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Sep 23, 2023 06:00am

No Room for Doubt

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A woman wept alone in her hotel room—a crumpled heap in the middle of the bed, only able to grip the sheets in agony. Each tear assaulted her like a tidal wave of doubt. Her face contorted from crying out as she faced her dilemma: she had been following Christ for many years now, but wondered if someone could be truly saved who had just sinned as grievously and for as long as she had.

Perhaps we have faced a similar crisis—some situation or sin in our lives causes us to be at a crossroads of whether we truly know the Lord or not. So what should we do when we doubt our salvation?

Some people tell you to write the date in the front of your Bible that you prayed a prayer of salvation, or walked an aisle during an invitation, or got baptized. Then if you ever doubt your salvation, those people tell you to open your Bible, look at the date, and be at peace because that one event in your life proves you are a Christian.

This is not only harmful but heretical as it can leave people stuck on the road to eternal torment and punishment for their sins in hell.

It is good to remember the day of your salvation and be thankful for the grace given to you when God began a good work in your life. But the Bible never tells us to look to a date for assurance. If we are dependent on a moment for our salvation rather than currently looking to the crucified Savior, then we may have good reason to doubt our position before God.

The true evidence of genuine saving faith is not in a one moment event but rather in a current examination of our lives.

Jesus says that the one who truly believes will demonstrate their faith by a life that bears fruit (Mark 4:20). He is not talking about apples and oranges here. However, just as the outward produce of an apple tree is a sign that it really is an apple tree, a Christian’s life will display evidence that instills confidence of being the genuine article: “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:8).

Paul tells the Corinthian church they should search for this evidence in their lives: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” (2 Corinthians 13:5).

Moments of doubt can actually be a good thing if we use them to look for signs that we are “walk[ing] by the Spirit, and . . . not gratify[ing] the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).

If we are walking according to the flesh, Paul says it will be evident. Our lives will be marked by “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (Galatians 5:19–21). The warning is that if our lives line up more with these things, then we can have no confidence that we will “inherit the kingdom of God.”

On the contrary, the Christian’s life will be marked by “the fruit of the Spirit” which “is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23). If we truly “belong to Christ Jesus” we will “have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24).

This is huge. In our moments of doubt, our response to our sin plays a pivotal factor in our assurance. Are we bearing fruit by keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8)? That is, when we sin, is our conscience pricked and grieved over our offense against God, causing us to despise and reject our sin and turn once again to Christ for forgiveness? Are we willing to forsake our sin in order to gain Christ? Are we daily asking the Spirit to help us obey God and not give into temptation? Or is our sin not a big deal to us?

If the latter is the case, then there is much room for doubt that we truly know the Lord. When we experience a “crisis of faith” (questioning if we are truly saved or not), it is a cause for alarm, but not the kind you might think. We do not need to be alarmed that the very act of doubting our salvation will send us to hell. The crime is not in the questioning. Rather, the crisis moment causes an alarm to go off in us, alerting us to the danger of sin.

The Christian’s alarm may be caused by a grievous sin they have allowed to go on in their life without repentance. Now the Spirit is alerting them to the grave danger they are in if they do not flee from it and turn back to Christ.

The non-Christian may be alerted to their sin for the very first time and experience a critical juncture in their life—to repent of their sins and turn to Christ for salvation, or to ignore their current distress and continue living as before.

Doubting brings us to a place where we can receive grace—either the grace of assurance or the grace to repent and believe.

The Christian can gain assurance they belong to God, not by turning to the date written in their Bible and brushing away any nagging conviction of sin, but by repenting of their sin and continuing to follow Jesus. Doubt can bring a non-Christian to the realization that they never knew Christ as their Savior, therefore giving them the chance to call on His name and be saved.

Do not fear those times when doubt creeps in. Do not ignore those moments that nag your conscience. Rather, do honestly examine yourself. Do forsake your sin. Do call to the Lord to save you, and then do cling to Christ in assurance that he promises he will save everyone who calls upon his name (Romans 10:13).