CAN WE TRUST OUR FEELINGS ABOUT SALVATION?

Mike Johnson

Some people claim to rely solely on their feelings for assurance of personal salvation.  They may say, “I know I am saved because I feel I am.”  They will often ignore very plain passages in the Bible about salvation because of a “feeling” they have.  Some have said, as they pat their chest, “I would not give up this feeling I have in my heart for all of the Bibles in the world.”  Are our feelings the correct way to determine if we are in a saved state?

Suppose we were to ask the attendant at a deli for a pound of sliced ham. What would we do if the person cut some meat and said, “This feels like a pound, four dollars, please.”  We would probably ask the person to weigh the meat.

Further, many people feel fine just before the time they died.  Thus, feelings are not always reliable as to our physical health.  Consider also the Old Testament example of Jacob.  His sons deceived him into thinking that his son, Joseph, was dead, but his feelings were wrong (Gen. 37). Many examples exist in secular matters, which show that feelings are not always reliable.

We must be careful about our feelings in religious matters as they can be incorrect.  Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”  Again, Solomon said (Pb. 28:26), “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool ….” Saul is another example to consider.   When he was persecuting Christians, Saul thought he was doing right (Acts 26:9), and he could have said, “I know how I feel!”  However, he was wrong.

How can we know if we are saved or not?  We can turn to the Bible and see if we have done what it says.  Feelings change, but the Bible is a safe, steady standard. John wrote in I John 5:13, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”  One of the things John had written is in I John 2:17, which says, “And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

We can know that we have salvation when we have done what the Bible says.  Let us not be guilty of using our feelings as a standard instead of the Word of God.