How To Have Assurance of Salvation

 

I have been meditating on this topic for a while, because this is a constant thing on the mind of some Christians and I have had a few ask me about this recently. Some Christians really struggle with having assurance in their faith. I especially see this come up in the context of the Calvinist and Arminian debate.

A common question the Calvinist will ask the Arminian is this, “If you can lose your salvation, how can you have any assurance? I believe if I could lose it I would.” This is a question I have been asked many, many times. The Calvinist will often find assurance in the idea that they were chosen before the foundation of the world, and therefore their assurance is out of their hands. The idea that you can lose your salvation is anathema to them, and does not fit in with this divine plan. I simply answer by saying, you don’t look at yourself, you look to Jesus, your hope is in him not yourself.

The Arminian on the other hand can simply ask the Calvinist this one question, “How do you know you are among the elect who were chosen before the foundation of the world?” If the Arminian’s assurance is potentially rocked by the idea that they can lose their salvation, then the Calvinist’s assurance is potentially rocked by not knowing if they are truly among the elect. I simply answer this one also by saying, you don’t look at yourself, you look to Jesus, your hope is in him not yourself. What is interesting is that both theological systems fall into different versions of the same kind of problem, that is created by their system’s internal claims.

So, can Christians never have assurance? Of course not. Assurance is not only biblical, the Bible clearly outlines how we can have assurance that we have eternal life. Martin Luther himself notes this in his commentary on Galatians,

“St. Augustine observed that "every man is certain of his faith, if he has faith." This the Romanists deny. "God forbid," they exclaim piously, "that I should ever be so arrogant as to think that I stand in grace, that I am holy, or that I have the Holy Ghost." We ought to feel sure that we stand in the grace of God, not in view of our own worthiness, but through the good services of Christ. As certain as we are that Christ pleases God, so sure ought we to be that we also please God, because Christ is in us. And although we daily offend God by our sins, yet as often as we sin, God's mercy bends over us. Therefore sin cannot get us to doubt the grace of God. Our certainty is of Christ, that mighty Hero who overcame the Law, sin, death, and all evils. So long as He sits at the right hand of God to intercede for us, we have nothing to fear from the anger of God.

This inner assurance of the grace of God is accompanied by outward indications such as gladly to hear, preach, praise, and to confess Christ, to do one's duty in the station in which God has placed us, to aid the needy, and to comfort the sorrowing. These are the affidavits of the Holy Spirit testifying to our favorable standing with God.

If we could be fully persuaded that we are in the good grace of God, that our sins are forgiven, that we have the Spirit of Christ, that we are the beloved children of God, we would be ever so happy and grateful to God. But because we often feel fear and doubt we cannot come to that happy certainty.

Train your conscience to believe that God approves of you. Fight it out with doubt. Gain assurance through the Word of God. Say: "I am all right with God. I have the Holy Ghost. Christ, in whom I do believe, makes me worthy. I gladly hear, read, sing, and write of Him. I would like nothing better than that Christ's Gospel be known throughout the world and that many, many be brought to faith in Him."[1]

Luther encourages Christians to train their “conscience to believe that God approves of you.” I want to show you how to do this biblically in this short piece. Hopefully, this will help many people fight the doubt about their standing before God, and recognize that you can have assurance. My argument it is neither dependent on whether you hold to an Arminian or Calvinist perspective, it is entirely dependent on whether your faith is in Christ and his word. And applying what his word says about this exact issue.

Turn with me to 1 John 5. In verse 13 John says this, “13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.” The Apostle John tells us that he wrote this letter to help the Christians under his tutelage have assurance of their salvation. Hence, we now know conclusively that we can have assurance of eternal life. So, what is John’s argument? Let’s summarize it.

First, that we should walk in the light. By that John means that you walk in openness with God and in fellowship with other believers, and you confess your sins,

“5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:5-10).

Verse 9 is especially important here. Note what the verse does not say, it does not say, if you confess your sins to God. It simply says, “If we confess our sins…”. The context here is walking in fellowship with God and others, in fact verse 7 is a parallelism with verse 9. Hence, John’s point is that if we walk in confession of sins, both to God and to fellow believers, then you can have assurance that your sins are forgiven.

Secondly, that we do abstain from sin and keep his commands. This one might make some people anxious, because we all sin. However, read carefully what John says here,

“1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (1 John 2:1-6).

The trajectory of the Christian life is a battle against sin. John writes so he can encourage those under his authority to avoid sin. But he also recognizes that we will sin and encourages us that the Son of God himself is advocating on our behalf. So, John is not talking about perfection here, he is talking about the desire in the true believer to be free of sin.

If you are truly a believer the commands of Jesus Christ are precious to you, and will dominate how you live your life. So, if Jesus’ commands are precious to you, and you have confessed your sins, you can have assurance.

Thirdly, you love your brethren. As John says,

“7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. 9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1 John 2:7-11).

Love for each other in the Church, even in disagreement, is evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in your life. John comes back to this in 1 John 3:11-24. If you have confessed your sins, love the commands of Jesus and love your brothers and sisters in the faith you can have assurance.

Fourthly, you are not allied with the world,

“15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17).

If you have confessed your sins, love the commands of Jesus, love your brethren in Christ, and are not allied with the world, you can have assurance of your eternal life.

Fifthly, you do not deny Jesus is the Messiah,

“22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. 24 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life” (1 John 2:22-25).

This is obviously key. You need to affirm that Jesus is the Lord and Messiah, and you need to align your life with that perspective. If you have confessed your sins, love the commands of Jesus, love the brethren and do not align with the world, and you affirm Jesus is the Lord and Messiah, you can have assurance.

Sixthly, you are a child of God and you know it,

“1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (1 John 3:1-3).

If you have truly come to know Jesus and you trust in him, you will know inside yourself that you are a child of God. As Paul says in Romans 8 and Galatians 4, your heart will cry out “Abba, Father.” This is John’s way of saying the same thing. And if you truly have this hope you will seek to emulate your father by purifying yourself. Which is a process. As the rest of John 3 goes on to say, you will not make a practice of sinning. This means not that you will be sinless, but you will live a life of repentance that resists temptation rather than pursues a life of sin,

“9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother” (1 John 3:9-10).

“By this it is evident who are children of God…” John is adamant that we can have assurance. But that assurance is based on a cumulative case of the evidence that God is at work in your life. If you have confessed your sins, love the commands of Jesus, love the brethren and do not align with the world, and you affirm Jesus is the Lord and Messiah, and you want to be like your heavenly father, you can have assurance.

Seven, you know the spirit of evil when you see it,

“9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother” (1 John 4:4-6).

Part of knowing you are of God is that you know what is not of God. The writer of Hebrews makes this same point in Hebrews 6:11-14. Part of knowing you are on God’s team is being able “…to distinguish good from evil” (Heb. 6:14).

If you have confessed your sins, love the commands of Jesus, love the brethren and do not align with the world, you affirm Jesus is the Lord and Messiah, you want to be like your heavenly father, and you can distinguish good from evil, you can have assurance.

Eight, you love like God loves,

“7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God” (1 John 4:7-15).

Of course, you will not do so perfectly, but remember we have the advocate, Jesus Christ, who is literally like our defense lawyer making our case before the throne of God our Father. If you have come to know God you will feel his love expanding in your life.

If you have confessed your sins, love the commands of Jesus, love the brethren and do not align with the world, and you affirm that Jesus is the Lord and Christ, and you want to be like your heavenly father, you can distinguish good from evil, and you love like God does, you can have assurance.

Nine, you love God, “1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments” (1 John 5:1-2). To the unbeliever God’s commands will be interesting, but often hateful. To the believer they are like precious gold and taste like honey. Because we know they come from a heart of love for us. As a believer you will grow in this appreciation of the commands of God.

If you have confessed your sins, love the commands of Jesus, love the brethren and do not align with the world, and you affirm Jesus is the Lord and Messiah, and you want to be like your heavenly father, you can distinguish good from evil, you love like God does, and you love God and his commands, you can have assurance.

Ten, you just know, because God has testified to your heart, and you know that you know in a way that others cannot take from you,

“6 This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. 9 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. 10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself” (1 John 5:6-10).

There is nothing anyone could say to me to make me believe God is not real, or that Jesus is not my Lord and Saviour. Why? Because the Spirit, the water and the blood testify to his work. The Spirit that has made me new, the water represents my new life in him, and the blood that has sprinkled my conscience. Boy that last one means so much when you think about how God settles our consciences and removes our burden of sin.

If you have truly come to know God you know what I am talking about. God makes us new and we know it. For the person with a soft conscience who is not saved, all their sins pile up in their hearts and minds. Why do you think so many people are in therapy or on medication to help them sleep?[2] But for the believer we know that God has forgiven us and he puts our spirit at rest. And we also know that he has been at work in our lives. We know it, we simply know it.

If you have confessed your sins, love the commands of Jesus, love the brethren and do not align with the world, and you affirm Jesus is the Lord and Christ, you want to be like your heavenly father, you can distinguish good from evil, you love like God does, you love God and his commands, and you know in your heart that he has changed you, then you can have assurance,

“13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” (1 John 5:13-15).

And because of this we know we can confidently pray to him, seek him and know that he hears us.

The Bible does not teach us to find our assurance of faith in the idea of election. The Bible does not teach us that if we can lose our salvation we cannot have assurance. These are debates we will have as believers who read the Bible differently. But a whole book of the Bible was written to show how we can have assurance. I encourage you to meditate on the book of 1 John and pursue God, his Son and their commandments over all other things. Do this in faith and rest in the knowledge that if you have confessed your sins he is faithful and just to forgive your sins.

List of References

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[1] Luther, Martin. Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (pp. 112-113). Kindle Edition.

[2] I am not saying those on medication are not saved. I am simply noting that a lot of people are struggling because they are not walking in forgiveness. Both Christians and non-Christians live like this.