A Christian should know with 100% certainty that they have eternal life, and that when this life is over, they will spend eternity with God. They do not have to wait until after they die to find out. They can and must know now. Do you know for sure that you are going to heaven? This article discusses what the Bible teaches about assurance of salvation.

Main Points

1. 1. We can and must know for sure we are saved.
   2. Assurance is not based on an assumption.
   3. Assurance is based on the evidence of a changed life. 

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Scriptures

1 John 2:3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.

1 John 4:12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been 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.

1 John 5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

Which category are you in?

There are 3 categories of church goers:

• Those who have a healthy assurance of salvation – they are genuinely saved and they know it.
• Those who lack assurance of salvation.
• People who have a misplaced assurance of salvation – they think they are saved but are not.

1 John was written to provide assurance of salvation to those who believe. But John did not offer a blanket assurance of salvation to everyone who was a church member. He wrote to offer assurance to those who were genuinely saved, but to take away assurance from those whose faith was not authentic. He made every effort to not give false hope. John was not trying to be popular like modern day preachers.

Do you lack assurance?

If you do not know for sure you are going to heaven, there could be two possible reasons for this. It could be that you are not genuinely saved, but God is working on you leading you to true repentance. It could also be that you are genuinely saved, but do not fully understand the extent of Christ’s atonement.

Many people look at their own imperfections and wonder if they are saved. Then they hear a message from the pulpit reinforcing their doubts, “How could you call yourself a Christian and keep committing the same sin over and over?” This serves to perpetuate the cycle of condemnation in their own mind.

Even the great apostle Paul struggled with personal sin to the point that he hated himself. He talked about it in Romans 7. He struggled with lust. Every time he tried not to lust or covet, he ended up doing the very thing he sought not to do. He was in such a bad state, that even the 10 commandments ended up causing Paul to fall into his sin. He lamented his deplorable state, “Oh wretched man that I am!”

But in the midst of his self-hatred, he was fully assured that Jesus would save him. As bad as he was, he knew that God would in no way cast him off.  Paul understood that God did not just save us and leave us to our own devices. In addition to the initial offering of salvation, the Bible teaches that God preserves us with his power (2 Thessalonians 3:3; 1 Peter 1:15), he keeps us from falling (Jude 24), he will finish the work he started (Philippians 1:6). This is why Paul was so confident in his salvation in spite of his shortcomings.

Do you have a false hope?

On the other end of the spectrum, there are those who are in church, think they are saved, but are woefully deceived. Perhaps they heard the self-help gospel on TV – the gospel of self-actualization – and they were enticed by the idea that they could fulfil all their dreams through Jesus and have their best life now. Then the preacher on TV led them in the sinner’s prayer and told them that if they repeated this prayer, they are saved. They probably think Jesus died on the cross so they could have a good day.

I am not trying to belittle you, but just like 1 John, my job is to let you know that the gospel you heard was no gospel at all. The sinner’s prayer is not in the Bible. Salvation is not a matter of repeating a prayer, joining a church or answering an altar call. You need to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and respond to Him in true faith and true repentance. You must hate your sin and your sinfulness the way Paul did, and call out to God to save you.

I am afraid that the popular “gospel” being preached on TV and books has mislead people into falsely believing they are saved when they are probably not.

Assurance of salvation is not a blind assumption

We are saved by grace through faith, and not by any good we have ever done (Ephesians 2:8,9). God promises salvation to all who will call upon him and believe in him (Romans 10:13). Many people however, mistakenly believe that since salvation is by faith in God’s promise, then assurance of salvation is also by faith in God’s word. They tell you that if you doubt your salvation, you are making God a liar because you are doubting His promise. They say you should stop doubting your salvation and just believe.

These people are missing the point. The issue is not whether God promises to save you by faith or not. Of course he does. The issue is DID He actually save YOU (personally). It is not if you believe in Jesus. Does your belief constitute genuine saving faith. We know that God saves those who have genuine faith. But is YOUR faith genuine. Are YOU part of the elect? You can’t just assume you are saved because God saves. Otherwise, everyone would be saved. You can’t just assume you are saved because you prayed the sinner’s prayer. Otherwise everyone who says “Lord Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Assurance of salvation illustrated

Suppose a wealthy businessman comes to town and promises to deposit two installments of $1000 each into the bank accounts of several residents of the town. The first installment would be immediate, while the second would be given at the end of the month. That’s the promise.

How do you know if YOU are one of the recipients of that promise? Do you assume? No. You check your bank account to see if there was a $1000 deposit. If you don’t see that evidence, then you are probably not one of the recipients. If you do see it, then you can rest assured that at the end of the month, you have another $1000 coming to you.

That is how assurance of salvation works. God saves by his grace. But when He saves, people’s lives are transformed. Once you see the evidence of that transformation (the initial deposit), you can be confident that your faith is real, your salvation is genuine, and you can rest assured that at the end of your time, he will raise you up.

Assurance is not a blind assumption. It can be tested by looking at the evidence.

What evidence should we look for

Here is how John approached the issue of assurance. He started off by painting a picture of what God looks like – in Him there is no darkness. Then he shows what a genuine Christian should look like. Finally the reader is left with the question, what do you look like? Facing the mirror of godlike Christianity, the genuine believe finds assurance of his salvation, while the fake believer is faced with the cruel reality that his salvation is not real.

Living in love

A believer walks in love (1 John 4:12 and others). Note that you don’t love one another in order to earn salvation. Rather, love for God and one another is the result of a genuine salvation experience.

When we are saved, God’s love is poured out in our hearts (Romans 5:5). This is something only genuine believers have. If we see our brethren suffering, it is supposed to move us (1 John 3:17). We are not called to give strategically. We ought to be moved with compassion, and give out of our abundance without our right hand knowing what our left hand has done. That love in our heart is the exhibit number one – the first piece of evidence that we are saved.

Keeping God’s commands

A believer keeps his commands (1 John 2:3). This is a corollary of the first point above, since love obeys. If you love me you will keep my word (John 14:15). A believer has a desire to live right and not sin against God. However, John also acknowledges that we will fall short and commit acts of sin (1 John 1:9). So a believer does not necessarily need to have perfect obedience. But the desire to live above sin must be present. And just like Paul, we must have a hatred for sin. We must hate ourselves when we lose the struggle against sin.

I admit this could be confusing. On one hand, if we deny our sin, we make God a liar. But on the other hand, if we commit sin, we are of the devil. Really John? At what point do we make a distinction between occasional acts of sin and habitual sin? Is there a cut-off number?

The better way to look at it is your attitude when you sin. Do you sin without any remorse or conviction? Or do you get frustrated with yourself the way Paul did? Do you try to deny your sin – “I was born this way”? Or are open about your sin before God? Do you STRUGGLE with sin?

The struggle is actually proof that the Holy Spirit is working in you. Galatians 5:17 teaches that the Spirit (new life of God) and the flesh (the old sinful nature) are at war within you. That causes a conflict and a struggle with sin. Only a genuine believer can struggle with sin. An unbeliever sins without remorse. They may have social qualms regarding consequences, but no godly sorrow before God. If you have godly sorrow for sin, you are saved.

Some theological words

There are three theological terms that describe our salvation. The first is justification. This is a legal proclamation by God that He has taken away your sins and replaced it with the righteousness of Christ. You cannot see the evidence of justification.

The second is sanctification. This is the process by which God cleanses you and purifies you. But this is a slow lifelong process. You can see evidence of sanctification, but it is not a reliable guide because there are too many ups and downs. The full effects of sanctification will only be seen when we are glorified in heaven.

The third is regeneration. This is the process of the new birth, where we are born again. Old things are passed away and all things are become new. We are new creatures in Christ. We have been transformed. This is the something we can see evidence of right now. It is an instantaneous change that happen the moment we are saved. We may not have been made perfect as yet, but something definitely happened. If you can recall a distinct incident like that in your own life, then you can have assurance of salvation on that basis.

Regeneration illustrated

A few years ago I had a drab grey car. I hated the color. So I identified a metallic green color and took it to the paint shop. The car came back from the paint shop shiny like new. Everyone noticed when the shiny green car passed by. However, if you look at the car now, it looks neither shiny nor green. Beneath all the layers of dirt, dust and digested bird food, the car looks nothing like the work of art that drove out of the paint shop. Does that mean the paint job was lost or invalidated? No. it’s still there underneath the grime. If I take it to the car wash, like magic, the shiny green luster is restored.

That’s how it is with us as well. The one-time paint job is regeneration, while the regular car washes are sanctification. When we are regenerated, there is a noticeable change. We see it and everyone else sees it. But then life happens. You fall into sin, the cares of this life strangle out some of God’s word, and we wonder what went wrong. But then we go to God in prayer and confess our sins, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Our luster is renewed and the joy of our salvation is restored.

This may happen over and over again. If you look at yourself in your worst moment, you may doubt your salvation. But that does not change the fact that you had a distinct life changing experience called regeneration. You can always look back to that event as evidence that God has indeed started a work in your life, and He is faithful to complete it. This evidence of regeneration is the basis of our assurance of salvation.

Conclusion

A genuine believer could and should have assurance that when this life is over, they will spend eternity with God. An unbeliever or fake believer has no basis for such a hope. This assurance is based on the tangible evidence of regeneration – a transformed life.

If there has never been any evidence of transformation at any point in your life, then there is a chance you are not genuinely saved. You can get offended or you can be glad you found this out now while there is still time. Go to God in prayer, call upon him. Ask Him to give you godly sorrow for sin such that you hate your sin, and to lead you to true repentance. Ask Him to cleanse you and make you new. Salvation is a gift of God that is based on Christ’s death on the cross. There is nothing you can do to merit or earn it. But it is a miracle, and when it happens, there will be evidence that it did. That is how you know you are saved.

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