him; and all believers, reaping the benefits of this work, are saved. Now one investigates and scrutinises in order to know whether one has faith in the heart, and whether it be true faith. We all pass more or less through this state, but true peace is never to be found there. It is perhaps, however, useful in humbling us, and teaching us that in us dwells no good thing. But we are not called upon to believe in the faith which is in us, but to believe in Christ Jesus; and God declares that all believers are justified, and have eternal life. I do not examine my eyes to know whether I see, but look at the object before them, and know that I see. People quote the passage in 2 Corinthians 13:5; but those who do so deceive themselves, leaving out the correct beginning of the passage, "Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, … examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith." The apostle shews them their folly in doubting his true apostleship. If Christ had not spoken by him, since they had received his word, how was it that he had been the means of their conversion? For the same reason he continues to inquire, "Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you?" Christ therefore had spoken by his mouth. There were many proofs of his apostleship. Here he shews them their stupidity, because if he were not an apostle, they would not be Christians. Of their conversion they had no doubt. If we examine ourselves to know whether we walk as Christians, we do well; but if we do so to know whether we are Christians, it is not according to the word.