The Way of Assurance (1 John 3:19–24) from South Woods Baptist Church on Vimeo.

A strange phenomenon exists in churches across the globe. Multitudes that have not a qualm of doubt about their salvation should because they give no evidence of the new birth. While many others struggle with assurance when they shouldn’t because Christ has saved them.

We come to Christ with an array of personalities, range of mental and emotional wiring, and breadth of influences and backgrounds. While the gospel affects those things it does not eradicate them. One’s personality as a Christian should have something of the aroma of Christ and His love, but it’s still the same personality. Saul of Tarsus believed the gospel yet still had the intense personality that characterized him as a Pharisee intent on destroying Christianity, but now in Christ, the intensity turned toward pursuing others with the gospel. Instead of bitter hatred, the love of Jesus colored his intensity.

In other words, if my normal emotional wiring tends toward highs and lows, then as a new creation in Christ, I still possess that emotional wiring. The highs and lows are wrapped into my DNA. As I grow in Christ, those emotional patterns that might be predictable about me begin to gradually adjust to some degree. Not that they totally leave—nor should they, but I’m learning how to submit all of my life to Christ’s power and depend upon His grace and sufficiency. His strength is made perfect in my weakness.

That’s where the matter of assurance of salvation comes into sharp focus. We’re never to just assume that we’re Christians. That’s eternally dangerous. We’re to know that we’re Christians; we’re to experience assurance that we are in Christ. Our personalities, wiring, and background do not vacate the premises when it comes to assurance. They continue to affect the way that we perceive and process the Christian faith. So how do we work through who we are while coming to terms with assurance?

Some treat assurance as though it is a decision that we make. Just decide or pray a prayer of assurance or come forward at the appropriate time, and presto, assurance happens. But that’s not biblical or realistic. Assurance is not a static position or a decision but an active process in which we experience confidence with God. What does this process look like? That’s what we’ll investigate with our text.

1. God conquers the heart to bring assurance.

Think about John’s layered argument regarding assurance. “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments” (2:3). “The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause of stumbling in him” (2:10). “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him” (2:29). “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother” (3:10). “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death” (3:14). Obedience, love, and practicing righteousness are hallmarks of assurance that we belong to Christ. Do we just do those things once in a very decisive manner? Certainly not, but rather, we practice obedience, love, and righteousness as evidences that we are in Christ.

But what happens to us in the process of life as we give attention to obedience, loving one another, and practicing righteousness? We blow it. We struggle with obedience in some area of life. We can easily love those who love us but find it very difficult to love someone with a snarky attitude or who talks too loud or who boasts. We take a look at our righteousness-level and the tank seems pretty low. So do we lose assurance because we’re not measuring up to the level that we think we should?

That’s realistic, isn’t it? If we’re honest with ourselves, don’t we admit that we have those times when obedience, love, and righ[...]