Assurance in Justification
by C. H. Spurgeon

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:1-2).

"He that is justified by faith has peace with God." Based upon the merits of Jesus Christ alone we have unmerited, instantaneous and irreversible justification by faith alone in Christ alone. C. H. Spurgeon wrote of our assurance in justification:

Suppose you do not belong to Christ. Put it in that way--for in a doubtful case it is best to look at the worst side--suppose you do not love the Lord. Nevertheless, you are a sinner; you feel you are a sinner, do you not? God has convinced you that you are a sinner. Well, as long as you can claim sinnership, you can go to His feet. If you cannot go as a saint, you can go as a sinner. What a mercy this is! It is enough to save us from despair. Even if our evidence of saintship seems clean gone, we have not lost our sinnership; and the Scripture still says, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." And while it says that, we will hang on it. But another one says, "I don't know whether I am justified, and I don't care much about it." Let me tell you, sir, when you will care. When you come near your end, young man, you will care then. You may think to live very well without Christ, but you cannot afford to die without him. You can stand very securely at present, but death will shake your confidence. . . . But there is another, who says, "I wish I were justified, but I feel I am too great a sinner." Now, I like to hear the first part, but the last is very bad. To say that you are bad is right; I know you are. You say you are vile, and that is true enough, I'm sure, and I hope you mean it. . . . When you come to sift it, you find them sheltering themselves under the general term sinner, not to make confession, but to evade it. This is very different from a real conviction of sin. But if you feel yourself to be a real, actual sinner, remember you are not too bad to be saved, because it is written in Scripture that Christ came to save sinners; and that means that He came to save you, because you are a sinner. And I will preach it everywhere, without limitation, that if a man knows himself to be a sinner, Jesus Christ died for him, for that is the evidence that Christ came to save him. Let the sinner, then, believe on Jesus as his savior; let the outcast come to Jesus, for it is said, "I will gather the outcast of Israel."

But another says, "I am a hardened sinner, a reprobate." Well, do you confess it? Then hear the word of the Lord: "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believes not shall be damned." "He that believes,"--mark you, that is, he that believes on Jesus and in Jesus; he that cast himself on Christ. . . . He who puts himself on Christ--throws himself flat on sovereign mercy--"he that believes;" notice what follows, "and is baptized"--baptism is to come afterward, not for merit, but as a mode of profession--he that with his heart believes, and with his mouth confesses--he that believes and is baptized--shall be saved; and that believes not shall be damned. . . . Whether a man be baptized or not, if he does not believe he shall be damned. But the word "baptized," is not but into the last sentence, because the Holy Spirit saw there was no necessity for it. For he knew, if the ordinance were correctly administered, that no person who did not believe would be baptized. So it was the same thing as putting it in, "He that believes not shall be damned." Oh, may God grant that you may never know the meaning of that last dreadful word; but may you know what it is to be saved by grace divine! ("Pardon and Justification" in Sermons of Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, Vol. IV,  pp. 72-74).

"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:17-18).