‘At once I know that… they are still thinking in terms of themselves; their idea still is that they have to make themselves good enough to be a Christian… It sounds very modest but it is the lie of the devil, it is a denial of the faith… you will never be good enough; nobody has ever been good enough. The essence of the Christian salvation is to say that He is good enough and that I am in Him!’ | Martyn Lloyd-Jones answer to those who doubted their faith based on their own merit
The following is what I wrote to a person in the church who was struggling with whether or not they were a Christian. Since this is a question that I was asked more than once THIS WEEK, I decided to repost this for the sake of others. While the above quote sounds a bit harsh, this is not something anyone should feel ashamed of struggling with. Instead, the hope we all have is that what we currently feel is not what the Bible describes us as. We are objectively saved before we subjectively feel it. Our struggle is to hear the Bible through our doubt; here is my response:
The question of whether or not one is saved is a difficult one, and one that pastors are asked about A LOT. As a pastor, I never want to go beyond what the Scripture has to say, either way. At no point do I want to ignore the passages that say we can have assurance, nor do I want to minimize the ones that call us to obedience. Your concern seems to be that the warnings of Scripture condemn you, and they should. That conviction should lead you to seek Christ, the only hope you, I, or anyone else have.
Let me begin by addressing the passages that you sent. The first one:
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. | Hebrews 10:26–31
This is from a section that is titled in my Bible: The Full Assurance of Faith. This section is meant to bring about assurance in the heart of the believer, not fear. It gives us two pictures of salvation: one if we trust in our own goodness, one if we trust in the righteousness of Jesus. Verses 19-25 tell us that because of Jesus we can approach the throne of grace, assured that His act of sacrifice washes us pure. In v.26, we see the alternative. If we trample underfoot the Son of God, if we think He is not enough, we default to trying to find something in ourselves that is good enough to warrant salvation. Finding ourselves lacking, we are left with nothing but confusion and fear. The power of our salvation being in Jesus is that we can have a confidence from outside of ourselves; we can be sure even as we know that we are undeserving.
The second verse you sent says this:
For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. [21] For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. [22] What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.” | 2 Peter 2:20–22
The ‘they’ that Peter is referring to in this section is the false prophets who teach that something other than Jesus as Savior. He is pointing out that their Spiritual language, adopted from knowing about Jesus, does not rescue their false teaching. They are more dangerous, and it is worse for them, having some of the truth, while rejecting that which is most important. Peter is writing this as a reminder (3:1-2) so that the people do not get caught up in the false teaching of these false prophets. This section is not about someone who struggles with sin, fighting a (sometimes) losing battle against the flesh. This is about someone who has rejected Jesus and is now pursuing something else fully, and teaching others to do the same. Instead of focusing on your failures, pursue the list found in 2 Peter 1:5-7, because they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The third verse you sent was:
Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. | Matthew 12:31 – 32
These are the words of Jesus and contain the ‘unforgivable sin’ of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (also found in Mark 3). There are a lot of arguments about what this sin actually is. The one thing that we can find comfort in is that Jesus promises to carry His people to salvation, which means that for those who belong to Him, He will keep us from this (whatever it may be). Rather than worrying about whether or not you have the strength to keep yourself pure enough, you should lean into the promises of Jesus that nothing is powerful enough to pull His people from Him. As Romans 8 promises us:
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. | 37–39
Are deliberate sins enough to pull us from the love of God? NO! They are part of the everything that is not powerful enough to thwart God’s redemptive plan. But this doesn’t really answer your question, it just refocuses it. Your struggle with sin is not the measurement of whether or not you are a Christian. If it is, you will always be justified in condemning yourself. What you really want to know is: HOW CAN I BE SURE I BELONG TO GOD?
You can be sure that if you are pursuing God, trusting Jesus for salvation, and practicing the means of sanctification through the Holy Spirit that you belong to God. No one seeks after God, which means that the fact that you are struggling with whether or not you belong is proof that the Holy Spirit is at work within you. Don’t let your struggles and failures be the means by which you deem yourself worthy or unworthy of grace. We are ALL unworthy, that is why it is grace. While you work out your salvation with fear and trembling, remember that it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. | Philippians 2:13