What Is Assurance of Salvation? Part 1 – In God’s Hands
Introduction
The doctrine of assurance of salvation is an essential Christian doctrine. This series looks at specific ways by which we can be assured of our salvation in Jesus Christ.
In the prologue, we examined several foundational reasons for why studying assurance of salvation is important.
In this lesson and throughout the rest of this series, we will be looking at reasons why we can be assured of our salvation. Today, we’re going to learn that believers can be assured of their salvation because they are in God’s hands.
In God’s Hands
28) And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29) My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
-John 10:28-29 (KJV)
“Jesus tells us directly that He gives us eternal life.”
God alone is the only person that can cure our anxieties and doubts when it comes to assurance of salvation. You must go to Him first and foremost. We will see in this lesson and in the lessons to come that the triune God (that is the trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) each help us with the matter of assurance of salvation.
In the verses above Jesus tells us directly that He gives us eternal life. Moreover immediately after that He says that we shall never parish. Notice Jesus does not stop with the first statement but provides us with an additional promise.
Sometimes Christians are embarrassed or feel shame when they doubt their salvation but look at what Jesus says to us, He says He gives us eternal life. While that would seem to be enough He knows we need to know more. He does not stop there. He adds that we shall never perish.
One would think that knowing that we have eternal life would be enough to calm most Christian minds. However, Jesus knows that we all struggle with anxiety and that none are immune to doubts so He also assures us that we will live forever and that we will never die.
Once again Jesus does not stop there because after these two promises He states that no man shall pluck us out of His hand. That accounts for three amazing and precious promises by Him in regards to the security of our salvation!
Christian, one of the first hurdles to get through when it comes to being secure in your own heart and mind about your salvation in Jesus is that you must listen and trust His promises, just as you did when you asked Him to save you in the first place. He saved you, which is a miracle in and of itself, therefore he can surely keep you too.
“In the weighty matters of purpose, destiny and the human condition the Bible and Jesus have all the answers.”
He tells you directly with three magnificent promises that you are His and that you are secure. He tells us these things because He knows and understands and wants you to feel and know you are safe in Him.
What is always truly astonishing about Christianity is that if you look you will find answers to all of the big questions and doubts you might have about life. In the weighty matters of purpose, destiny and the human condition the Bible and Jesus have all the answers.
As with any of the big questions of life that the Bible and Jesus address being assured of your salvation need not be an endless search for some hidden or secret truth nor is it a path you must take towards an enlightened state nor is it an answer that you must maintain by your own efforts.
When we look for them Jesus provides us with answers but when it comes to accepting those answers and learning them, we must trust Him. When it comes to Jesus, the Bible and its doctrines just knowing is not enough, you must trust the truths as well. This is sometimes difficult because it requires giving up control and replacing it with faith, however remember that Jesus’ yoke and burden are in fact light.
30) For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
-Matthew 11:30 (KJV)
This is not to say by any means that the Christian life is easy, but it is to say that those who desire answers to life’s toughest questions can find them easily and with certainty in direct terms from Jesus and His word.
35) And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
-John 6:35 (KJV)
Reader, when you come to Jesus for anything, especially with questions and doubts regarding your salvation, He will always provide you with the answer.
In today’s main verses you can thirst and hunger no more for safety and security in the matter of salvation. Because you have come to Jesus for answers in this matter you shall never hunger again, and what is more if you have believed on Him you shall never thirst again. You are free to live for Him and move forward! And that’s what he wants, to use you to bear spiritual fruit, to help spread his Word and grow to be more like Him.
Being able to point to Jesus’ own words to each and every one of us that we are safe and secure in Him if we have come to Him with acceptance, belief and confession is an incredible fact and an amazing source of comfort.
If you are struggling with this matter listen to Jesus’ own words, not mine, not anyone else’s but His. You don’t have to search for answers on this, they are right there.
“Jesus’ hands are not just any hands. They are the hands of a caring Father who is always walking along hand-in-hand with us on our Christian journey. They are the hands of the potter gently molding us to be more like Him.”
So we see that Jesus gives us eternal life and that we shall not parish. We also lastly see that no man shall pluck us out of His hand.
Notice that the first two promises, eternal life and no death, pertain to the afterlife. However the third promise, that no man shall pluck us out of His hand, deals with the here and now, with this life.
Sometimes we have doubts about assurance of salvation because of fears of the afterlife, if that is the case for you dear reader look at the first two promises from Jesus regarding eternal life and no death.
Other times however we have fears about assurance of salvation because of things that happen to us in this life. This is where the third promise helps us in that no man shall pluck us out of Jesus’ hands.
Jesus’ hands are not just any hands. They are the hands of a caring Father who is always walking along hand-in-hand with us on our Christian journey. They are the hands of the potter gently molding us to be more like Him.
They are the hands that healed the sick and infirm while Jesus conducted His earthly ministry. They are the hands that broke bread, the hands that calmed the seas when held out, they are no ordinary hands, they are the hands of our king and savior. They are the only hands that can protect us in this life from those who would appear to do us harm.
31) What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
-Romans 8:31 (KJV)
Remember that no man can pluck us from Jesus’ hands. That means that no one can take our salvation away from us. There are times in life when others hurt and rattle if not destroy the foundations of our faith.
The critic who works to tear down our confidence in Jesus, the family member who does not “approve” of us being a Christian, the boss that will not promote us because we identify as a Christian, the spouse that does not honor our faith, all of these people are but men who cannot take us out of Jesus’ hands, they cannot shake salvation out of us, never and in fact we must let them either for we are lights in their worlds, we are there to help them.
We need to delve a bit deeper here however to understand that it is not just the aforementioned examples that can shake our faith, in fact the previous examples are actually just obvious examples yet there are more subtle and dangerous men that can hurt our assurance of salvation.
Some are well meaning but their efforts can have an ill effect. For example perhaps reader for you it is a preacher who has somehow convinced you that you are not “truly” saved, perhaps you feel like the intent of the first time that you responded to Jesus’ call and message was not enough (it was by the way!) and that you must keep walking down an aisle to be saved?
Perhaps reader the “man” that is trying to pluck you out of Jesus hands is you? Please do not be scared by this comment but realize that sometimes we can get in our own way, many times in fact.
Sometimes we become our own god’s and think that we have all of the answers. Sometimes also our own worries cloud things. Remember we are but men and women and that we must trust God with all that we are…
5) Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
-Proverbs 3:5 (KJV)
Regardless of who is shaking the foundations of your faith and causing you to question following Jesus and to doubt your salvation remember, no man can ever take you out of Jesus’ hands.
Now then just when we might think there can be no more blessings from Jesus on this matter we also learn some very comforting promises in the second verse in this lesson.
29) My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
-John 10:29 (KJV)
We are not just in Jesus hands…but we are in God’s hands too! In fact, God gave us to Jesus so that He might save us in the first place.
The fact that God gave us to Jesus means that God’s saving us is always intentional, it shows He cares about us. God allowed Jesus to die for the sins and redemption of all mankind. It was the only way, therefore reader does not God then know that we are saved when we first come to Him through Jesus for salvation? The answer is He absolutely knows!
Remember that salvation is a gift offered by God to all men and if we receive it He never takes it back. God is greater than all, and in His greatness He reached down from Heaven through His Son Jesus to take us back into His hands and rescue us from eternal separation from Him and from death. It is all of grace!
8) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9) Not of works, lest any man should boast.
-Ephesians 2:8-9 (KJV)
Reader trust and rest in Jesus’ and God’s hands for your salvation. Amen!
J.R. Waller, MBA is a Christian lay-teacher, author, and Founder of Every Reason to Believe. He holds an MBA from Rollins College, B.S. in Psychology from The University of Central Florida, Certificate in Christian Apologetics from Biola University, and Bible Knowledge Certificate from The Master’s Seminary Institute for Church Leadership. He is also a two-time Fellow (UCF, The James Madison Institute).
Image Credit: Summer Day on Conesus Lake by John Frederick Kensett (American, 1870). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 25.110.5.
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