The question reveals, I think a faulty view of salvation and assurance of salvation. In light of our recent discussion of revivalism here, I thought the article asked an interesting question.

The whole idea of a “decision for Christ” is largely a revivalistic phenomenon. As the article says:

Much of American Protestantism has been influenced by revivalism, which places great emphasis on "making a decision for Christ" in a public, definitive way. These "moments of decision" often become the crucial evidence that one is saved. Other Protestant traditions, less influenced by revivalism (including some Reformed and Lutheran churches), may be content to leave the conversion experience unclearly identified, putting the focus on identification with the church. Both of these traditions have benefits, as well as potential problems.

In a recent comment, our e-friend Tracy makes a good point, I believe:

If I’m preaching to lost folks, I preach Christ crucified and call for them to close with Christ immediately and publicly. Before I close, I tell them if they have any questions, either they can come to the front at the invitation time or they can see me after the service. I always stress that Christ desires their immediate salvation. So I declare the gospel, spell out its terms, and call them to close with it.

I agree with that. We need to call folks to decisions.

But what about some who can’t remember the specifics of their decision? (Perhaps it was a long time ago, perhaps it was when they were very young, perhaps they remember bits, or perhaps they remember nothing at all.)

Sometimes we have the phenomenon of people (often young children) doubting their salvation ‘decision’. Did I really trust Christ then? Am I really saved? This can lead to multiple decisions – where someone suggests that there is nothing wrong with making sure of one’s salvation right now, so a new prayer is prayed and a new hope of assurance is formed based on a new decision. Or it can lead to someone assuring the concerned based on a past decision: Don’t you remember that prayer you prayed? Did you mean it then? Did God hear your prayer?

Both of these approaches, though well meaning, may lead to other problems. Some believers become very confused over multiple decisions and fail to progress because of a very unsettled mental state about their salvation. Others rely on their prayer as if it is almost a magic formula. As long as they ‘said the right words to God’, they are good to go.

The CT article concludes this way:

For those who question their salvation, the best evidence is not the memory of having raised a hand or prayed a prayer. Nor is it having been baptized or christened. The true test of the authentic work of God in one’s life is growth in Christ-like character, increased love for God and other people, and the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-25; James 2:18). A memorable conversion experience may serve as an important referent to God’s saving work in one’s life. But the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in making a person more like Jesus is the clearest indicator that one has been made a new creation in Christ.

This is reasonably good advice, but I think more should be said. One searching question to ask is this: What are you relying on in order to have salvation? To put it another way, “If you were to stand before God right now and he were to ask you, ‘why should I let you into my heaven’, what would you say?” (To coin a phrase!!)

Why is this question relevant?

It is relevant because if one’s assurance is based on his works – his character, his visible love for God, his love for the brethren – is he relying on Christ or on his own works?

Or if one’s assurance is based on the prayer he prayed (the decision, or the memory of a decision), is he relying on the fact of having said the right words to God (a work) or is he relying on Christ?

For myself, I remember praying for salvation from sin on a certain occasion. My father told me that it came after weeks of spiritual turmoil and an inability on my part to understand that I was a sinner and needed to be saved, just like anybody else. (I wasn’t old enough to be that bad, or so I must have thought.) But at some point, I came to understand that I, even I, was a sinner and had no right to stand before God. I understood that I needed the work of Christ alone to save me from my sin, so I prayed to receive it.

Following that decision, I at times doubted my salvation. This usually came at points where I found myself under conviction for the presence of ongoing sin or under the periodic depressions associated with growing up.

Personally, I found assurance of salvation in two sources. First, in the promises of God in the Bible. The Bible says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Did I call? Yes. Then God’s promise is salvation. I depend on God’s word, not my own experience. Second, in answer to the question posed above, I would say I am trusting in the finished work of Christ alone, nothing else for my salvation. My answer to God’s hypothetical entrance examination is, “Jesus died for me.” I have no assurance based on my own experience. I have seen too many failures in my life and others to have much confidence in that route.

To answer the question of the CT article, “How can I know I’m a Christian if I can’t remember when I first responded to the gospel?” my answer is: Jesus Christ and the promises of God. Are you trusting in Jesus Christ alone to save you from sins? Then rest assured. The promises of God say you have eternal life.

The natural man can’t benefit from the preached Word apart from the intervening ministry of the Spirit. So we’re back to the inability of the lost to respond to God apart from divine initiative.

The challenge led me to consider what it is that the lost person may know. In thinking about this, I found a sermon by Jonathan Edwards on the passage in question. His comments are quite interesting. [Note: the document is in bad need of editing, the Yale Edwards center has scanned it, put it up for use in its present form, but it has many deficiencies. Enough can be read to get the sense.]

He begins by saying that the lost may know doctrine better than Christians do, and may be able to “out argue” them on theology, and may know the Scriptural teachings concerning sin well enough that their conscience is informed and they are ‘moral’ men (my term).

Then this about the difference:

men may have a Great deal of Notio- nal Knowledge About things and Yet not have a lively and sensible idea of them. some things are Concieved of as a kind of dream A meer Chimera and imagination. and Others Concieved of as we Real Certain, there is a vast difference between our Concep- tions. of what we Read Of in a story or Romance And Our Conceptions of things that we dayly Converse. tho Perhaps we have heard this Romance so Often that we have as Great a Notional knowledge of the several Parts of it as we have of those things that we Our selves. are knowing to by Our senses. when3we Read an hystery . of a thing. that was Acted many Centuries of Years ago. and at many thousands of Miles Distance. and perhaps. we we have not at all think it may be Probably true; Yet the same kind of Conceptions of the matter. as one that was present upon the spot. and saw and heard all that was done. altho perhaps we have Read and studied the history so Much that we Can tell the story better than he that was Present,. the thing is we hant so lively and appre- hension of the things that were done as those that were Present. and therefore the things dont affect at all the same manner as it did in the time the Persons that were actually Concernd in the Matter. the matter dont seem so Real to us. the appre hension is nothing near so lively.   so the difference of the knowledge of the spiritual man from the knowledge of the natural man is Of the same kind.

Can you make out what Edwards is saying? He is saying the first point of difference is that between someone who reads history and someone who lives history. It is the difference between my children reading about Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” and my recollection of it.

Edwards goes on to say that the spiritual knowledge of the believer has the effect first of all of transforming his heart. Secondly, it purifies his life. Third, it raises a ‘holy Joy in the mind’. And fourth and most important, Edwards says, spiritual knowledge makes one humble (whereas carnal knowledge puffs up).

The reason for this difference is that the lost man is by nature unable to know these things. He says:

we Are not Easily made to have a Clear Apprehension of those things which we have no manner of Natural inclination to Children will never be made thorough ly to learn that which they have no inclination to. they never, will be ex pert at that . kind of learning which is Quite Contrary to their Natural disposition . we Can never be made to beat it into them. Much less Can the Apprehension of the truth, Reality and excellency of the things of God be beat in to, the Natural man, who is not only destitute of all . inclinations to spiri- tual things, but is as full as he Can hold of an Antipathy Against them  [emphasis mine]

Why is this?

God will never Never Give his spirit and spiritual knowledge to natural men while they Yet Remain loathsom and filthy.

The difference, Edwards says, is the work of Christ and the Spirit in regenerating the heart. This is obvious! Of course my neo-Calvinist friends want to say regeneration must happen before faith begins, but that is another issue. It is interesting to read Edwards’ conclusion, as he urges upon lost men that they get this knowledge. How? Here is one way:

we must be Much in Reading the scrip- tures if we would Get spiritual and saving kn. they Are the means by which as we have said God Communicates this knowledge Except we diligently and frequently Read the scriptures therefore we Can not Reasonably expect to be enlightend Except we Can Expect that God will work without means which is most un- reasonable seeing in a Land where such Plenty of means are Enjoyed . The scriptures were Given for this End to instruct us .

It seems that we are back to Romans 10, “how shall they hear without a preacher”. Or Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch: “Do you understand what you are reading?” To which the eunuch replies: “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?”

Indeed.

The means God uses to enlighten darkened minds is two-fold. The Word and the preachers of the Word, however humble they might be. “A little child shall lead them.”

Edwards closes by addressing wills in this way:

Let us be exhorted to hearken to these directions knowledge in General is sweet but above all spiritual knowledge Proverbs 16 17, 18 Length of days is in her Right hand and in her left hand Riches and honour. her ways are ways of Pleasantness and all her Paths are Peace. she is a tree of life to them that Lay hold upon her and happy is Every one of them yt retaineth her conj. for ms. dam.

[My apologies for the condition of the text! But a very profitable sermon for us all today, I think.]

Today, after church, one of our older men noticed something in the carpet runner in our church hallway. He poked at it with his cane … and thought he saw a glint of light. There it was. Five weeks later, my wife’s diamond was found!

The fellow who found it told my wife, “I’ll sell it to you now!” What a bit of rejoicing! One of our ladies said, “it was a perfect end to a perfect day at church.”

Well, it was a blessing to us. It is just a thing, and we had given it up for lost. But we are rejoicing! Thank you, Lord!

I just thought I would share that with you. I’ll give you the update later.

Our journey home was a little longer than expected…

On the way down-Island, actually only a few minutes out of Courtenay, my oldest son and I were travelling in my pickup truck. We were a mile or so ahead of the rest of the family. The weather on the Island is rarely snowy – we tend to rain more than snow and ice, so we often don’t anticipate road condition problems.

[You know where this is going, right???] The weather up-Island is a little colder than the South Island where we live and as we set out I could tell there was a potential for ice on the highway. I warned my number two son, driving the van, to be careful. Then we all headed out.

As we climbed up the highest hill outside of Courtenay, we suddenly and unexpectedly hit ice on the highway. My pickup began to slide as I desperately tried to turn into the skid without ‘over correcting’. Alas, the back end of a pickup is so light that managing it is almost impossible in such conditions. As we finally spun completely around and began heading for the ditch, all I could say was ‘Oh, Lord…’ in prayer.

We thank our Lord for the groanings that cannot be uttered! I am sure the Holy Spirit picked up where my inarticulate fear left off. We headed straight into the ditch and came to a rest at the bottom. Incredibly, not thirty feet from us, another vehicle was also in the ditch. We managed to miss both the vehicle and the driver. Across the highway, a third vehicle lay in the ditch in the median, the driver of that vehicle was over talking to my ‘ditch-mate’ as we whizzed by them through the snow. After we were all sure we were safe, we commented on how spectacular my plunge into the ditch must have been for the other drivers.

We sent the rest of the family on ahead, the road was good after this one hill. About an hour later, the tow truck I called arrived and got us out. We only suffered one blown tire, nothing else. At least, there appears to be no other damage to the vehicle at this point.

Everyone knows such incidents could have easily been much worse than this little one was for us. In a moment, a routine ride on a highway can turn into a deadly, costly nightmare for anyone.

So today I just want to offer praise to the Lord for His intercession on my behalf when I could do nothing to intercede for myself but cry out to Him. May God be praised for daily grace – rarely so vividly seen, but truly experienced by us all every day.

Regards
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3