Do you know, that you know, that you know, that you know?

 

Do you struggle with the assurance of your salvation? 

As a pastor I have discussed this issue with many church members.  How can a person be sure that they will not lose their salvation? 

What happens when we sin and do not “feel” saved? 

What if we die with unconfessed sin in our lives?

In a sermon from Romans 5:18-19, David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, preaching in the 1960’s, spoke of the parallel between the first Adam, who sinned in the garden and caused all people to be made sinners, and the second Adam, Jesus Christ, whose obedience to die on the cross brought life for all those in Christ. 

Romans 5:18-19 reads, “18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”

 Lloyd-Jones offered this sound advice:

The corollary of all this is, that if you want to have assurance of salvation, the place to start is not with your feelings, but with your understanding; then the feelings will follow.  The way to get assurance is not to try to feel something, but it is to grasp this objective truth.  Look at yourself in Adam; though you had done nothing you were declared a sinner.  Look at yourself in Christ; and see that, though you have done nothing, you are declared to be righteous.  That is the parallel.  We must get rid of all thoughts of our actions.  There is no boasting.  We do nothing; all we are and have results from the obedience of the One – our Lord. (Lloyd-Jones, Romans: Chapter 5, 274)

Believers are no longer “in Adam.”  Believers are “in Christ.”

Can you think of a safer place to be?