Chapter Three: Assurance of Salvation

Chapter 3.
Assurance of Salvation The Holy Spirit, who enabled me to believe, gave me peace through believing. I felt as sure that I was forgiven as before I felt sure of condemnation. I had been certain of my condemnation because the Word of God declared it and because my conscience bore witness to it. However, when the Lord justified me, I was made equally certain by the same witnesses. The Word of the Lord says, "He that believeth on him is not condemned" (John 3:18). My conscience bore witness that I believed and that God in pardoning me was just.

Thus I had the witness of the Holy Spirit and also of my own conscience, and these two agreed in one. That great and excellent man, Dr. Johnson, used to hold the opinion that no man ever could know that he was pardoned, that there was no such thing as assurance of faith. Perhaps, if Dr. Johnson had studied his Bible a little more and had had a little more of the enlightenment of the Spirit, he, too, might have come to know his own pardon. Certainly, he was not a very reliable judge of theology any more than he was of porcelain, which he once attempted to make but never succeeded. I think both in theology and porcelain his opinion is of very little value.

How can a man know that he is pardoned? There is a text that says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31). I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; is it irrational to believe that I am saved? Christ said, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life" (John 3:36). I believe on Christ; am I absurd in believing that I have eternal life? I find the apostle Paul speaking by the Holy Ghost and saying, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God" (Romans 5:1). If I know that my trust is fixed on Jesus only and that I have faith in Him, were it not ten thousand times more absurd for me not to be at peace than for me to be filled with joy unspeakable? When we take God at His Word, we know that we are saved. Knowing is a necessary consequence of faith.

I took Jesus as my Savior, and I was saved. I can tell the reason that I took Him for my Savior. To my own humiliation, I must confess that I did it because I could not help it; it was the only thing I could do. That stern law-work had hammered me into such a condition that, if there had been fifty other saviors, I could not have thought of them—I was driven to this One. I wanted a Divine Savior. I wanted One who was made a curse for me to atone for my guilt. I wanted One who had died, for I deserved to die. I wanted One who had risen again, who was able by His life to make me live. I wanted the exact Savior that stood before me in the Word, revealed to my heart, and I could not help having Him.

I could then understand the language of Rutherford when, being full of love to Christ, once upon a time in the dungeon of Aberdeen he said, "O my Lord, if there were a broad hell between me and You, if I could not get to You except by wading through it, I would not think twice, but I would go through it all, if I could only embrace You and call You mine!"

Oh, how I loved Him! Passing all loves except His own was that love that I felt for Him then. If, beside the door of the place in which I met with Him, there had been a stake of blazing logs, I would have stood upon them without chains, glad to give my flesh and blood and bones to be ashes that would testify my love to Him. Had He asked me then to give all my possessions to the poor, I would have given all and thought myself to be amazingly rich in having beggared myself for His name's sake. Had He commanded me then to preach in the midst of all His foes, I could have said,

There's not a lamb in all Thy flock I would disdain to feed;

There's not a foe, before whose face I'd fear Thy cause to plead.

Has Jesus saved me? I dare not speak with any hesitation here; I know He has. His Word is true; therefore, I am saved. My evidence that I am saved does not lie in the fact that I preach or that I do this or that. All my hope lies in this: "Christ Jesus came... to save sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15). I am a sinner, and I trust Him; thus, He came to save me, and I am saved. I live habitually in the enjoyment of this blessed fact. It has been a long time since I have doubted the truth of it, for I have His own Word to sustain my faith.

Salvation is a very surprising thing—a thing to be marveled at most of all by those who enjoy it. I know that it is to me even to this day the greatest wonder that I ever heard of, that God would ever justify me. I feel that I am a lump of unworthiness, a mass of corruption, and a heap of sin, apart from His almighty love. Nevertheless, I know, by a full assurance, that I am justified by faith that is in Christ Jesus. I am treated as if I had been perfectly just. I am made an heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ. All this I am given, though by nature I must take my place among the most sinful. I, who am altogether undeserving, am treated as if I had been deserving. I am loved with as much love as if I had always been godly, whereas in times past I was ungodly.

I have always considered, with Luther and Calvin, that the sum and substance of the Gospel lies in that word substitution—Christ standing in the place of man. If I understand the Gospel, it is this: I deserve to be lost forever; the only reason why I am not damned is that Christ was punished in my place, and there is no need to execute a sentence twice for sin. On the other hand, I know I cannot enter heaven unless I have a perfect righteousness. I am absolutely certain I will never have one of my own, for I find I sin every day. Christ, however, had a perfect righteousness. He said, "There, poor sinner, take My garment and put it on. You will stand before God as if you were Christ, and I will stand before God as if I had been the sinner. I will suffer in the sinner's stead, and you will be rewarded for works that you did not do but that I did for you."

I find it very convenient every day to come to Christ as a sinner as I came the first time. "You are no saint," says the Devil. Well, if I am not, I am a sinner, and "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15). Sink or swim, I go to Him; I have no other hope. By looking to Him, I received all the faith that inspired me with confidence in His grace. Moreover, the word that first drew my soul—"look unto me" (Isaiah 45:22)—still rings its clarion note in my ears. There I once found conversion, and there I will ever find refreshing and renewal.

Let me tell my personal testimony of what I have seen and what my own ears have heard and what my own heart has tasted. First, Christ is the Only Begotten of the Father. He is divine to me, if He is human to all the world besides; He has done for me what none but a God could do. He has subdued my stubborn will, melted a heart of stone, broken a chain of steel, opened the gates of brass, and snapped the bars of iron. He has turned for me my mourning into laughter and my desolation into joy. He has led my captivity captive and made my heart rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Let others think what they will of Him; to me He must ever be the Only Begotten of the Father. Blessed be His holy name!

Oh, that I could now adore Him, Like the heavenly host above, Who for ever bow before Him, And unceasing sing His love!

Happy songsters! When shall I your chorus join?

Again, I testify that He is full of grace. Ah, had He not been, I would never have beheld His glory. I was full of sin to overflowing. I was condemned already because I did not believe on Him. (See John 3:18.) He drew me when I did not want to come, and though I struggled hard, He still continued to draw. When at last I came to His mercy seat, all trembling like a condemned culprit, He said, "Your sins, which are many, are all forgiven you; be of good cheer." (See Luke 7:47.) Let others despise Him, but I bear witness that He is full of grace.

Finally, I bear witness that He is full of truth. True have His promises been; not one has failed. I have often doubted Him; for that I blush. He has never failed me; in this I must rejoice. His promises have been "yea" and "amen" (2 Corinthians 1:20). Of course, I am speaking the testimony of every believer in Christ, though I put it personally to make it even more forcible.

I bear witness that no servant ever had such a master as I have; no brother has ever had such a kinsman as He has been to me; no spouse has ever had such a husband as Christ has been to my soul; no sinner a better savior; no soldier a better captain; no mourner a better comforter than Christ has been to my spirit. I want none besides Him. In life, He is my life; and in death, He will be the death of death. In poverty, Christ is my riches. In sickness, He makes my bed. In darkness, He is my Star; and in brightness, He is my Sun. By faith, I understand that the blessed Son of God redeemed my soul with His own heart's blood. By sweet experience, I know that He raised me up from the pit of dark despair and set my feet on the rock (Psalms 40:2). He died for me. This is the root of every satisfaction I have. He put all my transgressions away. He cleansed me with His precious blood. He covered me with His perfect righteousness. He wrapped me up in His own virtues. While I abide in this world, He has promised to keep me from its temptations and snares. When I depart from this world, He has already prepared for me a mansion in the heaven of unfading bliss and a crown of everlasting joy that will never, never fade away. To me, then, the days or years of my mortal sojourn on this earth are of little importance. Nor is the way I die of much consequence. If my foes were to sentence me to martyrdom or if physicians were to declare that I must soon depart this life, it is all alike.

A few more rolling suns at most Shall land me on fair Canaan's coast.

While my brief time on earth lasts, what more could I wish for than to be the servant of Him who became the Servant of Servants for me? I can say much good about Christ's religion. If I had to die like a dog with no hope whatsoever of immortality, if I wanted to lead a happy life, let me serve my God with all my heart. Let me be a follower of Jesus and walk in His footsteps. If there were no hereafter, I would still prefer to be a Christian, even the humblest Christian minister, to being a king or an emperor. You see, I am persuaded there are more delights in Christ than are to be found in all the praises of this harlot-world. Yes, there is more joy in one glimpse of His face than in all the delights that the world can yield to us in its sunniest and brightest days. And I am persuaded that what He has been until now, He will be to the end. Where He has begun a good work, He will carry it on. (See Php 1:6.) In the religion of Jesus Christ, there are clusters even on earth too heavy for one man to carry. There are fruits that are so rich that even angel lips have never been sweetened with more luscious wine. There are joys to be had here that are so fair that even the exquisite foods and delicious wine of paradise can scarcely excel the sweets of satisfaction found in the earthly banquets of the Lord.

I have seen hundreds and thousands who have given their hearts to Jesus, but I never did see one who said he was disappointed with Him. I never met one who said Jesus Christ was less than He was declared to be. When my eyes first beheld Him, when the burden slipped off my heavy-laden shoulders and I was free from condemnation, I thought that all the preachers I had ever heard had not half preached; they had not told half the beauty of my Lord and Master. So good! So generous! So gracious! So willing to forgive! It seemed to me as if they had almost slandered Him. They painted His likeness, doubtless, as well as they could, but it was a mere smudge compared with the matchless beauties of His face. All who have ever seen Him will say the same.

I go back to my home, many a time, mourning that I cannot preach my Master even as I myself know Him, and what I know of Him is very little compared with the matchlessness of His grace. Oh, that I knew more of Him and could tell it better!