Lacking Assurance Because You're Too Great of a Sinner?
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by Jon Buck
“I’m such a terrible sinner, I must not be saved.”
We find ourselves thinking this way often as we look at our sins and their effects in our lives. Perhaps this question is born out of confusion as we wonder how can God forgive all of our trespasses, past, present, and even in the future.
The diagnosis of this heart fear is two-fold: First, it can come from a lack of understanding of who God is and what He’s done on our behalf and second, a misconception of sin.
Who is God and what did he do for us?
We need to understand who God is; the fact that He is the perfect creator of the world (Gen.1:1), the Holy One (Isa. 6:3; 1 Peter 1:16), the One who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16), the eternal King (1 Tim. 1:17), the One who is omniscient and omnipresent (Psalm 139), and the One who is omnipotent (Col. 1:6, 7; Heb. 1:3).
And yet, that same God took on flesh and lived like humans so that He would become our righteousness by dying on a cross (2 Cor. 5:21). He proclaims that all men everywhere should repent (Acts 17:30), He wants everyone to turn to Him and be saved (Isa. 55:1), and all that are weary and heavy-laden to come and find their rest in Him. (Matt. 11:28-30). In the book of Revelation He is called “the One who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood and has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father.” (Rev. 1:5-6)
If we faith to understand both the holiness and compassion of God, we’ll begin to doubt our salvation.
Who are we and what did we do?
As we come face to face with our God, we realize who we are and what we have done. Isaiah saw the LORD sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple, and he saw the seraphim calling to one another, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.” In that moment, Isaiah saw himself as dead, ruined. He saw his sin before a holy God and proclaimed a curse upon himself “Woe is me.” (Isa. 6:4) When Peter saw Jesus’ miracles in the fishing boat, he fell down at the Master’s feet and exclaimed, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8).
When men like Isaiah and Peter come face to face with the power and holiness of God, they are not left impassible—they are confronted with their own sinfulness, they are faced with their own inability. (Rom. 3:9-19; 23)
So, how do these two components help us not doubt God’s forgiveness and our salvation?
Logically, it would make sense to think that because God is holy and we are unholy, God would not forgive us, or at least that there are many that would not make the cut. However the gospel tells us that salvation is not primarily about us—Jesus took our punishment for sin, he died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God. (1 Pet. 3:18). Paul says that where sin increases, grace abounds even more (Rom. 5:20). And, gloriously, the very purpose of Jesus coming into the world was to save ‘sinners’—not the righteous, but sinners! (1 Tim 1:15)
Do you believe this? Do you believe who God is and what He has done on your behalf? Do you believe who you are before a holy God and how your sin has separated you from God? If you do, then you will understand that God is in the business of saving sinners, not just the “good sinners”, but the worse of the worst.
The promise that God has made is helpful—that He forgives sins and He has put our transgressions as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). And just two verses later, we’re told that ‘He remembers we are dust’!
Paul was a persecutor of the early church, he was a former blasphemer and an insolent opponent. As sinners go, Paul was an expert. However, he says, “…Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.” (1 Tim. 1:13-16)