Assurances of Salvation

Pastor Jim Wilson has a great little booklet entitled Assurances of Salvation, available here in Kindle format and available here for free download, along with a few other goodies.

The booklet lists 8 ways to have assurance of salvation but begins with the recommendation to read 1 John which is written “so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 Jn. 5:13).

Pastor Wilson continues with the following assurances:

1. The Holy Spirit seals, guarantees, and assures us (1 Jn. 4:13, Rom. 8:16-17, Eph. 1:13-14, 2 Cor. 5:5, 1 Cor. 2:11-16).
2.  Change of Character: read the lists of the works of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:19-25. Which list characterizes you? Jesus saves out of the first list into the second.
3. Confessing Jesus as Lord (1 Cor. 12:3, Rom. 10:9-10, Lk. 6:45).
4. Obedience: People who are saved obey Jesus (1 Jn. 3:6, 3:9-10, 5:18, 2:3).
5. Discipline: If you are getting away with disobedience, you are not a child of God. If you are being disciplined, pay attention and repent (Heb. 12:5-11).
6. Loving Christians: People who have passed from death to life love the brothers and it’s obvious to everyone (1 Jn. 3:14, Jn. 13:34-35).
7. Loving Enemies: Sinners can act with civility; saints are enabled to imitate their Father in heaven (Lk. 6:27-36).
8. Jesus said so: If you hear the word of Jesus and believe in Him, then you have eternal life, you have crossed from death to life (Jn. 5:24).

This is a fine and good list, but I would add two additional and significant items to it, if I may:

9. Baptism: As many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ (Rom. 6:3-6, Gal. 3:27, Col. 2:11-15).
10. The Lord’s Supper: Is not the cup that we bless the communion in the blood of Christ, and the bread which we break the communion of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16, Jn. 6:54-58)?

And finally, to bring us full circle, it’s worth underlining what Jesus says immediately following His words cited above in John 6: It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing (Jn. 6:63). And that applies to all of the above evidences and assurances of salvation. The Holy Spirit is the only infallible assurance and guarantee of salvation because the Spirit is God Himself holding us, assuring us, comforting us. Overwhelmingly, the Spirit accomplishes this assurance in and through all of these items listed above in our lives and in the communion of the church. But if you have serious doubts about one or more of these items, you should follow Paul’s admonition and “examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith” and “test yourselves” (2 Cor. 13:5) don’t just say you’ve got 5 out of 10 and, golly, that’s a pretty swell batting average.