Question: When I see people of faith and people who seem to be more spiritual and stronger in faith than I fall into temptation, I feel so scared and insecure. And I become very much scared pondering if I will also fall like them and unable to keep up with my faith. How do I wrestle with this thought of mine?
Answer: Brother, I really appreciate the honesty with which you describe your struggle. I pray my reply will grant you some amount of comfort.
The question you're dealing with is the question many Christians deal with during their earthly pilgrimage, and it's the question of assurance. How do I know I am saved? How do I know I won't fall away? To answer this question, we need to ask another: What is the ground of your assurance? In other words, if my assurance was a building, what would serve as that building's foundation?
Consider what Jesus says at the end of His Sermon on the Mount:
[24] "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: [25] "and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. [26] "But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: [27] "and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall." (Matthew 7:24-27 NKJV)
The wise man builds his house on the foundation of Jesus' sayings. That is the man who builds his faith on the rock of Christ. Think of the classic hymn, "My Hope is Built on Nothing Less." The first stanza of that hymn goes like this: "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name." This is followed by the refrain: "On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand."
The ground, or foundation, of our salvation (and thus our assurance of salvation) is, and has always been, Jesus Christ and His righteousness.
The problem with many Christians as it concerns their assurance is they are looking to others grounds for their assurance. They look to their obedience. They look to their spiritual disciplines. Or, in your case, they look to the failed lives of other Christians whom they see as "more holy than they." They look to a million other things except Jesus Christ and His righteousness. That's why people struggle with assurance. Martin Luther, the great 16th century German Reformer, once said, "When I look to myself, I don't see how I can be saved. When I look to Christ, I don't see how I can be lost." Here's the problem with grounding your assurance on your obedience or holy living. Do you ever have "bad days?" You know, days where you do things you know you shouldn't? This is the struggle every Christian faces, and the Apostle Paul describes it well in Romans 7:14-25.
Here's the good news. How many things did you do to be saved? ZERO. As Paul says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV). Your salvation is based on grace and received through faith. You did nothing to earn or merit salvation. So, if you did nothing to earn or merit salvation, how many things can you do to lose salvation? ZERO. If you did nothing to earn it, you can do nothing to lose it.
Think of it another way. In John's Gospel, Jesus is referred to as the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). At the end of John's Gospel, when Jesus is about to die on the cross, He says, "It is finished" (John 19:30). What is finished? The "taking away the sin of the world." When Jesus died, He accomplished the work of atonement for His people (those who would believe). That work of atonement (see Leviticus 16) contains two parts: (1) The removal of our sin, and (2) the satisfaction of God's wrath & justice. If you have placed your faith and trust in Christ alone for your salvation then these two things are true for you. Your sin has been removed and God's wrath for your sin has been appeased. You have been reconciled to God through Christ and now you have peace with God (Romans 5:1). There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ (Romans 8:1). If you have peace with God, how can you lose your salvation?
Here's yet another way to think about it. There were three things nailed to that cross nearly 2,000 years ago. The first, and obvious, one is Jesus Christ Himself. The second is those of us who are united to Him through faith (Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 2:20). The third thing, and this is important, is our sin (Colossians 2:13-14). It was the custom in those days to nail the charges to the cross, so that everyone would know what the criminal did to deserve crucifixion. Jesus had no sin of His own, but He did carry our sin in His body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24).
So, while I completely understand how seeing the lives of otherwise faithful Christian implode can shake our faith, we need to understand that our assurance of salvation is not based on what we do (or don't do), nor is it based on the successes or failures of others. You might be thinking, "Yeah, but so-and-so had such a strong faith, and I have such a weak faith." That may be true. But our salvation is not based on the strength, or weakness, of our faith. Jesus said that faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains. So, it's not the size or strength of your faith, but the One in whom that faith is placed.
The great 19th century Scottish pastor, Robert Murray M'Cheyne, once said, "For every look you take at yourself, take ten looks at Christ." In other words, whenever you're tempted to look at your life (or the lives of others) and base your assurance on that, stop and set your eyes on Jesus Christ, the true ground of our salvation and assurance.
I want to close with the words of the Apostle Paul at the end of Romans 8 that speak of the eternal and unbreakable love that God has for us in Christ:
[31] What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? [32] He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? [33] Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. [34] Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. [35] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? [36] As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." [37] Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. [38] For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, [39] nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39 NKJV)
I hope this helps.
