Discipleship

Blessed Assurance or Twelve Ways Whereby I May Know That I am a Child of God

By Homer Duncan
Missionary Crusader

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

Two problems of Satanic origin confront us: Satan makes many people think they are Christians when they are not, and he torments born again Christians by making them doubt their salvation. It is deplorable for born again Christians to live without assurance; it is tragic for unsaved people to think they are Christians when they are not.

Many people think if we are sincere in what we believe we shall be saved, but let me tell you a story of the old West that illustrates this is not true. In 1895 an English mining company spent over a million dollars building a wooden flume twelve miles long on the wall of the San Miguel River in Western Colorado. This flume was built to carry water along the canyon wall so that the gold could be placed from the gravel bars in the river. At the beginning of this tremendous undertaking, a sawmill to make lumber for this flume was built on the eastern slope of the La Salle Mountains. A road had to be hewed thirty miles through the wilderness from the sawmill to the canyon where the flume was to be built. Remnants of this old road can be seen today.

The flume, a wooden trough, four feet wide and six feet deep, had to be built about five hundred feet above the riverbed. Men suspended in rope slings were lowered from the top of the canyon wall, where day after day with jacks and drills they bored holes in the solid rock of the canyon wall. These holes were for the supporting steel that was to hold the wooden flume in place. One man lost his life while drilling these holes when his sling broke, letting him fall to his death at the bottom of the canyon.

After many months of hard labor, the climactic day came when the water was to be turned into the flume. People came from far and wide to join in the celebration, but when the gates were opened, the water did not run in. To the consternation of all, it was found that the engineer had made a slight miscalculation, making the flume just a bit too much upgrade for the water to run into it. The engineer was an Englishman by the name of Caden. When he saw his tragic mistake, he climbed to the highest point on the canyon wall and jumped to his death.

Today only a few weather-beaten timbers remain, jutting out starkly from the red sandstone cliffs above the San Miguel River. These mute remnants speak to us of the tragedy of wasted lives and wasted dollars.

A greater tragedy than this is being reenacted in the lives of millions of people, in all parts of the world, who “have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Romans 10:2, 3).

The mining company was perfectly sincere when it invested the money in building this flume. The engineer who drew the plans and laid out the course of the flume was sincere. The workmen who toiled with back-breaking labor over a period of many months were sincere, but they were all sincerely wrong–and all they did was to no avail.

Many people sincerely believe that if they do more good works than they do bad works they will go to heaven when they die, but the Bible says, “There is a way that seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 16:25). It is not only the way that seems wrong but also the way that seems right that ends in death. Just because it “seems” to be right does not make it right. A wall may appear to be straight up and down, but if we want to know whether or not it is perpendicular, it must be tested with a level or with a plumbline. The Bible is the “plumbline” by which we can determine the right way. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20).

Satan’s Counterfeits

The Bible teaches that Satan has a counterfeit for each of the genuine things of God. The worth of a counterfeit lies in the fact that it so closely resembles the genuine that it takes an expert to distinguish between them. For this reason, the average person does not ordinarily recognize a counterfeit when he sees it.

The Bible reveals a Holy Trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It also reveals the Hellish trinity of Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet.

God has His Gospel; Satan also has his gospel. Satan’s gospel does not teach
men to be loathsome and wicked, but rather his gospel is a perversion of the Gospel of God. Paul said, “I Marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ into another gospel: which is not another: but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:6-8). A counterfeit gospel is one that leads men to a faith that is not based on the Word of the living God.

God has his ministers; Satan has his ministers (2 Cor. 11:13-15). It is commonly thought that Satan’s ministers are thugs in the underworld; instead in many cases, his ministers stand behind the once sacred pulpit in many of our leading churches. They transform themselves into ministers of righteousness. They pray pious prayers. They preach sermons with texts taken from the Bible, but they serve Satan and not God.

There are genuine Christians, and there are counterfeit Christians. They look so much alike that they cannot be told apart (Matt. 13:24-30). The genuine Christian has been born again by the Word of God. He has been reconciled to God through the death of Christ. Christ lives in his heart. The counterfeit Christian has made a profession of faith; he has joined the church; he has been baptized; he has all of the outward appearances of being a Christian. He may even speak the language of a Christian. He may be active in so-called Christian work, but he is not a Christian because he does not have Christ. He knows nothing of the power of the risen Christ in his life. D. L. Moody estimated that ninety percent of the church members were lost. Spiritually minded denominational leaders make a similar estimate of present-day church membership.

God has His Church; Satan has his church. Christ’s Church is His body and His Bride (Eph. 1:22, 23; 5:27). Satan’s church is described as the impure harlot (Rev. 17:5). Christ’s Church is composed of all born again believers who have been baptized by the Spirit into His body (1 Cor. 12:13). Satan’s church (Christendom) is composed of unregenerate joiners. The members of Satan’s church have “Churchianity” instead of Christ.

The Bible exhorts us to “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?” (2 Cor. 13:5). The word “reprobates” here might well be translated counterfeits. What is the test according to this verse? How we live? What we profess? Where is our membership? It is none of these things, but rather “how that Jesus Christ is in you.”

TWELVE WAYS WHEREBY WE MAY KNOW THAT WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF GOD

1. We Can Know That We Are A Christian Because We Are A New Creature In Christ.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). A Christian is not merely a person who has turned over a new leaf. If it were possible for the sinner to turn from all of his sins he would still be lost. Getting religion will not save. Joining the church will not save. Even professing Christ will not save.

To be saved a person must be born of God; he must be reconciled to God. When a person is born of God, he receives a divine nature, even the very nature of Christ. When a person passes from darkness to light, and from death to life, a change is bound to take place in his life. This change may be gradual in some cases. It may be with or without emotional manifestations. It may be more pronounced in some than in others, but a change must take place. If a person makes a profession of faith and nothing happens in his life, it is very evident that he has not been born again.

Karga of Togaliland is a good example of the transforming power of God.

The people in Togaliland did not have graves. When anyone died they were eaten by their relatives unless they had leprosy. If they had leprosy their body was thrown to the hyenas. Those who died from any other disease were cooked in the family ceremonial pot, the flesh eaten, and the bones put under a pile of stones as a family shrine. No man in Togaliland could marry until he had taken the head of someone in a neighboring tribe and given it to the father of the girl he wanted to marry.

When the missionaries came preaching the Gospel of the grace of God, Karga was the first one to be saved. He was a big, tall, one-eyed man who was feared by all who knew him. Karga’s father had been killed by the Belari people, and Karga had taken a blood oath that he would not rest until he had killed at least 100 Belari people. He was well on his way to accomplishing this goal when he turned to Christ. He began to work for the missionaries and to help them in the language study.

Early one morning he came in and said, “Today I do not work; I go to Belari.” The missionaries’ hearts sank. They thought that he had heard that some Belari people were hunting nearby and that he intended to waylay and kill them.

They said, “Oh, Karga, you are a Christian, you cannot go to Belari.”

“I go to Belari.”

“But, Karga, you can’t kill them. You are a Christian.”

“I am not going to kill them. Last night Jesus spoke to me and said, ‘Karga, I have come into your heart. You are a Jesus boy, and the Belari people are still afraid of you. Their children cry at night when they think that you may kill their daddy on the path. But, Karga, because I have come into your heart, you cannot kill the Belari people anymore, but they do not know it. You must go to them and tell them what I have done for you.’ So I go to Belari to tell them that they need not fear me anymore.”

“But, Karga, they will kill you. You cannot go to them.”

“Well, that is all right; Jesus told me to go, and I go.”

Karga made the first trip safely. Then every day when he finished his work at three in the afternoon, he would walk six miles to visit the family that had killed his father and would sit around and tell them what he knew about Christ. One day they brought twenty-two Belari men to be baptized. The Belari people invited Karga to be their pastor. He pastored that church over twenty years, and in that time he baptized 1500 Belari people who had been savage, pagan headhunters. “If any man be in Christ he is a new creature.”

Multiplied thousands of cannibals and headhunters have been transformed into saints by the power of God. But you do not have to be like one of them to experience His saving grace. You may be a decent, respectable, church member, having a form of godliness without experiencing the power thereof. If you have been born again, a change will take place in your life.

2. We Know That We Are Christians Because We Have A New Desire To Do The Will of God

“And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby we know that we are in him” (I John 2:3-5). These verses are not teaching salvation through keeping the Mosaic law. They speak of “His commandments.” Jesus said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one to another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another” (John 13: 34, 35). Jesus said, “Behold, I have come…to do Your will, O God” (Hebrews 10:7). If this same Christ lives in us, we too will delight to do the will of God (Psalm 40:8). Having a new nature we shall in all things seek to please Him.

Just because we profess to believe on Christ, or because we have been baptized in the name of Christ, or because we are a member of a Christian church does not necessarily mean that we really belong to Christ. Jesus said, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it” (Matt 7:22-26).

Our Savior is not teaching salvation by works but is showing that saving faith will result in obedience. The Apostle Paul, the great champion of salvation by grace and of justification by faith, stressed the importance of obedience. Paul and James are in perfect accord at this point. The theology which teaches that the grace of God does nothing for you and to you is false. The faith that saves transforms; the truth that saves gives life.

3. The Christian Will Love The World Of Lost Men, But He Will Not Love The World System

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever” (I John 2:15-17). These verses clearly state that if we love the world the love of the Father is not in us. The world is defined as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The Christian will love the things of God rather than the things of the world.

4. The Christian Will Have A New Sense Of The Sinfulness Of Sin

“Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin because he is born of God” (I John 3: 6 – 9). What do these verses mean? They mean exactly what they say. But be assured that they are not teaching that we must be perfect before we can go to heaven. They are not teaching sinless perfection or the eradication of our sin nature. If we had to be perfect before we could go to heaven, who then would be saved?  ^“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).

The difficulty in these verses is in the tense of the verb “commit”. A better translation would be, “does not practice sin.” Every Christian does sin at some time or other, and those that say they do not, sin by their own self-righteousness. God demands perfection, but that perfection is found only in Christ. God demands righteousness, and we are clothed upon with the perfect righteousness of Christ. This is the positional aspect of our salvation. The practical aspect is that we are to grow in grace, we are to be perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. When a person professes to be a Christian and continues to live in sin, it is good evidence that he never has been born again.

This is illustrated by the hog and by the sheep. The hog is a picture of a sinner, the sheep of a Christian. The hog loves the muck and the mire. The filthier and dirtier he is, the better he likes it. There is nothing wrong about his wallowing in the mud. This is his nature.

The sheep, on the other hand, is a clean animal. Did you ever see a sheep wallowing in the mud? A sheep may slip and fall in the mud, but he will not stay there. When the mud dries on his coat he will rub it off on a post or the corner of a fence.

The sinner loves sin. He habitually lives in sin. He enjoys the pleasures of sin. The Christian may slip and fall into sin, but he cannot love or enjoy sin. The Christian is miserable when he falls into sin. ‘He can find no peace of heart until he confesses his sin and is restored to fellowship with God. When a Christian sins, he loses the joy of his salvation, and cries as did David, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation” Psalm 51:12. The evidence according to these verses that we are a child of God is that we will not habitually practice sin.

5. If We Are Christians We Will Love Other Christians

“We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death” (I John 3:14). This is strong language, and this verse gives clear cut evidence as to whether or not we are a child of God. Three observations are in order here. First, “the brethren” means all Christians and not merely those of our particular group or denomination. We must love other Christians even though they differ with us on doctrinal matters and even though they do not have all of the light that we have (or that we think we have) on some particular subject. Second, we are to love in deed and in truth. The Bible has much to say about unfeigned love and loving without hypocrisy. For a definition of love read First Corinthians Thirteen. Third, we like to be with those we love. If we love the brethren we shall have a desire to assemble with them to have fellowship with them in the house of God.

6. The Holy Spirit Lets Us Know That We Belong To Christ

“And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the spirit which he hath given unto us” (I John 3:24). “Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his spirit” (I John 4:13). “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself” (I John 5:10). “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Romans 8:16). Every saved person has the Holy Spirit. “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8′:9). The Christian does not need to expect some particular feeling at the moment he believes on Christ, for faith and not feeling is the condition of our salvation. When a condemned man on death row is pardoned, he should experience joy and relief at the knowledge he is no longer condemned. When the sinner fully realizes what Christ has done for him, he should be filled with peace and joy in believing. When the Spirit of God controls our lives the fruit of the Spirit will be borne in our lives. It is good to have the witness of the Spirit, but we must ever keep in mind that we are saved by faith and not by feeling.

An old Quaker has put it this way:

Frames and feelings fluctuate; these can ne’r thy Savior be,
Learn thy self in Christ to see, Then be thy feelings what they will,
Jesus is thy Savior still.

It is a wonderful thing to feel like we are saved, but how good it is to know that we are saved even when we do not feel like it. When we sin we grieve the Holy Spirit and thus lose the joy of our salvation. When we take our eyes off of Christ to look at ourself or our experience, we easily doubt our salvation.

An illustration is given of Fact, Faith, and Experience walking along the top of a wall. Fact walked steadily on, turning neither to the right nor the left and never looking behind. Faith followed, and all went well so long as he kept his eyes focused on Fact; but as soon as he became concerned about Experience and turned to see how he was getting on, he lost his balance and tumbled off the wall; and poor Experience fell down after him. If we are to stay in fellowship with Christ we must keep our eyes on Him.

7. The Believer Knows That He Is Saved Because He Is Led By The Spirit Of God

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14). Though the Christian is not always submissive to the leading of the Holy Spirit he has the joy of being led in all that he does. The Holy Spirit not only directs in the great decisions of life, but also He wants to guide us in the most minute details if we will let Him. The wonderful leading of the Spirit of God is one of the evidences that we belong to Him.

8. When We Are Saved We Will Have A New Love For The Word Of God

“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (I Peter 2:2). Every living organism must have food or it will die. If a person is healthy, there is normal hunger for food. Just as the physical man desires physical food, so in the same way the spiritual man desires spiritual food. This food is the Word of God. Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). If a person professes to be a Christian but does not have hunger for the Word of God, one of two things must be true. Either he is spiritually dead or he is spiritually sick. The true Christian will find delight in feeding his soul on the Word of God.

9. When We Are Saved We Should Have A New Understanding Of The Bible

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (I Cor. 2:12).

We are not saying that the Christian will understand everything in the Bible, for the Bible is an infinite Book given by an infinite God, and we cannot fully comprehend it with a finite mind. There is too much in the Bible for any man to completely master it in a lifetime. Every born again person should have the experience of being taught by the Holy Spirit.

This heavenly teacher delights to take the things of Christ and show them unto us. Before we were saved we studied the Bible from an intellectual viewpoint much as we would study any other book, but the Spirit-led believer approaches the Bible in a sense of complete dependence on the Holy Spirit to give divine illumination. When we are thus taught, texts, passages, and truths that were once meaningless spring to life. Words that were once cold burn with fire. Our experience is the same as the disciples who walked with Jesus on the Emmaus Road. They said, “Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” (Luke 24:32). Friend, do you often have a burning heart as the Holy Spirit shows the things of Christ to you?

10. The Child Of God Will Have A Desire To Talk With His Heavenly Father

“Ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). The unregenerate says prayers. The believer prays in the Spirit. Prayer to the unregenerate man is a meritorious act whereby he seeks to obtain favor with a holy God. Some of the most wicked people in the world say prayers every night. Unregenerate preachers may pray eloquent prayers, but the child of God will commune with God as a child with his heavenly Father. Before we are saved we pray because we think it is our duty to do so. When we are saved we pray because we delight to spend the time in the presence of our God and Father.

11. When We Are Saved We Will Have A New Love For The Lost

“For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead” (2 Cor. 5:14).

The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to seek and save the lost. If He lives in our hearts we will now through our humanity seek and save the lost the same as He did through His humanity when He lived and walked on the shores of Galilee. He will not use all of us in the same way for the Holy Spirit places each one in the body of Christ as it pleases Him, but every believer in Christ should have a vital part in the great ministry of world evangelism.

12. We Know That We Are Christians Because We Are Chastened Of The Lord

“For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Hebrews 12:6). When God chastens us, we know that we belong to Him. If a person
professes to be a Christian and continues to live in sin, and yet prospers in his evil way and is not chastened of the Lord, it is axiomatic that he is not a Christian. “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” Note well that “every” son is chastened of the Lord. Keep in mind that God does not necessarily chasten us immediately when we sin. He gives us an opportunity to repent of our sins, to turn from our sins, and to confess our sins to Him. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9).

Dear friend, where do you stand with God in the light of the above Scriptures? You can know, and God wants you to know that you are saved. No longer should you have a “I hope so” or “I think so” salvation. As you measure yourself by the standard which God has given you can be absolutely sure as to whether or not you are saved. “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” (2 Cor. 13:5).

The stakes are too high for you to gamble with the eternal destiny of your soul, The Bible clearly teaches that there is a heaven to gain, and that there is a hell to shun. The issue is not how you live but of having life. Life is in the person of God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

The clear cut issue is this: ”What shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” There is no middle ground. You must accept Him or reject Him. If you say, “I shall wait,” you are rejecting Him.

If you are not absolutely sure of your salvation, the best thing to do is to make
sure. You can make sure by sincerely praying a prayer something like this,

“Dear Lord Jesus, I am not sure that I am saved. If I have never done so before, I here and now receive you as my Lord and Savior, and on the basis of your Word I thank you for saving me, and I ask you to give me that sweet and blessed assurance that I am saved. “

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