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Simply Put

Assurance of Salvation

Simply Put

Ligonier Ministries

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

51.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 August 2024

⏱️ 5 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Walking an aisle and praying a prayer cannot assure us of our salvation. In this episode, Barry Cooper asserts that true assurance accompanies a life truly changed by the gospel.

Read the transcript: https://simplyputpodcast.com/assurance-of-salvation/

A donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

When I was younger I struggled to be sure that I was really saved.

0:05.0

I was a serial go to the front her during the 1980s,

0:09.0

first as a kid and then as a teenager.

0:17.1

As a 14 year old I'd already prayed the prayer on multiple occasions. I went to the front at a Billy Graham rally and said the prayer. I went to the front at a Louis Palau meeting and said the prayer. I went to the front at Louis Palau meeting and said the prayer.

0:25.4

I sat with head bowed at numerous churches in numerous denominations over the years and

0:30.9

said the prayer. I said it ever more fervently, ever more anxiously and often with tears and I kept praying and going to the front because I was never entirely convinced that I'd prayed and gone to the front enough.

0:44.8

What would you say to 14 year old Barry, once you told him to get rid of that ridiculous

0:49.4

fluff on his upper lip?

0:51.9

Many Christians I think would say something like this, as long as you were sincere

0:55.4

when you prayed the prayer, you are saved. The thing is, looking back, I'm really not sure I was. It wasn't until I was 20 and in my second semester at university

1:07.8

that I felt a deep inner assurance that I was truly saved. Where did that suddenly come from? According to scripture, this

1:17.0

profound inner sense of assurance is something that the Holy Spirit gives us.

1:21.6

As it says in Romans chapter 8, you have received the Spirit of

1:26.2

adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba Father, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

1:37.0

We have to be careful of course.

1:39.0

It's not that our feelings are the basis of our assurance.

1:42.0

After all, it's possible to feel very good about yourself and yet be living in opposition to God.

1:48.6

Only Christ's life and death can be the basis of our assurance. But clearly there is such a thing as the

1:56.6

Holy Spirit within us giving us a strong assurance that we are children of God.

2:06.4

Now some might say it's not good to pursue a sense of assurance about our salvation. Doesn't it lead to arrogance or complacency?

2:11.2

Well there's no room for arrogance because you know that salvation is the free

2:16.6

gift of God's grace. You're not saved by anything you've done, so there's no room for boasting. And as for complacency, just listen to 2 Peter

...

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