Can a Christian have the assurance of salvation? But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We cannot talk about assurance until we talk about salvation. This may come as a surprise to some, but here are deep differences of opinion among churches as to what salvation is. In fact, if we all agreed on that point, there wouldn't be so many different Christian denominations. The fact that a denomination exists apart from the rest is due in large measure to the unique spin that group has put on the significance of salvation, or what is necessary to be saved.

Of course, the assurance we are discussing here is not the assurance that says, “I sure I'm right about what I believe salvation is and how I receive it.” Who wouldn't say that he or she is right in what they believe? However, all roads do not lead to Rome, neither do all roads lead to salvation. Are there a thousand different ways to be saved? In the words of the old Spiritual, “Everybody talkin’ ‘bout heaven ain’t going there.”

Perhaps we should first ask ourselves what we mean by the word assurance. As you are aware, the same words often mean different things to different people. Perhaps we should all bring a Webster’s Dictionary along when we come to church. As it is, we each carry in our minds our own private dictionary on the meaning and interpretation of words based on our own experience, and we favor that particular definition.

As an illustration, I once talked with an evangelical TV personality who declared that all evangelicals believe in the Bible and the Bible only. I told him that confused me; because, if that were true, why don't we all agree on our points of doctrine? Although we say we speak the same language, we don’t seem to agree on what certain words mean.

When and how did doctrine become so confusing? When did we start giving different meanings to words having to do with the gospel? I believe that to a great degree the confusion is a result of a truism which states: "A person's theology is a reflection of his personal morality". Put another way, we tend to see things in terms that justify our own life's experience. Few people would admit they are wrong. The majority believe they are right. And when this group look at the so-called truth, they look 1) for something they personally agree with and 2) for others who agree with them.

For this reason, every denomination claims to have the truth and assures that its beliefs are based on the Bible and the Bible only. But any person who can put two and two together knows that "Everybody talkin’ ‘bout heaven ain't going there."

Don't be intimidated by those who accuse Seventh-day Adventists of following Mrs. White, while they declare that they follow only the Bible. The Lutherans follow Luther; the Methodists, Wesley; the Calvinist follow Calvin. The Catholics follow church tradition, the Mormons follow Smith, and everybody believes the teachings of Chuck Swindall and Billy Graham. Why should we feel guilty about believing in the writings of Mrs. White? Remember, we all believe in the Bible as interpreted by somebody. When a person says to you that they don't believe in the Spirit of Prophecy, before you ask them what they believe, ask them who they believe. It may sound strange, but true; who we believe always preceeds what we believe.

You may have thought that the differences between other evangelical churches and our church were just in the details. Brothers and Sisters, the differences are not just around which day we go to church but rather around the fundamental concepts--the basics of sin, of forgiveness, and repentance. The differences are so basic that they involve the meaning of the cross.

Every Christian body claims to be preaching the gospel. But anybody who can tell the difference between oranges and apples can see that this cannot be so. We are not in fact preaching the same gospel. Many who claim to be preaching and upholding the cross are doing so in word only and not in deed. For this reason, we must not jump on just any bandwagon that has "gospel" painted on its side. Neither should we board all planes that claim to have God as their co-pilot. Surely ours is the generation of which Jesus said that in the last days many would come in His name. Whatever else they may be representing, they aren’t representing Him.

The differences among Christians today are substantial and fundamental, and much of the problem has to do with the meaning of words. Therefore, we must get back to basics. But in order to do that, we are going to have to strip away the error and misinformation that has accumulated for centuries. When we do this, some will say that we are being negative. I wish we could always be positive and that the negative would simply fade away. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way.

I once had a front door that needed refinishing. I painted it, but the paint began to peel off. What was the problem? I was painting latex over an enamel base, and soon the latex stopped adhering. Lesson learned? Sooner or later truth and error must come to a parting of the ways. I had to strip the door down and start from scratch. Stripping off old paint is negative. But I had to do something negative before I could do something positive, like putting on new paint. We cannot build truth on a mountain of error. Error must be thrown down before truth can be built up. Just because a person proves their point from the Bible doesn't make it necessarily true. The fact is, everyone, from wild-eyed racists to blissful new agers, claim to make their case from the Bible.

Let’s take a look at certain words which I believe the devil has tinkered with. He has put, as we would say, his own spin on them. He has slyly changed their meanings so that, rather than lead a person to truth, they may actually give a person a mistaken idea of the process of salvation. It’s been said that anyone can explain spiritual truth, but only a spiritual person will be able to correctly understand it.

Let’s first consider the very important concept in the Christian life that we call the assurance of salvation. Assurance of salvation is the need to know that we are in a saved condition. There seems to be a real need for people today to have this assurance. Perhaps this is because we see the signs of the end all around us as never before, and we must come to grips with what assurance of salvation means.

The phrase assurance of salvation is part of the vocabulary of the evangelical churches, particularly of the Baptists. For them, the words assurance of salvation go together, like the close of probation goes together for Adventists. You may ask, What's the difference? Assurance of salvation is the same thing no matter what denomination you belong to.

This is not necessarily so. Remember, our theology tends to reflect our personal morality; and the words we use to describe our theology will definitely be used from our particular point of view.

A minister friend once told me that he was visiting Bible school interests one day. A certain person had requested a visit, indicating that they were keeping the Sabbath and wanted to be baptized. My friend went to visit the interested person, and in the conversation remarked that he noticed he was keeping the Sabbath. "O, yes, Pastor, I do,” he said. “I go to church every Sunday." To this person, Sabbath meant Sunday.

What does having the assurance of salvation mean? To a huge number of people it means, "once saved, always saved". Or it might mean, I have accepted Jesus as my Savior, but I don’t believe that obedience comes with salvation.

Let’s review the basics. A significant number of Christians do not understand that, when a person gives their heart to Jesus, two things happen at the same time: 1) Jesus forgives their sins, and 2) the Holy Spirit puts within them a desire to obey God--an attitude of obedience, if you will.

The majority of Christians mistakenly believe that obedience is something we do for God instead of the truth, which is that obedience is a gift of God to us. Salvation without obedience is not salvation at all, for the simple fact that disobedience was what made salvation necessary in the first place. The danger is that, when we talk about the assurance of salvation, we don't fall under the spell of the doctrine of “once saved, always saved,” or fall into some other trap that would cause us to think that the desire to do the will of God in every particular is somehow an option and not an integral part of salvation.

I believe that, if we are going to get serious about what Scripture says about the assurance of salvation, we had better be careful or we could possibly end up stumbling into an error that has been around for a long time and could actually lose our salvation in the process.

We must be careful not to take up where Baptist theology leaves off. If we are going to talk about the assurance of salvation, we had better know what the Bible teaches about salvation and how to get it.

In one of my first district of churches as a young pastor, one of the churches would sponsor a booth at the county fair each year. I remember one year in particular, when the booth to the left of us featured a snake pit and monkey exhibit, and the booth on the right side highlighted an open casket. Over the casket were the words, "Where will you be when you look like this?" The person looking into the casket would see a mirror reflecting his your own face!

I am sure you have heard the question often asked by evangelicals, "If you were to die tonight, would you go to heaven or to hell?" Of course, the correct answer is, “Neither place,” but that is the way they see it.

Listen, this approach to salvation preached by the popular churches is not about a simple misunderstanding of where a person goes when he dies. It is a fundamental difference as to what salvation is and how it works. For them, the dying thief model is used as an example of what preaching the gospel was meant to be. But, my friends, it just isn't so. When considering the truth about assurance, we must be crystal clear.

The gospel presentation that is generally presented by the popular churches is tailor-made for people who are breathing their last breath. It is totally valid provided your heart stops beating in the next five minutes.

As hard as I have tried through the years, I am unable to figure out how we can say to a person in one minute that he has unconditional salvation and then before we leave we tell them, “I hope I can come back next week at this same time, and I'll tell you the rest of the story.”

If you happen to believe that salvation is about a splash of water on the head or repeating a memorized prayer; or if you believe that accepting Jesus as Lord of your life is all right if you ever get around to it, then it might make sense. How many time have I heard First Day preachers ending an appeal with, “Now that you have salvation, won't you accept Jesus as the Lord of your life?” This may seem to make sense, but only if you believe in “once saved, always saved” or that a person who has accepted Christ as Savior may live any old way.

You see, my Brother and my Sister, the gospel as preached by the evangelical churches is a gospel to die by, but it's not the gospel for today, which is to prepare a living people to meet a Living Lord.

The message that God has given to the Seventh-day Adventist Church has not been discounted, it is the full gospel. It is the everlasting gospel, a gospel that brings to the lost not only forgiveness of sins past but victory over pride, selfishness, lust, and all the rest. It is a gospel that restores to us the blessing of obedience. It is the good news in which the Holy Spirit of a crucified and risen Savior writes His law in our hearts, without the usual 10 percent discount!

I believe with all my heart that the message God has given to the Seventh-day Adventist Church and has related through the prophetic gift is the only message for today that will prepare a holy people to meet a Holy God.

I believe that the twenty-eight doctrinal beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church are crucial for every child of God, be they Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, or Assemblies of God--that is, unless you believe that the doctrine of the Secret Rapture, which teaches a second chance, or the doctrine of the Immorality of the Soul, which allows for communication from the spirit world, or the doctrine of Sunday Sacredness, which perpetuates commandment breaking, are only insignificant details!

God forbid that we should fall back into the bucket of evangelical churches to be only an option like the other options. God has raised up this church to do a work at this hour. This is no time to get caught up in the ecumenical fervor. It is time for us to rise and shine. It was for this hour that we have come into the world.

It is time that we stop beating our breast and regretting who we are. It is time we stop apologizing for the unique doctrines that make us Adventist. It is time we stop pretending that God didn't raise up the prophetic gift to point this church to a correct interpretation of the gospel for this hour.

There was once a young man who was waiting for a bus to Chicago. He was walking around the station trying to pass the time when he came to one of those machines they used to have which would give your weight and fortune for a penny. Out of curiosity, he put in a penny, and out came a little card. It said, “You are a white man, you are 32 years old, you are 5' 10", you weigh 170 lbs, and you are waiting for a bus to Chicago.”

The young man was amazed. He looked all around the machine. Was there a two-way glass somewhere? He even kicked the machine, but everything seemed to be all right. Just one in a million chances, he thought, so he put in another penny. Once again out came the little card: “You are a white man, you are 32 years old, you are 5' 10", you weigh 170 lbs, and you are waiting for a bus to Chicago.”

Now the young man was nearly out of his mind. Something was going on here, and he was determined to figure out what. He looked closely all around the machine. He looked for cameras and for mirrors.

As he was looking around, he saw an Indian chief in full ceremonial regalia sitting in one corner of the station. He went to the chief and asked, “Hey, Chief, could I borrow your feather hat for a minute?”

“Ok,” said the chief. The young man put on the head gear and went back to the weight machine. He took out a coin and dropped it in. In an instant, out came the little card.

This time it said, “You're still a white man. You are 32 years old. You are 5' 10", and you weigh 170 lbs. But, because you are pretending to be someone you are not, you have missed your bus to Chicago.”

It’s just a story, but, as God's remnant people with a message for the world in these last days, we had better stop trying to be something that God has not called us to be, or we could miss more than a bus to Chicago!

Back to the meaning of assurance. To understand what assurance means, we need to start with an understanding of what saved means. Has anyone ever asked you if you are saved? Take care not to reduce truth to single words or clichés. In spite of what others may say, salvation is not simple. We come on the scene with six thousand years of sin. Even since Christ, 2 thousand years of error have accumulated.

Are we saved? Yes, we have been saved, we are being saved, and we shall be saved. Some people feel uncomfortable with this, because they say that Jesus finished our salvation on the cross and we are saved outside ourselves. We were saved outside ourselves in the same way that Dr. Jonas Salk finished the problem of polio in his laboratory. But for the child the problem of contracting polio is not finished until he has received the vaccine into his body.

In the same way, salvation was something done by Jesus outside of ourselves; but salvation is worthless for us unless we accept it in all of its aspects into our lives. An aspirin is outside of ourselves for our headache. But we have to put up with the headache until we get the aspirin inside.

For this reason, it is more accurate to say that we are in fact being saved. You see, salvation is a process that began when Jesus died for us; and it kicks in for us personally when we accept Him. It will finish when the trumpet sounds and this mortal puts on immortality and all tears are wiped away.

Remember, the people who give us “once saved, always saved” also believe in the Immortality of the Soul. You can see how complicated this error is and how it must be held up by other non-Biblical concepts. When we understand that salvation is a process, we begin to understand what it means to be saved.

Jesus taught two truths in this respect:

• God will never on His part initiate a break with us. Those who come to him He will in no wise cast out.
• The salvation process continues as long as we want it to. Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches; if you abide in Me and My word abides in you, you can ask what you want and it will be given to you.”

Lucifer was in a saved condition in heaven for as long as he wanted to be. If the doctrine of “once saved, always saved” is true, how did Satan get into the mess he is in?

So then, we have the assurance that we are being saved and that no one can or will cut us out of the process. The only way we get out is by resigning from the process; that is, by keeping it from happening in our lives.

Some argue that a person who quits the process wasn't a real son of God in the first place. This is a poor argument, given that Lucifer was perfect in all his ways until the day that sin was found in him; and so were Adam and Eve. Jesus has begun a good work in us; and we have the promise that, if we will let it happen, He will finish it.

Someone may raise the argument, “But that means we have a part to play in our salvation.” Of course, we do. Salvation is a two-sided coin--God's part and our part. Scripture says that, as many as receive Him, to them He continually gives power to be the sons of God.

When Scripture refers to our part in salvation, it is always in the continuing sense of the word. To accept Christ in the Bible sense is to continually be accepting His work in our lives. To repent of sin in the Bible sense is to be in a continual sense of repentance.

Jesus said, “Consider the lily, how it grows.” Salvation is a process. We common people can easily understand what the assurance of salvation is by seeing how the flowers grow. No, salvation is not buying a lottery ticket. We have an ongoing assurance of eternal life as we abide in Christ and He abides in us.

But how can we know that we are indeed abiding in Christ? We can know that we are abiding in Christ by how we feel about the things of this world. Scripture is clear; if we are friends with the world and its sinful ways, not only are we not abiding in Christ but we are actually God's enemies. The part that we play in our salvation is to give the Holy Spirit the green light to work in our lives, both to will and to do His good pleasure.

It doesn't seem fair. God has given us the assurance that He will never leave us or forsake us. What assurance have we given Him? I once saw a sign that read, "If it doesn't seem like you feel near to God, remember He hasn't moved." God never leaves us, it is we who leave Him. He never forsakes us, but there are many who often forsake Him.

Some young people once asked me what would happen to a man who had a fight with His wife, stormed out of the house angrily, and is hit by a car and killed at the first intersection. They wanted to know if the man would be saved or lost?

I will say several things in this regard. When Scripture tells us not to be judges, and that there is one Judge who saves and destroys, it means just that. It is God who decides who is saved and who is lost. It is God who is the only true and righteous judge, and the Bible is clear that He doesn't look at us the way we look at each other. We look on the outward appearance, He looks on the heart.

It is never up to us under any condition to say that a particular person is saved or lost. God is the only one who determines that. Once a person is dead, he is, as we would say, in the hands of God. I can be at peace in this regard, because God is merciful, gracious, and abundant in goodness and truth. “The Judge of all the earth will do right” (Gen 18:25).

Back to the story of the man who storms out of his house angry and is hit by a car. What is the purpose of an illustration like this? Is it to test God? Is it to see how far we can get off first base without getting tagged out?

Is the purpose of an illustration like this to try to make God look good or bad? Doesn’t it infer that repentance is necessary in some cases but not in others? Is it trying to say that repentance is like a vaccine that you take once for the rest of your life? That sounds like “once saved, always saved” again.

Here is a little different spin to this story. Mrs. White said it is not the isolated sin that God looks at but the trend of the life. Supposing we illustrate this point with the story of a man who has a growing Christian experience, is visiting a home when the husband was not there, and he commits adultery with the wife. The husband comes home, finds them together, and shoots the man in the head. We might ask, “Will the husband be saved or lost?”

This story is a little more dramatic than a man stomping angrily out of his house, but why not spice up the story a little and say that the man is shot in the head by an angry father when he is caught molesting his little daughter. Some would be quick to say, “But molesting little children is different.” This is where we have come in this day and age, Brothers and Sisters. Adultery is somehow normal, but molesting little children is unacceptable.

Where will all this end? What are we trying to do? I think I know. We are in effect denying the Scriptures. When they brought absurd questions to Jesus, He would either not answer them or He would ask them a question instead. In this case, He would probably say, “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God” (Matt 22:29).

I believe we are doing a great injustice to the power of God when we insist on using the adultery of David or the experience of Mary Magdalene as role models for victorious Christian living. If we insist on going back to the Old Testament for models in moral behavior, why not use Joseph as the example of a growing Christian life? Yes, Jesus saves; but I actually believe that God is able to keep me from falling when I ask Him to.

Going back to the man who had the fight with his wife, why not assume that he is growing in grace? Inasmuch as this is all fantasy anyway, isn't it just as valid to imagine that the man is angry and starts to storm out of the house, but in a flash the Spirit of God convicts him and he turns around. He returns to his wife, and says, “Honey, I recognize I am wrong. I was selfish and inconsiderate. Will you please forgive me?”

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not about the institutionalization of sin. The promise is that sin shall not have dominion over us. And this promise is to all those who are in Christ, that if we resist the Devil he will flee from us.

In Romans 6, verse 1, the apostle Paul asks the question (my paraphrase), “What shall we say then? Shall we continue to lose our tempers with people who disagree with us? Shall we continue to abuse our wives and hurt them with our unkind words in order that grace may abound?” You didn't know that verse was in Romans 6:1, did you?

Now Romans 6, verse 2, says (my paraphrase), “No way! How can we who are dead to anger and selfishness and pride live under their dominion any longer?” And Paul would continue, “Don't you remember that we have been crucified with Christ? And like Christ, who was resurrected from the dead by the glory of the Father, so now we don't blow up at our wives like we used to because He has given us a new life.”

So then, inasmuch as the story is controlled by us who are living a life of hope, and we look forward to and claim the victory that He now moment by moment offers to us, why don't we tell the story this way: A certain husband was talking with his wife one day. He was presenting his point of view, but she did not agree. He was a person who was accustomed to getting his way and had used his temper to intimidate people into going along with what he wanted. But lately he had surrendered his life to Jesus. When he did that, he realized that his selfishness and pride were now incompatible with the spirit-filled life. But he did not despair. He already had discovered that, when the old temptation to fly off the handle would come, he would recognize it and offer a little prayer for deliverance. And he knew from an ongoing experience that anger no longer had dominion over him.

On the day of his accident, when his wife expressed an opposing point of view, just for a second he was tempted as before; but he said a little prayer in his heart. Instead of the flash of anger, he felt a quiet peace. He leaned forward and said, "It's OK, Honey. Do what you think is best." He gave her a little kiss on the check and was out the door. The last words she remembered him saying were, “I love you, Honey.”

O, my Brother, my Sister, the assurance of salvation is not the assurance that, even if we are abiding in Christ, full of the Holy Spirit, we are bound to be overcome by our pride, selfishness, anger, lust, and the rest. But the blessed assurance is that we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us and who ever lives to make intercession for us.

The blessed assurance is not that sin shall have dominion over us, but that it shall in fact, not continue to ruin the quality of our lives.

The blessed assurance is that we have passed from the dreadful life of anger, lust, selfishness, and pride; and that now, even now, not someday, but now, He is actually restoring us and we know that we have this assurance.

We have received the Holy Spirit. We know we have the Holy Spirit, not because we are clapping and jumping, jabbering, or falling backwards, but because we have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

We have the assurance that we are physically alive because all the visual signs are good--we are breathing and our heart is beating. We have the assurance that we are being saved as we experience the forgiveness of sin and its power being broken up in our lives, as we experience the sweet presences of the Holy Spirit, which is actually being engraved onto our hearts.

How could it be any other way? No one else will need to tell you that you're saved. You will know it in your own heart.