Question:
I heard Charles Stanley say that once a person is saved God gives that person new desires. If this is true, then I will know that I am saved by looking at my desires, correct? I have a problem with this because before I believed the free grace position on salvation in contrast with the “Lordship salvation” position, I thought I was saved because my desires were already changed. I desired to please God and do His will even though I was not trusting in Christ alone? Pastor, can we really look at our desires to prove that we are saved when the Bible says that out of the heart all evil flows? [Worded something like that.]
Answer:
ANSWER: We cannot look to our desires for assurance of our salvation. That must come from God’s WORD. 1 John 5:13 says, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may KNOW that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” If we look for assurance from our desires or our feelings we are most certainly be misled as you testified to in your question. Thank God you found the truth!