The Spirit Assures us of Salvation

Am I really saved? That’s a question that we think about in valleys, that's a question that has haunted people throughout history. Some people would say you can't actually have assurance of salvation (this was a point of debate between Catholics and Protestants during the Reformation and is still a dividing issue today).

What does the Bible say?

• Ephesians 1:13-14, "¹³ In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory."

  • • God seals us. He makes sure that we’re going to get to the final destination, that we will be with Him in His presence and that we will receive our inheritance from Him. And the way God seals us is with His Spirit. When you send a package, the reason you tape it closed is so that the stuff in the package doesn’t come out during shipping. If you’re like me, you probably use more tape than you need to, but you’re going to make sure that it’s secure. The reason you stay saved, and are held in the hand of God and will eventually stand in the presence of God is because God gives you His Spirit. The Spirit is a down-payment, a guarantee that God will do this.

    • And if God has sealed us with His Spirit and guaranteed that we will be with Him in glory, then you can rest assured that God will do this. It’s by grace that you’re saved, it’s by the Spirit of God that you stayed saved. There’s nothing you can do to break that seal and undo the promises of God. That doesn’t mean that we don’t have responsibilities and we just do whatever we want, but it does mean that God’s promises will stand, we will be saved.

So, if you have the Spirit, you are saved and will be saved. The question then becomes, how do we know if we have the Spirit. There are probably a couple of ways to answer that question. And those answers are found in Romans 8 and 2 Peter 1. So first we’ll look at Romans 8. How do I know that I have the Spirit and am saved?

Romans 8:9-17

⁹ You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

¹² So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

• There are several things in this passage that we learn about the Spirit, but for the topic of assurance, notice this: the Spirit bears witness that we are children of God. And how is it that the Spirit is telling us and the people around us that we belong to God? The Spirit leads us to cry out to God as our Father.
  That means that when you feel that tug to draw near to God, that is the Spirit working inside of you. When you go through a trial, the loss of a loved one, an ongoing battle with sin, and you respond by crying out to God for help - that is a sign that the Spirit is working in you. And that is evidence that we are truly saved, that we are truly united to Jesus and children of God.
  And so as we think about the topic of assurance, this is a way for us to be confident that we know God, and it’s a way for us to encourage other people who are questioning whether they are really saved. Where do you keep coming back to? If you keep coming back to God, that is one of the main evidences that the Spirit is in us and God is our Father.

2 Peter 1:3-11

³ His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, ⁴ by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. ⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ⁶ and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, ⁷ and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. ⁸ For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. ¹⁰ Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. ¹¹ For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

• • This passage says that God has saved us from the world and given us everything that we need for life and godliness. For this reason, we should supplement our faith by living a life of godliness. That is the logical outflow of faith. You believe in God, therefore, you should also have virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. This is how you grow in the faith. You want to know what the next step in your Christian growth is, look at this list.

  • But notice vv 8-9.

    • • If you have these qualities, you will be effective and fruitful in your faith. You won’t just know something in your head, you’ll serve Him and bear fruit.

      • If you don’t have these qualities, if you’re not growing in your faith, then you will forget that you were cleansed from your sins. This is talking about assurance. We need to remember that we are cleansed from our sins, we need to remember that we are saved. The way that we are not nearsighted and blind to our own salvation is by growing in our faith (again, growing in these things on the list). If we’re not doing that, then something comes up in our life and it makes us feel a certain way, and we’re so nearsighted and focused on what is right in front of us that we forget the big picture of what God has done and where we are going.
        But growing in our faith helps widen our perspective to be able to see more of the timeline of what God is doing in our life. That when we hit these bumps in the road, or our path leads through the valley of darkness, that’s just part of the path toward the kingdom. And that gives us confidence to continue trusting and obeying God during that time of doubt and stumbling. If you want to insulate yourself from second-guessing and questioning, then focus on growing. That will strengthen your faith and anchor your soul so that you won’t get tossed to and fro when the wind and waves happen around us and inside of us.

God gives us the Spirit as a guarantee that we are His and will be with Him forever. We know that we have the Spirit because we keep coming back to God and crying out to Him as our Father, and because we continue to grow and walk in the Spirit.