In my battle with assurance, this little Latin phrase has been a huge part in my understanding of why the gospel is truly good news. “Extra nos” means “outside of ourselves.” When we think about having assurance of salvation we automatically look inward. “Did I repent and believe enough?”, “Do I have enough faith?”, “Is there enough evidence in my life to take comfort that I am really born again?”, “Am I genuine?”; and this list of questions can go on and on. At one point in my walk with Jesus, I felt like a centerless onion; constantly peeling back the layers of questioning in an attempt to get to the “core” of the problem that I felt I needed to solve, but there was never an end in sight. It was a spiral that turned into a spiral that eventually left me feeling hopeless and wondering, “How is this good news?” I remember even asking myself how I would ever tell anyone about the gospel, because it just leads to questions without giving any sure answers (which is not right at all). I was hearing pastors all around me essentially saying, “Here’s the gospel, now spend all of your time making sure you’re actually saved but also if you’re focusing on yourself you’re not loving God or your neighbor as you should so you’re probably not saved and you need to repent.” I don’t want to sound dramatic but it really is like mental torture. Long story short, after years of struggling with this morbid introspection I discovered what pietism is and the difference between faith and faithfulness thanks to the guys at Theocast, but that’s a whole other topic for another day.
When you have OCD, it demands evidence to its endless questions and then when you give it evidence it still says, “Are you sure?” It’s a brutal and merciless taskmaster that’s never satisfied. There’s no amount of subjective evidence to rest in the surety that I am a true child of God, because there will always be that “but” or “what about” or “what if”.
That brings me to this concept of “extra nos”. I want to use a personal illustration with a passage of scripture that might help in getting this point across. One day I was in a dark spiral and it felt like I was surrounded by condemning voices (not audible, just in my thoughts). As the condemnation and accusations went roaring on, a moment of calm took over and it was as if God gently took my face by the chin and lifted my eyes to see my Savior Jesus, hanging there on the cross for me, saying “There is no condemnation because of what I did for you.” I didn’t hear God’s voice out loud, but the Holy Spirit brought the gospel to my mind and I remembered the words of Jesus: “It is finished.” This type of experience doesn’t always happen, but like many times before, in order for the noise to stop and the light to shine through the darkness I had to take my eyes off of myself and look to someone outside of me. I had to look once again at Christ and His promises. It reminds me of John 3:14-15 where God says, “And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life.” Someone else had to accomplish salvation for us and that someone is Jesus the perfect Son of God; God incarnate. His real, objective, historical life, death, and resurrection is what saves us. The second we look to Christ in faith and believe the gospel is true for us, He promises we are saved, just like the Israelites who looked at the snake on the pole to be healed. And I understand where your mind goes; “How do I know I’m believing?” Don’t think about your believing. Just look to Him and believe that He is enough; that He is able and willing to save to the uttermost– meaning everything that was necessary to save you, Jesus did it all. That’s why the gospel is good news. We do not add or subtract anything to the completed work of salvation that Christ has accomplished. We simply receive this gracious gift from God with needy, empty hands of faith, and the moment we do we are His children forever. And when I start to have anxiety about not knowing the moment I was saved, I remind myself that I was saved 2,000 years ago on Calvary. It helps to keep my focus off of myself and back onto Him.
In the words of Octavius Winslow, “It is not our penitence, nor our love, nor our knowledge that looks to the cross and lives- it is our faith. It was not the hand, nor the foot, nor the tongue, nor the ear which availed the poor bitten Israelite, stung with the fiery flying serpent– it was the eye… But while we insist upon faith as the instrument of your justification, and consequent peace with God, as earnestly would we remind you that faith is but an instrument; it is not the object that is to engage your thought, awaken your interest, or arrest and fix your gaze. That object is Christ, and Christ alone!… It was not the eye that healed the bitten Israelite- it was the eye in contact with its distant, and perhaps dim and obscure, object, resting upon which, in obedience to the Divine command, instantaneous life was the consequence.”
If we look to ourselves for assurance of salvation we are looking in the wrong direction, because we are not Jesus. Our salvation is so “extra nos”, so completely outside of us, that we could say in order for you to lose your salvation, someone would have to rip Jesus out of heaven, undo everything He did for us, and make God a liar, which obviously cannot and will never happen. Our salvation is as untouchable as He is now in heaven, because Jesus Himself is our salvation– He is our righteousness! That’s how secure we are in Him. Jesus is our Solid Rock and Sure Foundation. Now instead of asking myself “how is this good news?”, I find myself saying “I have to tell everyone this amazing news!” And you will notice as you look to Jesus, assurance naturally comes along. Charles Spurgeon understood this when he explained “I looked at Christ and the dove of peace flew into my heart. I looked at the dove and it flew away.” And if you aren’t experiencing feelings of assurance, remember that salvation is not in feelings but in Christ. Just keep looking outside of yourself to Him and relying on His promises and His faithfulness to deliver on His word.
In my journey with God so far, He has taught me so much and shown me so much of His heart that I would go through it all again if He saw that I needed it. I don’t want to downplay how difficult this can be, because I know and God knows all the more what you’re going through; I still have to fight daily, so I’m not talking as someone who knows it all. Far from it. But if you’re struggling through this trial of assurance, try to see it as a blessing from God in which He is taking you outside of yourself and deeper into Him. God is a good and faithful Father and He will never fail you; you can rest in Him and His promises for you. He works everything out for our good and His glory.
God bless you all, my brothers and sisters in Christ.
– Katrina
But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. – John 1:12-13 (NLT)
In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise – Ephesians 1:13 (NASB)
Gospel Assurance 