How Often Should I Question My Salvation?

00:00:00.000 | Well, how often should I question my salvation?

00:00:08.960 | That is a question we get often.

00:00:10.320 | It's a big one, and today it comes from a woman who listens to the podcast named Kinsey.

00:00:14.440 | "Hello Pastor Jon, and thank you for your ministry over the years.

00:00:17.940 | My question has to do with whether or not we should regularly question our salvation.

00:00:23.080 | My husband and I were discussing this the other day, and we fell on opposite sides.

00:00:27.480 | One saying it's good to examine ourselves often in order to determine whether or not

00:00:31.360 | we are saved, the other saying it's more beneficial to regularly evaluate our faithfulness and

00:00:36.400 | fruitfulness rather than questioning salvation itself.

00:00:40.600 | We studied together 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5.

00:00:44.280 | Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith.

00:00:48.260 | Test yourselves."

00:00:49.260 | But Pastor Jon, what do you think?

00:00:51.480 | Should professing Christians question their own salvation, and how often?

00:00:56.520 | I want to suggest that we distinguish between testing ourselves to see if we are in the

00:01:01.720 | faith on the one hand, and living so as to confirm that we are in the faith on the other

00:01:10.800 | hand.

00:01:12.000 | I think there is a psychological difference and a strategic difference, strategy difference,

00:01:20.240 | between these two.

00:01:22.240 | So let me give two texts, one for each of these strategies, and then draw out some distinctions

00:01:29.160 | that might help.

00:01:30.680 | Kenzie is asking specifically about 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5, "Examine yourselves to see whether

00:01:39.560 | you are in the faith."

00:01:41.520 | That's what she means by testing your salvation or questioning your salvation.

00:01:46.440 | Test yourselves, or do you not realize this about yourselves that Christ is in you?

00:01:52.960 | So he's very hopeful for the Corinthians, but there are some he's not sure of.

00:01:59.800 | Unless you indeed fail to meet the test.

00:02:02.400 | And the other text is 2 Peter 1.10, "Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm

00:02:10.580 | your calling and election," or you could say salvation.

00:02:14.520 | "For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall."

00:02:20.740 | And I'm suggesting that there's a difference between the urgency of the self-test in 2

00:02:27.560 | Corinthians 13.5 and the ongoing ordinary life of confirmation that we really are among

00:02:36.640 | the elect, really have been effectually called, that is, really have been brought to saving

00:02:44.040 | faith.

00:02:45.040 | In a sense, the bottom line in both cases is, show that you're a real Christian, born

00:02:51.520 | again, justified, on your way to heaven.

00:02:54.620 | But there's a difference between being told, "Test yourself to see if you're saved," and

00:03:02.520 | being told, "Live so as to confirm your election."

00:03:07.920 | One of the reasons I think there's a significant difference here is because in the context

00:03:15.120 | of 2 Corinthians, there is some real conflict between Paul and some people at Corinth who

00:03:22.400 | have given significant evidence that they may not be true Christians.

00:03:28.160 | For example, just a few verses before 13.5, namely in 12.21, Paul says, "I fear that when

00:03:40.480 | I come again I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented

00:03:47.640 | of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced."

00:03:52.600 | In other words, here are people who have not repented of their sins and so are on the brink

00:03:59.620 | of being excommunicated.

00:04:01.820 | And then just a few verses later, 13.3, Paul says, "You seek proof that Christ is speaking

00:04:09.480 | in me?"

00:04:10.480 | Now, that word "proof" there is the same word he uses two verses later in verse 5, only

00:04:16.940 | here he says they're putting him to the test to prove that he's real in his speaking.

00:04:24.720 | So when he gets to verse 5, he says, "Actually, folks, you should be testing yourselves, you

00:04:30.400 | unrepentant folks, you should be testing yourselves to see if you are in the faith."

00:04:35.680 | So I'm inclined to think that what brought Paul to say this with as much urgency as he

00:04:42.680 | did is that he's been dealing with an unrepentant crowd who claim to be Christians, but they're

00:04:48.680 | actually totally out of character.

00:04:51.720 | They're living in sin, they're not repenting, while they're claiming to be Christians.

00:04:58.680 | So I'm inferring from this and the other ways that Paul deals with Christians that the command

00:05:06.200 | "test yourself to see if you are in the faith" is not a command that he ordinarily gives

00:05:13.600 | as a regular part of a Christian life, or that we should regularly, like part of our

00:05:20.920 | morning devotion, say, do it, and the way he means it there in verse 5 of 2 Corinthians

00:05:28.120 | 13.

00:05:29.120 | This is a command that is especially appropriate when somebody is living a life that is out

00:05:35.760 | of step with their profession of faith and gives significant evidence that they may not

00:05:40.840 | be real Christians.

00:05:42.700 | So the question, "How often should we do this?" seems to imply it should be an ordinarily

00:05:51.040 | daily kind of, or maybe weekly part of the Christian walk, when in fact, I don't think

00:05:56.840 | that.

00:05:57.840 | I think Paul would say this kind of test is something extraordinary and to be done at

00:06:03.880 | critical points in your life when you have drifted away from walking in step with the

00:06:09.960 | Spirit and have been called out, probably by somebody or maybe by your own conscience,

00:06:18.040 | are you a real Christian?

00:06:20.080 | Now that brings me to 2 Peter 1.10, which I think does describe the more regular way

00:06:26.920 | to think about the relationship between our faith and the evidence of our life that we

00:06:33.060 | are truly Christians.

00:06:35.240 | So Peter says, "Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm," and that's

00:06:41.280 | just a standard procedure, "be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and your

00:06:47.520 | election, for if you practice these qualities, you'll never fall."

00:06:51.480 | And by "these qualities," he's referring back to verses 5 to 8, "In faith seek to have

00:06:58.160 | virtue, in virtue knowledge, in knowledge self-control, in self-control endurance, in

00:07:03.200 | endurance godliness, in godliness brotherly affection, in brotherly affection love."

00:07:08.960 | In other words, living this way is how you confirm your calling and election.

00:07:16.200 | So I don't think Peter is saying, now in this critical moment of serious failure, as in

00:07:22.480 | 2 Corinthians, "Seek to confirm your calling and your election."

00:07:26.880 | I don't think he means that.

00:07:28.120 | I think he means, "Live your life in such a way that it ordinarily confirms your calling

00:07:36.580 | and your election.

00:07:38.580 | Take your daily stand on your justification by faith.

00:07:43.080 | Be confident that on the basis of Christ alone, God counts you righteous, and then walk in

00:07:52.880 | happy, obedient faith, and virtue, and knowledge, and self-control, and godliness, and brotherly

00:08:00.200 | affection, and love for the glory of Christ."

00:08:03.280 | And if the question arises in your heart, "But might I not deceive myself and think

00:08:10.000 | I'm a Christian when I'm not?"

00:08:12.720 | Here's what the writer of Hebrews says about that.

00:08:15.880 | "Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief leading you

00:08:20.840 | to fall away from the living God."

00:08:23.440 | What's the solution?

00:08:24.440 | "Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be

00:08:31.280 | hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."

00:08:34.560 | So that's his answer to the question, "Well, I might be deceived."

00:08:38.200 | No.

00:08:39.780 | In fellowship with other people, encouraging us with the promises of God, giving us the

00:08:45.300 | warnings of God, and keeping their eyes on our life and faith, that's the prescribed

00:08:51.720 | way by which we avoid being self-deceived.

00:08:55.560 | So bottom line answer.

00:08:57.600 | Do the serious critical test of 2 Corinthians 13:5 when someone warns you that no longer

00:09:05.480 | does your life appear to be confirming your Christian claim.

00:09:12.600 | This should set off alarm bells in you, and you might be in serious trouble.

00:09:17.760 | So do that kind of serious self-analysis, which can be very frightening, very difficult,

00:09:23.280 | but very, very important.

00:09:25.600 | But always, day by day, have the seriousness to pursue a life of holiness that confirms

00:09:34.540 | your calling and your election, and live in fellowship with those who will encourage you

00:09:40.680 | in this day by day.

00:09:42.680 | Excellent.

00:09:43.680 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:09:44.680 | And thank you for listening to the podcast.

00:09:45.680 | Kenzie, thank you for the wonderful and important question.

00:09:48.520 | And if you have a wonderful and important question, or if you want to search or browse

00:09:53.400 | our archive of 1,600 episodes, or you want to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that

00:09:57.560 | at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

00:10:03.000 | Well we are going to break for the weekend and return next week with a question from

00:10:06.440 | a discouraged pastor who thinks his church should be further along in holiness.

00:10:11.320 | How does he and how do we all bear with immature Christians?

00:10:14.760 | It's a really great question.

00:10:16.920 | We will hear from Pastor John on Monday.

00:10:18.940 | I'm Tony Reinke.

00:10:19.940 | Thanks for listening to the podcast.

00:10:20.940 | Have a great weekend.

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How Often Should I Question My Salvation?

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