When I was in high school I was in a great church youth group where I learned much about Jesus. Yet there was at least one curious teaching that plagued me for years. It was continuously taught that in order to know that one is a Christian they have to have feelings of assurance. In practice this conflicted with idea of justification by faith and it was very damaging to me because I spent too much time trying to feel assurance and not enough time just trusting God.
The quest for assurance has been a prominent theme in church history. Of course it is good to have assurance of salvation and assurance of God’s scripture in our lives. But it is more important to have faith. And it is important to realize that it is okay to have faith without assurance. This should be an encouraging word for many.
Faith and love are our chief responsibilities towards God. But God has not told us that having feelings of assurance is one of our responsibilities. There are many passages that encourage believers to be confident in God and his promises for us. But these are focused on having faith not on sensing assurance. Scripture teaches that God gives assurance and we can’t control that.
Certainly the apostles had strong assurance in God’s work and promises and many Christians do likewise. But often we find ourselves lacking assurance and that can easily trouble us. But just because we lack assurance doesn’t mean we lack faith. It is easy to confuse faith and assurance and believe that if we are not feeling assurance then we must not have faith. Then we become disturbed and discouraged because of our feeling that we are disconnected from God. Then we go about trying to get assurance, usually by using various mental gyrations.
This may work for a few but for most it feels like they are trying to grasp water. Thus, trying to get assurance backfires and leaves the person feeling spiritually adrift.
The problem is that their focus is on getting assurance instead of trusting God. We are saved by faith, not by assurance and we walk by faith not by assurance. There is a big difference between the two. Faith is simply our choice to trust someone or something for something. Assurance, in most people’s minds, is a subjective sense that something is real or true. One might feel this sense in their head, or heart, or gut or all three.
“We are saved by faith, not by assurance and we walk by faith not by assurance.”
But there is another kind of assurance: objective assurance. This is the idea that there is enough evidence that something is real or true beyond any reasonable doubt that one can be assured of it. For example, one might observe that after they committed themselves to trusting Jesus and following him that their life is very different. They have less desire to sin, and feel conviction when they do. They find that they actually do sin less, treat people better, and desire God and his goodness. Such people actually have objective assurance of their salvation because they have the biblical marks of salvation. This is something they can rest in and allow their souls to have peace.
But at the same time they may not have subjective assurance. They may not feel like they are saved and they may not feel God’s presence, weak or strong. But this is only a lack of subjective assurance and doesn’t necessarily mean they are neglecting faith. Or course it would be good to investigate their lack of subjective assurance. They can examine themselves for unbelief or sin. They can find a spiritual counselor. They make sure they spend regular time in scripture in fellowship. But if someone has done all they can then it is usually better to rest and stay focused on trusting God. He asks us to trust him regardless of how it feels and sometimes we need to grow in faith before God gives subjective feelings. He does not ask us to get subjective feelings of assurance ourselves.
The paradox here is that as one focuses on trusting God instead of trying to get assurance from him, many will find that subjective assurance will come in time. In other words, focus on giving him faith and not on trying to get a feeling from him. And don’t accept the burden that some want to give to you of requiring feelings of assurance in order to have peace. Whether it comes or not, objective assurance is more important than subjective assurance. In fact, just the idea that one is focusing on faith in Christ is an objective assurance that they are secure.
The lesson is to learn to trust God as much as you can. Some have more faith than others but that doesn’t make them more saved or even necessarily better Christians. Scripture teaches over and over that our responsibility is to trust him and his words. This is our adventure and we only need to keep walking further and further into faith.
