Doubt

I am a connoisseur of the blogosphere.  I enjoy reading the blogs of others almost every day. And almost every day I see a post by someone dealing with doubts about salvation. I know many who can never feel quite comfortable in their own salvation and that is very unfortunate. But I think I understand the cause.

Plainly stated, the extent to which you are able to doubt your salvation is directly correlated to your perception of responsibility for it. If you feel that you must work to earn or keep your salvation, you will doubt that salvation when you have not worked enough. If you feel that salvation is a ‘one-sided rescue’ which is accomplished by God on your behalf, you will have no need to doubt it.

The simple idea that you were responsible for choosing Christ as your savior leaves ample room for doubt. What if I didn’t do it correctly? What if I didn’t choose Him ‘enough’? What if I have believed in vain? All of these questions indicate that you are in large part relying on yourself for your salvation, and not God. There are legitimate questions that need to be asked, as Paul encourages the Corinthians; ”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 ESV) In light Paul’s question you must ask yourself, “Can I put Jesus Christ in me?” The answer, of course, is no. Only God can do that. Paul tells us we need to examine ourselves to see if God has put Christ in us. If he has then there is no room for doubt. If not, then we need to be greatly concerned.

Doubt, as a matter of scriptural fact, is an indicator that we don’t have a mature understanding of salvation. Salvation is completely of God. God is unchanging. If I have accepted the fact that I have been saved by God alone, apart from my works, then my salvation is every bit as unchanging as God. I can rest secure in the knowledge that God will not revoke His gifts. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV) We can all recite it, but do we all believe it? Paul could easily have ended this passage “lest any man should doubt”.  When you remove our works from salvation doubt is impossibility. A salvation that is 100% God is 100% secure. A salvation that is 99.9% God is a breeding ground for doubt.

The whole idea for this post came from reading again in the book of Acts how God was continually ‘adding’ individuals to the early church. The matter-of-fact way that Luke writes of these things is obvious to the 21^st century Arminian mind. The apostles are given no credit. The believers are given no credit.  To God alone is credit given for the growth of the church:

And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2:47 ESV)
And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. (Acts 13:48 ESV)

If you have been saved, you may rest assured that your salvation is of God. You did nothing to earn it. Please stop acting and thinking as if you had to earn it! Stop doubting and accept the love of God in Christ. That is what salvation is: Christ reconciling us to God through his own blood. If you could earn salvation through your own effort or sacrifice, why did Christ have to die? Why? To say that you doubt salvation is to say that you doubt the efficacy of the life, death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Otherwise what you are saying is that you doubt yourself. Which means you believe you are responsible for your own salvation, which is no salvation at all. Think about it.

God Bless