Do you have saving faith?

I totally agree with what Charles Spurgeon is saying in his sermon. It took me many months, a lot of soul-searching and even more Scripture reading, before I could stand up from the fall caused by doubts about my salvation years after I started professing (to be a Christian). Now I do not, in fact cannot, doubt the fact (my salvation), for I cannot doubt my Saviour. I fear Him too much and trust in His works too fully to be afraid of my own lack of merits and my abundance of faults; I believe, and I am saved. As Spurgeon declares,

"Be assured that the gospel of your salvation as a believer, with a simple confidence in Jesus Christ, whom God raised from the dead, will save your soul, a simple and undiluted reliance upon the life and death, and resurrection, and merit, and person of Jesus Christ, will ensure to you everlasting life. Let nothing move you from this confidence: it hath great recompense of reward. Heaven and earth may pass away, but from this grand fundamental truth not one jot or tittle shall ever be moved. "He that believeth in him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the Son of God."

But what of James's letter? What of James 2:17 which says that faith without deeds is dead, and the rest of the chapter, which commands us to do good works in keeping with our faith, a chapter often used by the Catholic church to tell us that faith and good works together commend us to God? (I still remember the passionate lecture my Catholic professor gave on this.) I pause for a quote,

"for us to talk of salvation by merit, by our own works, is worse than vanity; it is an impertinence which God will never endure."

Spurgeon does a great job explaining what this passage means for salvation. If you have faith, you are saved, but a there is a certain kind of faith which saves, and this is not just any kind of believing - certainly not plain intellectual affirmation. Surely, the devils also believe that Jesus is the Son of God after all they suffered in His hands, and yet, they certainly are not saved! So what is saving faith and what happens when you have it? You are saved by grace and saved through faith, eternally secure in the Father's hands, but what do these truths imply? One thing they are not meant to be- they are not to be used as excuses for complacency and sin! James' letter tells us what saving faith is and isn't, and this enables us to be sure of what we possess or more appropriately, rebuked and convicted of what we probably do not possess! "It is a miserable thing to find a person discovering that his profession (that he is a Christian and has saving faith) has been a lie." I don't ask you to renounce your 'Christian-ness' in view of all that you now realize your faith is lacking. If you suffer the same miseries I did because you're afraid to think that you have never truly been washed by the blood of the Lamb, does that not prove your genuine desire to be wholly God's and your fear otherwise? God has already begun to transform you, and He is faithful; He will bring us, who truly believe, to the end He has in mind - which is why He seeks to bring you to a better understanding of the nature of saving faith.

We don't need to doubt that Christ's finished work on the cross cleanses us from ALL sin, or that God has mercy on the worst of sinners, but we do need to be mindful about the authenticity and nature of our faith. "By their fruits you shall know them," and by your fruits you shall know yourself! If you want to be assured of your salvation, don't look to the time you prayed the "prayer of acceptance" or first heard the Gospel and cried to God for redemption. Look to the cross, look to the Christ who said "It is finished!" and with faith in the One who began a good work in You, rend your heart and ask the Holy Spirit to make His fruits evident in your life - grieve Him no further and He will surely do so, for He is the God who keeps all His promises and sanctifies you through and through.

"There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1)

For more about the assurance of salvation, read Piper's article.