The Inward Personal Assurance

As teenager Aubrey Ponce witnessed before an open air congregation, he shouted with firm conviction, "I know that I know that I know that I know that Jesus has saved me!"

Albert Turner, a Presbyterian elder, became so disturbed by hearing the teenager's unequivocal assertion that he searched out Aubrey's pastor.

"Is it actually possible to have such absolute assurance about personal salvation?" he asked. "Consider what the Bible promises and you will discover your own affirmation," replied the pastor.

In fact, Jesus was commending this inward personal assurance when he said to Thomas, "...blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." Such inward assurance possesses no external or tangible evidential support, and needs none. Faith has grasped spiritual reality and experienced God's confirming inward response. Though this inward faith does manifest its presence in the believer's outward life-style, the assurance remains inward to the believer. The personal and inward witness is incapable of any external or tangible proof of its own validity or of the validity of the Bible to the unbeliever. Such assurance is the believer's personal treasure.

Paul was referring to his own inward assurance when he wrote to Timothy, "I know in whom I have believed."

Simon Peter was rejoicing in this inward assurance of Christian believers when he wrote of their personal relation to Christ, "Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing ye rejoice."

What the Bible teaches about personal assurance of salvation has found abundant confirmation in Christian biography. The young Augustine could give no tangible or external proof of the reality of the Voice which had instructed him to read and heed Paul's admonition, "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof." The Voice was real only to Augustine.

The legalistic John Wesley had no outward evidence or tangible substantiation when he testified to his inward heart-warming experience at Aldersgate. Charles Finney could share no tangible proof of the spiritual experience that transformed him from an attorney into a Christian evangelist.

Though the Christian's inward personal assurance of spiritual reality defies complete logical analysis and lacks external and tangible vindication, the believer requires no additional proof because he knows that he knows. What, then, are the strengths and weaknesses of this inward and personal experience?

Two strengths of personal inward assurance deserve special mention: one, comfort to the believer and, two, contagion to some unbelievers. Lidie H. Edmunds expressed the comfort of inward assurance to the believing person in a poem: "My faith has found a resting place, not in device or creed; I trust the Ever-living One,... I need no other argument, I need no other plea..." John Newton testified to this same comfort in Jesus, saying, "Dear name - the rock on which I build, My shield and hiding place."

Indeed, millions have professed that this inward and very personal assurance has produced peace and joy in living, strength and assistance in sorrow, guidance in decisions, certainty of hope in sickness and death. No other assurance has borne such precious fruit. No other personal conviction has clothed daily living with service to others nor inescapable dying with visions of eternal glory. Christians testify that personal inward assurance confers satisfying spiritual blessings.

A second strength grows out of the unique power of the Christian's testimony of inward assurance to persuade some unbelievers to seek and receive their own faith relationship. Shared personal assurance becomes contagious.

The book of Acts records six opportunities for Paul to speak before unbelievers. In each case the learned Apostle chose to share his personal inward experience rather than to attempt tangible or academic proof for his new faith. Paul relied upon the unique power of the shared testimony of inward assurance to convince and to persuade others.

When I was a small boy in Glasgow, Kentucky, I heard the testimonies of inward assurance of personal salvation given by a group of adults in the general assembly of our Sunday School. Though I can recall no specific statement made by these lay-persons, I have never escaped that early conviction that what I heard was genuine. The fellowship with God through Jesus Christ and the resulting peace and hope that they professed as personal experiences became the experience I craved!

The amazing contagion of Campus Crusade affords a record of the world-wide power of shared inward assurance to stir conviction and create desire in the hearer. Not the force of tangible evidences but the earnest sincerity of shared inward assurance has inspired millions to replace unbelief with faith. These new believers have confessed that their new- found faith has given them the same personal and inward assurance they had heard in others.

How does the Bible explain the transforming power of this communicated inward assurance? Scripture teaches that in addition to the zeal, earnestness, and sincerity of the human witness, the Holy Spirit uses this sharing of personal experience to produce a God-given conviction and create a spiritual yearning in unsaved persons. Nevertheless, personal testimony to inward assurance must admit to a fatal weakness: no matter how earnestly the believer may share what he has experienced, the hearer may simply reject its reality. And, there is no tangible or external evidence apart from the believer's word to refute the rejection.

Continuing study and varied experience may discover other strengths and weaknesses to the believer's possession and sharing of inner personal assurance. The strengths have sounded a strong challenge for Christians to share their personal and inward assurance with others. Even the weaknesses of this personal assurance lack power to silence the obedient Christian's witness motivated by the love of Christ for the unbeliever. Certainly, my discovery must never belittle the value or the power of God's gracious gift of inward assurance to the believer. How amazing that the simple sharing of personal inward assurance has already comforted millions of Christians and convinced vast numbers of sincere inquirers. Yet the fatal weakness remains!

When the Christian has given his sincerest witness, the unbeliever can reply, "Though I admit the sincerity of your testimony and changed life, my logical judgment cannot agree that the so-called spiritual conclusion about your salvation is necessary, logical, or correct. No doubt your professed inward assurance may satisfy you but I see no tangible or external proof of its validity that merits my belief. The fact that you, as a believer, claim an inward assurance of salvation by obeying the Bible formula fails to afford me with any tangible proof that the Bible is true. I would explain your assurance on the basis of psychology."

The common sense proof for the validity of the Bible that will be explained in this book differs from this God- given inward assurance in that the book we call the Bible is an external and tangible fact.

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