We live in a time when “Christianity” is the largest religious group in the world. Jesus predicted that Christianity would expand. However, in some parables He seemed to indicate that there would be false professors within the Church (Matt. 13:31-33). Paul and other apostles warn against false prophets who would creep into the Church (Acts 20:29). Jesus also indicated that there would be many people who claimed to know Him as Lord in the Day of Judgment but who never truly knew Him (Matt. 7:21-22). So, this brings up the important question: How can we be sure that we are not a part of this false Christianity—that we are not unsaved professed ‘Christians’?
If you have asked yourself this question in the past, then I fear less for you than for other people who have never questioned the genuineness of their faith. Though, I believe there are some Christians who have been given a gift of faith and who do truly never doubt their salvation. For most of us, though, we lack faith and have enough sin in our lives that we sometimes wonder if we are truly His children. We frankly are lacking in the fruit of the Spirit, and so we wonder. Paul told people to examine themselves to see if they were truly God’s children (2 Cor. 13:5). A whole book of the Bible (1 John) is dedicated to tests of genuine faith. But surely we are not to be continually questioning our faith, right? When do we have assurance of salvation and when do we test ourselves?
These questions have all been very important to me, since I have at times struggled with assurance and people around me have struggled with it. The Bible has the answers. It teaches us that any Christian can and should come to full assurance of salvation (1 John 5:13; 2 Tim. 1:12; 1:7). There’s no need to live in perpetual doubts and questions.
Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, and genuine faith in Christ alone for salvation only comes from a miraculous work of the Spirit of God (Eph. 2:8). Works are evidences of faith and not a means of salvation (Gal. 2:16; James 2:17). All true Christians understand this last point, though it can be partially forgotten. There are a couple of things we can conclude from these points. We know then that assurance of salvation has to ultimately stem from complete faith in Christ alone. Assurance cannot come simply from examining ourselves and our works. Also, we can conclude that genuine faith is somehow inherently distinct from an imposter faith. These conclusions provide an important basis for determining the importance of good works and the examination of our hearts and actions.
When we were first saved, we trusted not at all in our works but only in Jesus Christ. The Bible promises repeatedly without exception and without apology that those who humbly trust in Jesus for their salvation will be saved (John 3:16; Gal. 2:16; Romans 3:22; 3:28; 5:1; 1 Thess. 4:14; 1 John 5:1). These promises can and should be fully trusted. Never add good works to a sort-of recipe for salvation! All false religions add works to the mix. True saving faith persistently says, “Jesus alone is my hope and righteousness. I humbly confess my complete unworthiness of salvation and my vileness apart from Him!” No matter how godly we become after salvation, our hearts still understand this message. Christ is our only sure hope of heaven. We can never point to our good works and say, “That’s why I’m going to be in heaven.”
Most of Christendom, as best I can tell, does not understand this most fundamental truth. Most of professed Christians are resting partly in one or more of their works for salvation, whether it be confessions, a sinner’s prayer, walking an aisle, giving money to the poor, or living a moral life. No one who ultimately rests in any one of their good works is genuinely saved. If they never dropped all their striving for salvation and dropped all their filthy rags of self-righteousness (Is. 64:6) and humbly trusted the gift of redemption in Jesus Christ, they were never saved.
Look at what the false professors will say to Jesus in the Day of Judgment: “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” (Matt. 7:22). They say, in effect, look what we have done for You in Your name! They do not plead the perfect righteousness of Christ. They do not cry out for mercy because He had died for them. They do not humbly admit their unworthiness—just the opposite. They try to prove their worthiness! How foolish. Most of Christendom will be trying to prove their worthiness before Christ in the judgment, I believe. Are we in that group?
What is the difference between genuine faith and imposter faith, then? Genuine faith is born of the Spirit of God and has certain unique characteristics that cannot ever come from a spiritually dead heart: (1) it is a profoundly humble faith, (2) it is a faith resting fully in Christ alone for redemption, (3) it a heart-changing faith, and (4) it is a sustained faith that cannot fully die. The Bible presents the consistent message that a saved person is at some level characterized by humility (Ps. 149:4; Luke 18:13; 1 Pet. 5:6; James 4:10). That is certainly not to say that a saved person has no issues with pride (1 Tim. 3:6; 2 Chr. 32:25-26), but humility is foundational to their salvation (Ps. 149:4). It is a humility of heart before God that says, “I am not worthy of the least of Your mercies, and I have no hope outside of Your Son.” This is in contrast to the proud Pharisees who believed their own righteousness was good enough to win God’s favor (Mark 2:16-18). Genuine faith sees no hope in the flesh (Acts 4:12; Rom. 3:28; 7:18; Phil. 3:3). Genuine faith is heart deep, not skin deep. It is not just received by the mind, it deeply touches the heart (2 Cor. 5:17; Ez. 36:26). One who genuinely trusts in only Jesus Christ cannot but love Him for His loving grace (1 John 4:19). So, true faith impacts the heart, which means there will be repentance from sins (Mark 1:15; 2 Cor. 5:7; 2 John 1:6; 1 John 5:3; John 14:21). Love for God will most certainly result in a desire to keep His commandments (even though very imperfectly). Finally, this true faith is from God and is sustained by Him (Eph. 2:8; Phil. 1:6). God will never fail. Those who are given faith by God will persevere in that faith. That does not mean that Christians never doubt or temporarily wonder about Jesus, like John the Baptist did (Matt. 11:2-3). Christians can be plagued with chronic doubts. No, the point is that God will keep picking up His child and never let them ultimately turn away from Him (Ps. 37:23-24). Imposter faith never has all these characteristics. It may be that our faith so obviously has had these characteristics, and we can find a good measure of assurance from it.
So, what is the point of examining ourselves if works are not necessary for salvation? If we don’t bear any good fruit or our lives are filled with only rotten fruit, then our faith is found to be invalid (Luke 6:43-44; 1 John 3:8-10). Examining our external works, I believe, can only prove if our faith is false. We cannot prove our faith by merely examining our physical works. We can, however, prove that our faith is not genuine saving faith by examining our works. Now, that said, examining our hearts and desires and actions, as shown from 1 John, can help assure us of salvation. Particularly, our heart desires can strongly indicate the genuineness of our faith. As I just mentioned in the last paragraph, and as is taught in 1 John over and over again, saving faith has certain attributes that we can examine to be assured by, but this is still ultimately not proof. Once we see that our faith seems to be genuine, saving faith, we still can do nothing but rest simply and fully in Jesus for salvation. (It is interesting that in 2 Cor. 13:5-6, Paul does not directly call on the Corinthians to examine their works but rather indicates that they should examine their hearts to see if Christ was in them.)
I think it is like this. If we have reason to question our salvation, we should examine ourselves. Examining ourselves should either prove our faith to be invalid, or it should assure us that it is real and from God. In the case of a lack of good fruit in our lives, however, examining our hearts and our works may seem to get us nowhere. It may not assure us or invalidate our faith. In such a case, the only cure for a lack of assurance may be to “make our calling and election sure” by pursuing God more passionately, seeking opportunities to grow spiritually, and to look again with renewed faith to the Cross for forgiveness and redemption. People who will not find assurance from examining themselves would be people who aren’t able to easily discern that their faith has the characteristics discussed above, and who do not see good evidence of a new heart and new desires in their lives. Basically, these people have weak faith or, in the worst case, no true faith.
The bottom line is this: No one who is consistently sorrowful over their sins, who humbly and fully trusts only in the work of Jesus for salvation, who desires godliness for non-selfish reasons (no matter how weak that desire), who desires to be free from sin, and who has a measure of love for God and His people, cannot possibly be lost no matter how little fruit in their lives. (Actually, these desires and heart attitudes are evidence in and of themselves.) There are certain evidences in a Christian’s life that are infallible proofs of a new heart, I believe. These evidences are impossible for an unregenerate heart to possess. If you possess genuine faith in Christ, you can be absolutely assured of salvation and eternal life. The question is simply, “Is your faith genuine?” Hopefully I gave a good summary of what genuine faith looks like.
Here are some reasons why a person probably should examine themselves. You should examine yourself if people are not seeing Christ in your life and they confront you on it, like Paul did in the case of the Corinthians. You probably should examine yourself if you have never done so. You might examine yourself if you feel far from God (this is usually the result of a sin problem). You should examine yourself if you have never felt assured that your faith is genuine.
Once you find assurance, I believe it is wrong to obsess or to fearfully keep returning to examine yourself. Periodic examining of yourself may not be wrong, but it should not be a perpetual examination. (I’m talking about examining yourself to see if you are truly a believer. Examining yourself for sin is something that should be perpetual.) God wants His children to eventually rest peacefully in hope of eternal life (1 John 5:13). He does not intend on us doubting over and over again. Pray for greater faith if you are one who returns to doubts. The exhortations to examine yourself in the Bible, I believe, are intended for people who do not have a good testimony and who have never examined themselves to the point of finding assurance. We must also notice that Paul was apparently relatively assured that the Corinthians would be not be found to be unbelievers even after examination (2 Cor. 13:5-6; 8:9; 1:7). He spoke with the assumption that they were believers. Paul appears to have had good hope even for many of these people with poor testimonies.
If you have asked yourself this question in the past, then I fear less for you than for other people who have never questioned the genuineness of their faith. Though, I believe there are some Christians who have been given a gift of faith and who do truly never doubt their salvation. For most of us, though, we lack faith and have enough sin in our lives that we sometimes wonder if we are truly His children. We frankly are lacking in the fruit of the Spirit, and so we wonder. Paul told people to examine themselves to see if they were truly God’s children (2 Cor. 13:5). A whole book of the Bible (1 John) is dedicated to tests of genuine faith. But surely we are not to be continually questioning our faith, right? When do we have assurance of salvation and when do we test ourselves?
These questions have all been very important to me, since I have at times struggled with assurance and people around me have struggled with it. The Bible has the answers. It teaches us that any Christian can and should come to full assurance of salvation (1 John 5:13; 2 Tim. 1:12; 1:7). There’s no need to live in perpetual doubts and questions.
Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, and genuine faith in Christ alone for salvation only comes from a miraculous work of the Spirit of God (Eph. 2:8). Works are evidences of faith and not a means of salvation (Gal. 2:16; James 2:17). All true Christians understand this last point, though it can be partially forgotten. There are a couple of things we can conclude from these points. We know then that assurance of salvation has to ultimately stem from complete faith in Christ alone. Assurance cannot come simply from examining ourselves and our works. Also, we can conclude that genuine faith is somehow inherently distinct from an imposter faith. These conclusions provide an important basis for determining the importance of good works and the examination of our hearts and actions.
When we were first saved, we trusted not at all in our works but only in Jesus Christ. The Bible promises repeatedly without exception and without apology that those who humbly trust in Jesus for their salvation will be saved (John 3:16; Gal. 2:16; Romans 3:22; 3:28; 5:1; 1 Thess. 4:14; 1 John 5:1). These promises can and should be fully trusted. Never add good works to a sort-of recipe for salvation! All false religions add works to the mix. True saving faith persistently says, “Jesus alone is my hope and righteousness. I humbly confess my complete unworthiness of salvation and my vileness apart from Him!” No matter how godly we become after salvation, our hearts still understand this message. Christ is our only sure hope of heaven. We can never point to our good works and say, “That’s why I’m going to be in heaven.”
Most of Christendom, as best I can tell, does not understand this most fundamental truth. Most of professed Christians are resting partly in one or more of their works for salvation, whether it be confessions, a sinner’s prayer, walking an aisle, giving money to the poor, or living a moral life. No one who ultimately rests in any one of their good works is genuinely saved. If they never dropped all their striving for salvation and dropped all their filthy rags of self-righteousness (Is. 64:6) and humbly trusted the gift of redemption in Jesus Christ, they were never saved.
Look at what the false professors will say to Jesus in the Day of Judgment: “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” (Matt. 7:22). They say, in effect, look what we have done for You in Your name! They do not plead the perfect righteousness of Christ. They do not cry out for mercy because He had died for them. They do not humbly admit their unworthiness—just the opposite. They try to prove their worthiness! How foolish. Most of Christendom will be trying to prove their worthiness before Christ in the judgment, I believe. Are we in that group?
What is the difference between genuine faith and imposter faith, then? Genuine faith is born of the Spirit of God and has certain unique characteristics that cannot ever come from a spiritually dead heart: (1) it is a profoundly humble faith, (2) it is a faith resting fully in Christ alone for redemption, (3) it a heart-changing faith, and (4) it is a sustained faith that cannot fully die. The Bible presents the consistent message that a saved person is at some level characterized by humility (Ps. 149:4; Luke 18:13; 1 Pet. 5:6; James 4:10). That is certainly not to say that a saved person has no issues with pride (1 Tim. 3:6; 2 Chr. 32:25-26), but humility is foundational to their salvation (Ps. 149:4). It is a humility of heart before God that says, “I am not worthy of the least of Your mercies, and I have no hope outside of Your Son.” This is in contrast to the proud Pharisees who believed their own righteousness was good enough to win God’s favor (Mark 2:16-18). Genuine faith sees no hope in the flesh (Acts 4:12; Rom. 3:28; 7:18; Phil. 3:3). Genuine faith is heart deep, not skin deep. It is not just received by the mind, it deeply touches the heart (2 Cor. 5:17; Ez. 36:26). One who genuinely trusts in only Jesus Christ cannot but love Him for His loving grace (1 John 4:19). So, true faith impacts the heart, which means there will be repentance from sins (Mark 1:15; 2 Cor. 5:7; 2 John 1:6; 1 John 5:3; John 14:21). Love for God will most certainly result in a desire to keep His commandments (even though very imperfectly). Finally, this true faith is from God and is sustained by Him (Eph. 2:8; Phil. 1:6). God will never fail. Those who are given faith by God will persevere in that faith. That does not mean that Christians never doubt or temporarily wonder about Jesus, like John the Baptist did (Matt. 11:2-3). Christians can be plagued with chronic doubts. No, the point is that God will keep picking up His child and never let them ultimately turn away from Him (Ps. 37:23-24). Imposter faith never has all these characteristics. It may be that our faith so obviously has had these characteristics, and we can find a good measure of assurance from it.
So, what is the point of examining ourselves if works are not necessary for salvation? If we don’t bear any good fruit or our lives are filled with only rotten fruit, then our faith is found to be invalid (Luke 6:43-44; 1 John 3:8-10). Examining our external works, I believe, can only prove if our faith is false. We cannot prove our faith by merely examining our physical works. We can, however, prove that our faith is not genuine saving faith by examining our works. Now, that said, examining our hearts and desires and actions, as shown from 1 John, can help assure us of salvation. Particularly, our heart desires can strongly indicate the genuineness of our faith. As I just mentioned in the last paragraph, and as is taught in 1 John over and over again, saving faith has certain attributes that we can examine to be assured by, but this is still ultimately not proof. Once we see that our faith seems to be genuine, saving faith, we still can do nothing but rest simply and fully in Jesus for salvation. (It is interesting that in 2 Cor. 13:5-6, Paul does not directly call on the Corinthians to examine their works but rather indicates that they should examine their hearts to see if Christ was in them.)
I think it is like this. If we have reason to question our salvation, we should examine ourselves. Examining ourselves should either prove our faith to be invalid, or it should assure us that it is real and from God. In the case of a lack of good fruit in our lives, however, examining our hearts and our works may seem to get us nowhere. It may not assure us or invalidate our faith. In such a case, the only cure for a lack of assurance may be to “make our calling and election sure” by pursuing God more passionately, seeking opportunities to grow spiritually, and to look again with renewed faith to the Cross for forgiveness and redemption. People who will not find assurance from examining themselves would be people who aren’t able to easily discern that their faith has the characteristics discussed above, and who do not see good evidence of a new heart and new desires in their lives. Basically, these people have weak faith or, in the worst case, no true faith.
The bottom line is this: No one who is consistently sorrowful over their sins, who humbly and fully trusts only in the work of Jesus for salvation, who desires godliness for non-selfish reasons (no matter how weak that desire), who desires to be free from sin, and who has a measure of love for God and His people, cannot possibly be lost no matter how little fruit in their lives. (Actually, these desires and heart attitudes are evidence in and of themselves.) There are certain evidences in a Christian’s life that are infallible proofs of a new heart, I believe. These evidences are impossible for an unregenerate heart to possess. If you possess genuine faith in Christ, you can be absolutely assured of salvation and eternal life. The question is simply, “Is your faith genuine?” Hopefully I gave a good summary of what genuine faith looks like.
Here are some reasons why a person probably should examine themselves. You should examine yourself if people are not seeing Christ in your life and they confront you on it, like Paul did in the case of the Corinthians. You probably should examine yourself if you have never done so. You might examine yourself if you feel far from God (this is usually the result of a sin problem). You should examine yourself if you have never felt assured that your faith is genuine.
Once you find assurance, I believe it is wrong to obsess or to fearfully keep returning to examine yourself. Periodic examining of yourself may not be wrong, but it should not be a perpetual examination. (I’m talking about examining yourself to see if you are truly a believer. Examining yourself for sin is something that should be perpetual.) God wants His children to eventually rest peacefully in hope of eternal life (1 John 5:13). He does not intend on us doubting over and over again. Pray for greater faith if you are one who returns to doubts. The exhortations to examine yourself in the Bible, I believe, are intended for people who do not have a good testimony and who have never examined themselves to the point of finding assurance. We must also notice that Paul was apparently relatively assured that the Corinthians would be not be found to be unbelievers even after examination (2 Cor. 13:5-6; 8:9; 1:7). He spoke with the assumption that they were believers. Paul appears to have had good hope even for many of these people with poor testimonies.
“…in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began…” (Titus 1:2)
“…knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.” (Gal. 2:16)
“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.” (1 John 5:13)
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:14-15)
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn [over sin], For they shall be comforted.” (Matt. 5:3-4)
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