Your Salvation Is Found in Jesus Alone

I trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior when I was four years old. That is very young indeed, but I was old enough to be a sinner and to understand that and what Jesus did when He died on the cross, was buried, and rose again for my sins. Admittedly, four years old is very young, but I was blessed to hear the gospel on a regular basis.

What can often happen with people who are saved at a young age is when they are forty, they impose on their four-year-old self questions and mind games that only a forty-year-old could come up with. You are not saved because you are smart and can play mind games. You are saved because of the simplicity of trust in the Lord Jesus. So, a lot of times we worry when we should be living.

Nevertheless, when you read the account of the crucifixion in Luke 23, something becomes very obvious; your salvation is found in Jesus alone. If your salvation is found in Jesus alone, don’t seek assurance of your salvation, the feeling that you know you are saved, in yourself. You can’t save you and you can’t keep yourself saved, so your assurance is in Jesus, not in you. A good example is found in Luke 23:39 where we find the story of one of the two criminals who was hung on a cross to die beside Jesus. God has compressed the wonderful message of salvation in this story of Jesus dying for the sins of a man who was dying for his crimes.

Verse 40 says, “But the other answering rebuked him.” One malefactor railed against Jesus and the other rebuked him, and said, “Dost not thou fear God, seeing that art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.” So, your salvation is found in Jesus alone in three regards.

First, it is His righteousness that saves, not yours. The thief on the cross calls his own crucifixion “due reward of our deeds.” He was getting what he deserved; Jesus was not getting what He deserved. So, it is Christ’s righteousness, not mine, that saves me. This man was a criminal condemned. He was dying precisely because he was a criminal. Jesus wasn’t a criminal; He was condemned for my, your, and this thief’s crimes. It is His righteousness not mine that saves.

Second, in verse 42 he says to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” So, it is Christ’s memory that saves and not my own. He said, “Lord, remember me.” What we say is, “Do I remember me?” You may have trusted Christ when you were four, ten, forty-two, or sixty, but maybe you are not sure if you remember everything exactly right. It is not your memory that saves you; it is God’s memory. If you have a child who recently trusted Christ, that is wonderful. In God’s sight he is declared righteous. He is on his way to heaven. He is saved by the sacrifice of Christ. But remind him constantly of what saves him in the first place to help with his assurance of salvation. It is God’s memory, not mine, that saves.

I will grant you that if you don’t remember anything, that can be a problem. It can be nerve-wracking. But you can ask yourself, “Am I trusting my good works to save me? Am I trusting religion or my virtue to save me?” If the answer is no, and the answer is you are trusting in Christ. The reason you are trusting Christ now is because at a point in time you began to trust Him. There was a decision, a change of mind. You may not remember that day, but you are looking to Christ now because that happened at a point in time. What if I was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s? Am I still saved if I can’t remember I trusted Christ? Ultimately, it is God’s memory and not yours that saves. This thief said, “Lord, remember me.” It is not, “Lord, help me to remember me.” I need to remember Him and His sacrifice, but I need to realize that it is His righteousness and memory, not mine.

Ultimately, it is His understanding that saves. There are some things I need to understand if I am going to trust in Christ. I am a sinner. God judges sin. Christ died for my sin. He was buried with my sin, and rose again triumphant over my sin. If I will trust Him, I will be forgiven by a holy God who has made one provision for my forgiveness, Jesus Christ.

In verse 43, Jesus said to the thief, “Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” This was in response to a prayer. He said, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” Quite frankly, that was not a good prayer. If the Lord took him at the words he said, the thief would still be waiting for His kingdom to come. The thief wasn’t a theologian, but he knew he was a sinner getting what he deserved. Jesus is the sinless Savior. He was being punished for the thief’s sin and the thief trusted Jesus to do what he could not. Both Jesus and this man died for the man’s sins. The man because the Romans condemned him for a crime and Jesus because God gave His son in sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Your salvation is found in Jesus alone. Do not seek assurance primarily from yourself. But what if I belong to the Lord but live for the devil? Well, because I can’t see your heart, I am going to wonder if you are saved and you are going to wonder if you are saved, but God is not wondering. God knows. You can know, but it is always going to be based on Jesus. Your salvation is found in Jesus alone. Don’t seek assurance of salvation in yourself.