A friend sent me an electronic copy of a magazine. I was struck by an article dealing with assurance of salvation.
In the article, the author said, “Assurance is more than a theological truth to be understood. It is something that is experienced—not just theologically proven.”i
How does one experience assurance, especially when it is more than something that is “theologically proven”?
The article’s author continued with the following explanation,
As a pastor I have often had people whom I was discipling tell me they believe (intellectually) that the Bible teaches “once saved, always saved,” but because of their struggles (and emotions from bad teaching) they are still questioning their own salvation. We review the gospel. They believe the gospel. They believe in eternal security. I can tell them they should have confidence by trusting in Jesus’ finished work. But the sad truth is that they were not experiencing security. What a loss!ii
It is confusing to speak of someone who intellectually believes that the Bible teaches eternal security yet does not believe he is eternally secure.
The author does not explain what the “bad teaching” was that kept the person from “experiencing security.”
Let me fill in a few ways in which someone might believe in eternal security yet be uncertain that he is secure.
First, one might believe that the elect are eternally secure but that it is impossible to be sure he is one of them. Most Calvinists face this dilemma.
Second, a person might believe that while he is God’s child currently, he can lose that status if he falls away. In this view, the person believes he is saved for now but not forever. Most Arminians face this dilemma.
Third, a person might know that those who believe in Jesus are saved once and for all, but they do not know what it means to believe in Jesus. They might think believing in Him includes surrender, commitment, repentance, and obedience. Since those things are subjective, people in this category aren’t sure they believe in Jesus.
Earlier in the article, the author said that teaching “assurance is of the essence of saving faith” causes some people to lose their assurance of salvation. I find the opposite is true. By pointing people to John 3:16 or similar verses that teach that assurance is of the essence of saving faith, we help people become sure they will never perish but will, instead, have everlasting life. Only someone with what the author calls “bad teaching” would be bothered by an exposition of John 3:16.
Assurance is objective. We know we are secure forever because we believe in Jesus’ promise of everlasting life, as found in verses like John 3:16.
The certainty of our eternal destiny is a matter of what we believe, not what we experience. Our experiences are subjective and change all the time, while God’s truth is objective and unchanging.
Keep grace in focus.
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i Jeremy Mikkelsen, “You Ask. We Answer: ‘What If I Don’t Always Feel Saved?’,” Leading Grace (Summer 2024): 4.
ii Ibid.
