What Is Assurance of Salvation? Series Prologue – 3 Reasons Why Assurance of Salvation is an Essential Doctrine of Christianity
Introduction
The doctrine of assurance of salvation is an essential Christian doctrine. Over the course of the next few lessons we will look at specific ways by which we can be assured of our salvation in Jesus Christ.
This doctrine is not just important but vital. Salvation, coming to Jesus in faith, belief and repentance (turning away from your sins to follow Him), is a once and for all act that eternally changes the believer’s destiny and character.
“Salvation is something that the believer can have full security in and be assured of; it provides him with security for his life and a guarantee of his destiny.”
It is something that the believer can have full security in and be assured of; it provides him with security for his life and a guarantee of his destiny.
Before we look at specific lessons from scripture about how we can know that we are assured of our salvation, let’s first turn our attention to three reasons why this doctrine is so important.
The reasons to follow are merely glances but I hope they provide you with a foundation as to why assurance of salvation is such an essential doctrine for the Christian.
Reason #1 – In Order to Know You Are Saved
5) Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
-2 Corinthians 13:5 (KJV)
First, assurance of salvation causes us to examine our life and question, in a healthy manner, if we really are born again.
Christian, do you know that Jesus Christ is in you? Are you assured of that?
These questions aren’t necessarily wrong to ponder. In fact, doubts regarding our salvation can cause us to open up our hearts to examine our lives to see if we really are believers in Jesus.
Now this can sound a bit scary. The challenge is that when we wrestle with this it can cause us to go down the proverbial rabbit hole of doubt which can sometimes be used by the enemy to distract and trip us up.
However, the Christian must also know that being concerned about salvation and his or her standing with God is actually a good thing when looked upon with a healthy speculation.
“…salvation must mean something to you.”
Every now and again it is good to check yourself and to look back and remember a time when you know your life’s trajectory changed for the better.
Salvation does not always have to be an earth shaking event, and you don’t need to know an exact day and time when you were saved (though many do). However, you should be able to point to a general time in your life when you changed because you believed in Jesus, asked him to save you and repented of your sins.
There are some who consider themselves Christians who are actually not truly born again (Matt. 7:21-23). I do not mention this to scare you, but to re-orient you to Jesus.
You see many people think or say they are Christians because their parents or family members went to church or believed. The problem with that though is that no one goes to heaven on the heels of another. Put another way, no becomes a believer in Jesus through inherited belief.
A another common difficulty is that some merely profess Christ out of guilt or fear of hell, or because they felt coerced into walking down an aisle, while in their hearts they never actually experienced a real transformation of spirit. Simply stated, salvation does not come by following the crowd.
“Once you are saved, it is settled once and for all, you do not need to come to Jesus for salvation again. His grace is sufficient, and if it was not he would not be God.”
At the end of the day, salvation must mean something to you. Examine your heart and seek God in this manner.
So then the doctrine of assurance of salvation is important because it causes both the lost and the believer to examine their hearts and to question if they really are born again.
As a result you will either become a Christian for the very first time, or become free in Jesus and let him handle that matter in your life, relying on him alone for the assurance of your salvation.
Either way the outcome can be good, this is why examining your life and questioning is a good thing. However a word of caution— once you are saved, it is settled once and for all, you do not need to come to Jesus for salvation again. His grace is sufficient, and if it was not he would not be God. It is settled and you can rest easy— do not let the enemy beguile you into endless rounds of doubts anymore. Be assured!
Reason #2 – So We Know What Has Been Overcome
16) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
-John 3:16 (KJV)
Another reason why the doctrine of assurance of salvation is so important is that studying it allows us to know and appreciate what has been overcome, namely death. It is important to understand that Jesus did not just overcome the physical moment of death for us by giving us eternal life with him but also the fears and frightening emotions that we have about death.
Oftentimes misgivings regarding one’s salvation and standing with God coincide with a fear of death and the afterlife. As a society today death makes us very uncomfortable and death is distant to us, much more so than it was for our ancestors. One unintended consequence of this is that we have a much harder time dealing with death than others throughout history have.
“Jesus did not just overcome the physical moment of death for us by giving us eternal life with him but also the fears and frightening emotions that we have about death.”
Nevertheless, because no one alive has experienced physical death, when we think about it, it can cause us to recoil in response. This is because death isn’t normal, rather it’s a result of the fall.
It begs the question then— what can overcome these fears even in the believer? We can feel and know we are saved and yet death can still scare us into doubt with great effect.
Why then does salvation and its assurance help us ward off these fears once and for all? Well first off when we are saved we are born again and in order for something new to be born, something old must die.
Remember in the preceding paragraph we mentioned that no one has experienced physical death? What about spiritual death though? Did you know Christian you have experienced this once and for all when you came to Jesus for salvation?
20) I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
-Galatians 2:20 (KJV)
And…
5) For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6) Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7) For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8) Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9) Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10) For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11) Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
–Romans 6:5-11 (KJV)
Salvation is the great remedy of man’s lost and sinful condition. Through it we become new men and women restored to what God originally intended us to be, set apart as a holy people for his pleasure, with a home set for us in heaven.
There is no more fear of death because his death and resurrection overcame it for us along with all of the dark, emotional responses we may still feel toward it.
We have already died— our old selves that were slaves to sin died once and for all when we were born again when we trusted in Jesus for salvation. Spiritually we have been crucified with Christ and the death in our future is just a passing into heaven.
“For the Christian physical death is merely a momentary transition to be with Jesus forever, there is nothing to fear.”
You see if you are not saved then the physical death is not just that but a spiritual one as well where you will be separated from Jesus for eternity. That is the only death that need be feared. As the old adage goes…if you’re saved you die once, if you’re not, you die twice.
For the Christian physical death is merely a momentary transition to be with Jesus forever. There is nothing to fear for the only thing to be feared (a spiritual death) has already happened. It was a spiritual death of the old man that was originally destined for an eternity apart from God because of sin. That part of you is no longer because you have been spiritually born again. How glorious that is!
Additionally we can be assured of our salvation and not fear death because Jesus overcame death through his resurrection on the third day.
Jesus overcoming the grave relieves us from the idea of death and all of its fears, anxieties and dreads. That is really what we overcome through salvation in Christ. Remember, whosoever believeth in him should not perish. This alone allows us to mediate on and proclaim:
55) O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
-1 Corinthians 15:55 (KJV)
There is no sting in death for the Christian for the grave has no victory in our lives. However constant preoccupation with the fears of death can reverse this equation and make death become an idol and victor over us. Do not let that happen reader, know you’re assured of your home in heaven with your creator and live this life to its fullest for him without fear of death.
We must always remember that we can boast in this manner not because of what we have done but because of what Jesus has done for us. So then lay aside the weight of death.
1) Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
-Hebrews 12:1 (KJV)
10) But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:
-2 Timothy 1:10 (KJV)
What is it that can provide a balm of healing to man’s deepest dreads of death? It is salvation and assurance of salvation. Knowing that we know is the remedy.
Therefore, one reason why assurance of salvation is essential is that it causes us to examine our life in order that we may be assured that we really are children of God. It also puts to rest any fears of death in our lives because our self that was a slave to sin died with Jesus and was born again through salvation. Not to men, Jesus overcame death for us by overcoming the grave for us.
Reason #3 – It Helps Us Put the Battles of the Flesh in Perspective and Fight Better
Assurance of salvation (knowing our salvation is secure in Jesus) is also there to help us power on in this life despite the constant pressures of sin upon us.
13) In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 14) Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
-Ephesians 1:13-14 (KJV)
When we are saved we are sealed with a guarantee by the Holy Spirit who lives in us and enables us to live in ways that are Christ-like in character, mindset and attitude. The Holy Spirit aids us in this until we are at last glorified in the presence of Jesus in heaven.
Yet we still wrestle with sin and the flesh in this life. There is tension and at times the tension can be so great that it can cause us to doubt our standing with God and our salvation.
We can be easily tripped up when sin besets us, specifically when our old nature battles us. We might even feel like we can’t even do anything right or good.
Questions then plague our minds like “if I am really saved how can I and why do I still act this way even when I don’t want to?”
It sometimes feels like we are on a hamster wheel going in circles. So what do we do?
“We sow the seeds of doubt and disappointment when expect to act perfectly in this life, but we must not let the perfect get in the way of the good.”
First, as the great Puritan Francis Turretin once pointed out, Christians can do truly good things, just not necessarily perfectly good things. And that’s ok!
We sow the seeds of doubt and disappointment when expect to act perfectly in this life, but we must not let the perfect get in the way of the good. Conversely, don’t make the Christian life more difficult than it needs to be.
Second, battling the flesh is a normal part of the Christian life, just ask St. Paul. Romans 7 is an entire chapter where he writes about doing what he doesn’t want to do and not doing what he ought to do.
When Satan tells us we are worthless and not worthy of God’s love, that there’s no way God would ever save us, we can tell him to take it up with our great High Priest who is our lawyer and who has taken our place in the heavenly courtroom of judgment.
Lastly, and more on this later in this series, our salvation isn’t maintained by our good works. Rather, our good works are evidences of our salvation and God doing a good work in us. Meanwhile all the time God keeps us saved, while our works or anything else for that matter do not.
Knowing that we can do good, that battling the flesh is normal (1 Pet. 4:12), that we are under no condemnation, and that good works aren’t used by God as a metric to maintain our salvation, it puts our battles with the flesh in their proper perspective, and causes our doubts about our salvation to disappear.
While we have been spiritually reborn as saved Christians we still live in the flesh. We are no longer slaves to sin, as we know that old man has died with Christ, yet sin is still there in our lives in this life.
“If you have been trusting in yourself for salvation or trying to maintain a good standing with God to keep your salvation or to always prove you are a Christian that’s the wrong way of approaching things and in fact it is selfish. In this state you become your own God and you think you know better than him.”
Furthermore, if you have been trusting in yourself for salvation or trying to maintain a good standing with God to keep your salvation or to always prove you are a Christian that’s the wrong way of approaching things and in fact it is selfish. In this state you become your own God and you think you know better than him.
Being a follower of Christ is a weight that lifts us up, not one that tears us down. This is what our standing with God should do for us as Christians.
Will we feel bad when we fail? Yes, but we need not stay in that state because it does not erase who we are in him nor our salvation in him.
Again our intentions are guided by the Holy Spirit. He enables us to act in true accordance with God’s will for our lives and in truest good. That is what we must center our attention firmly upon.
Moreover, reader, what you have to realize and internalize right now and solidify by the end of this series is that you do not have to keep yourself in Jesus because God does that for you.
Your salvation is secure in Him; you can be fully assured of it. Sin will always be there, yet repent and move forward. Remember too that being saved is by grace alone.
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)
Therefore take the burden and pressure off of yourself to maintain salvation and/or earn it. You don’t have to—, salvation is not of works, it’s of God and his grace.
Conclusion
We have looked at few foundational reasons for why studying assurance of salvation is important. We’ve seen how it can be good to be concerned about your salvation and how that concern can enable us to truly examine our lives in Christ to see if we have been truly born again.
Additionally, assurance of salvation is a vital doctrine of Christianity because it teaches us to know that we are saved, informs us of what God has overcome for us (death and sin), and it puts battles with the flesh in their proper perspective.
In our next lessons we will look at specific reasons for why we can know we are saved and be assured of our salvation in Jesus.
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: Landscape with Sheep, Picardy (Late 19th century) by Harry Thompson (English, died 1901). The Art Institute of Chicago. 1904.15.
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