Coming to Christ

The Holy Scriptures set forth the life of the Christian to be a supernatural endeavor that only those who are truly in Christ can attain and maintain. But in our efforts in making this known, it is an easy matter for a true Christian to doubt his salvation when he does not feel that his heart and actions have achieved the standard of new life that characterizes true Christians. This is particularly the case with those Christians who may struggle with sin. Perhaps their sin is of an egregious nature. Or perhaps their sin has persisted in spite of all of their desires and efforts to repent of their sin and to live righteously. The result is that these Christians are plagued with doubts regarding their standing before the Lord. And although it may be true that many nominal Christians struggle in this way because they have not experienced the new birth by the Holy Spirit, there are true Christians who doubt themselves because their struggle with sin has only resulted in continual defeat and failure. And then, when you consider the activity of the deceiver and accuser of the brethren, as well as the errant thinking that may characterize these true Christians, the problem of doubting their salvation is understandable; nevertheless, it is very unfortunate and needless. I hope that we may remove some of these unnecessary and ungrounded fears through a better understanding of what the Word of God teaches us about the spiritual identity of Christians, our attitude and understanding of our struggle with sin, and the way forward in which the Word of God directs us.