When I first experienced the New Birth and was being discipled by The Navigators, the vital issue of assurance of salvation was the very first item on their agenda.
Why is that?
It’s because, if we don’t have this foundational principle down cold, we will never have strong faith and will continually experience spiritual defeat in this life.
What do I mean by “strong faith?”
If we are not absolutely convinced we are both eligible and qualified to receive whatever God promises in His Word, we will perpetually question whether it’s actually His will for us to have them. And that’s not to mention the devil will have a field day continually beating us upside the head over our inevitable spiritual failures.
We must have a heart revelation that:
- We are His precious children who cannot be dispossessed.
- Our past sins have been forgiven and removed from us forever.
- We possess right standing before God’s throne of grace by Jesus’ Blood, not by anything we bring to the table.
- His grace is more than enough for us to live in victory over our fleshly tendencies and the trials of life.
- And because of all that, we have inherited “His great and precious promises” so we can escape the corruption of the world system caused by covetousness (see 2 Peter 1:3-4).
The founders of The Navs knew this all too well, hence their emphasis on everyone in their organization immediately resolving this issue once and for all in the hearts and minds of all new believers they mentor.
Why this topic at this time?
I have the privilege of belonging to one of the few relatively-non-toxic theology groups I’ve ever encountered on FaceBook. Someone there brought up this issue, I responded briefly, and he then challenged me to expand upon what I said. As I pondered that, I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to write my response here instead for your benefit and then post the link to the group.
What Does The Word Say?
My opinion on any topic has precisely zero significance in the grand scheme of things spiritually. Only God’s Word is of value here. So let’s dig in!
Here is how one receives the New Birth and God’s salvation:
…because if you acknowledge and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord [recognizing His power, authority, and majesty as God], and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved . For with the heart a person believes [in Christ as Savior] resulting in his justification [that is, being made righteous—being freed of the guilt of sin and made acceptable to God]; and with the mouth he acknowledges and confesses [his faith openly], resulting in and confirming [his] salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him [whoever adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Him] will not be disappointed [in his expectations].”
Romans 10:9-11 AMP
We see 2 conditions here to God’s promise:
- Declare aloud Jesus as Lord
- Heart-belief that God raised Him from the dead.
Anywhere the word “believe” is used concerning salvation (e.g., John 3:16), the selfsame Greek verb pisteuo is used. It is translated in the Amplified Version here as “adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Him”. Rather than the mere intellectual assent our English word “believe” connotes, pisteuo literally means “faith unto surrender.”
Declaring Aloud Jesus as Lord
This is a verbal acknowledgement of our new spiritual reality: Jesus is now the Absolute Ruler over our lives.
Tragically, we tend to blow right past that word “lord” without giving it much thought. Here’s what it means in the Greek:
- lord ( kurios )
- he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord; the possessor and disposer of a thing; the owner; one who has control of the person, the master
in government: the sovereign, prince, chief, emperor
this title is given to: God, the Messiah
The over-arching concept here is “surrender” to Jesus as the absolute Master over our lives thus reinforcing the concept of “faith unto surrender.”
That commitment is an act of our free will. That decision cannot be classified as a “work” as Calvinists are wont to claim. It is indeed a choice, but surrender to someone is not a work. Rather, it is capitulation to the other’s control.
Lest there be any question in your mind on where I stand on how much we contribute to our salvation, let me hasten to say it is precisely zero. Our Heavenly Father initiated it and paved the Way, Jesus paid the price, the Holy Spirit wooed us to Him, revealed the Truth of the Gospel to us, gave us His faith, and then sealed the deal by regenerating us and moving into our physical bodies.
All we did was say, “Yes!”
Why is Confessing Aloud Crucial?
The essence meaning of the word “confess” is we are agreeing with God:
- confess (homologeo)
- Literally: same (homo) words (logeo)
to say the same thing as another, i.e. to agree with, assent; to confess or profess; to declare openly, speak out freely
So when we confess our sins to God (see 1 John 1:9) or one another (see James 5:16), we are agreeing in faith with God and others we have behaved selfishly and need/desire forgiveness. When we confess Jesus as our Lord, we are also agreeing in faith with the spiritual reality that Jesus is in fact Lord (see Philippians 2:9-11) which then clinches our salvation.
As for the “aloud” part, there is, of course, the scriptural requirement for us to publicly declare our allegiance to Jesus before others.
Therefore, the one who confesses and acknowledges Me before men [as Lord and Savior, affirming a state of oneness with Me], that one I will also confess and acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven. But the one who denies and rejects Me before men, that one I will also deny and reject before My Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 10:32-33 AMP
Why aloud? God knows our thoughts and hearts, so speaking out loud is not a requirement for Him to hear us. That being said, there are others who cannot read our thoughts and minds, specifically everyone who is not God.
- Ourselves
Our words are a powerful creative force in this earth because it is words which give our thoughts substance and clarity within our own minds. Transforming our fuzzy mental concepts into sharp convictions requires us to express them in words and sentences which can be clearly understood by others. Whenever we say something aloud, we are bringing our nebulous conceptual pictures into focus and drawing a line in the sand, so to speak, indicating what we are making a stand on spiritually in our own minds.
In this specific case, we are focusing on a life decision to abandon control over our lives to the Lord of the Universe.
- Satan & his Minions
Our psychopathic enemy needs to know we have made a quality decision to defect from his kingdom of darkness and are swearing allegiance to God’s Kingdom of Light. While his servants can whisper thoughts into our mental ears, none of them can read our minds (only God can do that), so we cannot proclaim our fealty to Jesus using thoughts alone.
- Our New-found Brothers and Sisters in Christ
Engrave this on the inside of your eyelids, fellow Christ-followers: Christianity is a team sport!New believers desperately need support from us as their brothers and sisters in Christ. Such support takes 2 forms: 1) prayer, and; 2) leadership by example and influence.
Just like a newborn human baby, newborn believers are helpless, ignorant, immature, and dependent upon others to nourish and sustain them until they can grow and mature. Their perceptions are flawed because the mind-renewal process (see Romans 12:2) has not yet begun and their reactions to trials, disappointments, and temptations are still programmed to respond according to the kingdom of darkness they once served.Our prayers for them help fend demonic cooties off. Whenever someone swears allegiance to Jesus, Satan calls for a full-court press to get that person to abandon God’s ship as soon as possible. Generally speaking, the longer a person remains committed to the Lord and allows Him to renew their minds by His Word, the more likely they are to persist until the end of their lives.
Much of Christianity is caught, not taught. That’s why it is crucial for us as more mature believers to be not only teaching, but also modeling (not faking!) Christ-likeness in our attitudes, behaviors, and relationships. Just as our children imitate both our good and bad attributes, so baby believers also emulate what they see and hear in those who are discipling them. It is vital to not only engage them in the process of spiritual maturity, but also to demonstrate that process in our own walks with Jesus.
The #1 goal we need to remain focussed upon when first discipling baby believers is them receiving a heart revelation of the fact they are saved. That means they “know in their knower” a spiritual “place” if you will where their salvation is no longer a matter of mere head knowledge where no one can talk them out of it using logical arguments. It’s no longer an intellectual exercise, but they know that they know that they know they are a child of God.
I described how that mind-renewal process works in a previous article entitled Faith For Healing here on Miscellaneous Ramblings. The principles are the same; simply substitute “salvation” for “healing” as the topic at hand and your fledgling spiritual eagle will learn to fly on the wings of salvation.
How We Know All This Has Truly Taken Place
There are 2 criteria proving we have experienced the New Birth:
- The written witness of God’s Word
- The supernatural witness of others
These are not either-or, but both-and.
The Witness of God’s Word
As we have already read, Romans 10:9-11 is the first of many promises baby Christ-followers can stand upon to begin the mind-renewal process regarding their assurance of salvation. Here’s a few more:
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 1:11-13
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
John 3:16-17
But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:22-23
Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:33-39
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21
And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 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 5:11-13
There are many more, far too many to list here.
It is crucial for those discipling new believers to reinforce the idea that it will take some time for their unrenewed mind to catch up with their spirit man regarding their assurance of salvation. They will choose badly at times, yielding to temptations, and not responding well when facing trials. They need to have 1 John 1:9 committed to memory as soon as possible.
The Witness of the Holy Spirit
We have several New Testament promises expressing this. Here are a couple:
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
Romans 8:14-17
But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Galatians 4:4-7
The Witness of Satan
Y’all probably just exclaimed, “HUH!!??” just now — and I don’t blame you a bit for your consternation. 🤣
Here’s what I mean by that: over the last 50+ years I’ve been a Christ-follower, I have never once encountered an unbeliever who was questioning whether they were saved or not. Such issues are never considered by the lost. Satan doesn’t want the concept of God’s salvation to ever cross the minds by his slaves, so he does his dead-level-best to prevent it by deceiving and distracting them with anything he can throw at them.
Only those who have actually received the New Birth are subject to demonic attacks questioning their salvation.
Ergo, if you are struggling with the question of whether you are saved or not, this is prima facie evidence that you are, in fact, God’s child and are going to heaven.
Selah!
Thanks for reading!
