ANNOUNCER: Can a person get assurance from John 3:16 without being told about the promise of security? How about a child coming to faith in full assurance without anyone explaining it to them? How and why do some people have a flawed assurance? It’s a great topic, we hope you’ll stay with us. This is Grace in Focus, and we are a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is FaithAlone.org. There’s lots to learn about us there. We have hundreds of articles there about our free grace position that you can read and research. There’s a bookstore where you can find Bob Wilkin’s latest book, “The Gospel Is Still Under Siege,” and you’ll get information about our national annual conference, which is coming up soon, May 18th through 21st. Please explore that and come and join us. The information you need is at faithalone.org. 

And now with today’s question and answer discussion, here is Bob Wilkin, along with Ken Yates.

KEN: Bob, we have a question sent in by James, and it relates to John 3:16, but it’s something that comes up in various Bible studies that I’m with, and it deals with children’s understanding of assurance. I’ll put it that way. He talks about his own experience. What he says is, he’s not exactly sure when he became a believer. He knows now that he has eternal life that he cannot lose. Here’s his question. He may have been saved as a kid at Sunday school. He doesn’t give the age. When he heard John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but everlasting life.” And he says that when he heard that, he had 100% assurance that he would be in heaven with the Lord one day. 

Okay. And so his question is, no one told him that, but is that possible? Could a child hear John 3:16 and be convinced that they have eternal life because they believe in Jesus for it. 

BOB: Now he said heaven, right? 

KEN: Yeah, he said heaven. And I think that’s probably the way kids think of it. I’m going to be with the Lord. They think of the Lord in heaven. And that’s what they think of the eternal state. So really the question is, can a person reading John 3:16 understand that they have eternal life, they have assurance, and that they’re going to live with the Lord forever? 

BOB: Okay. So here’s part of the issue. I get what you’re saying. I get what James is saying. Paul says in Romans chapter 10, how shall they hear without a preacher? And faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So it sounds like Paul is saying that God uses people to bring the Word of God to other people. It doesn’t sound like what Paul is saying is James is in his room reading the Bible and he comes to John 3:16 and reading it on his own with no one talking to him or sharing anything, he gets it and he’s convinced that he’s going to be in heaven forever or whatever. 

You know, I’ve heard testimonies like that. And I wonder if Paul is saying that it needs to be someone who actually articulates the saving message to them. Like for example, Philip did with the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 or Philip did with the Samaritans in Acts chapter 8 or like Paul did with the Philippian jailer or like Peter did with Cornelius’s household. At the very least, wouldn’t you agree, Ken, that we would say God’s normal method of evangelizing people is with humans. 

KEN: Yeah, that’s what I would say here about in Romans 10. I would not say that Paul is saying that’s the only, you know, it has to be a preacher. And the reason I mean, how many people number one could read in the first century and how many Bibles, you know, 

BOB: Literacy was pretty low, like maybe 10 or 20 percent. 

KEN: Right. And that might be high. 

BOB: But he’s not saying a person couldn’t read the Bible on their own. 

KEN: The New Testament didn’t exist. Now part of it did at that time when Paul was writing Romans, but most people didn’t have it and most people couldn’t read it if they did have it and it was read to them. Well, it was spoken to them. 

BOB: Okay. So I wonder if we couldn’t say in light of Romans 10 that John himself is a preacher and his gospel is the writings of a preacher. So that, let’s say that you or I write an evangelistic book, like I wrote a book Safe and Secure about eternal security. Well, could someone read that and come to faith? I think they could because I’m proclaiming to them now. They’re not hearing me say it, but they’re reading me say it. Is that really different? Same thing with reading John’s Gospel. If I read John 3:16, I’m really getting the words,

KEN: That John would have said. 

BOb: A New Testament writer. 

KEN: Well, plus the purpose statement in John 20, these have been written that you may believe. So when John wrote his gospel to the people to read it, he says, I’ve written these things so that you may believe the Christ. So I repent. 

BOB: Okay. I repent. You don’t have to hear. So even though that seems to be the normative method. And most of us in our testimonies, and even James’s testimony says he heard this in Sunday school, right? 

KEN: Right. And so yeah, someone was reading it maybe, John 3:16, he doesn’t go into detail. For all he knows because he doesn’t remember the person who read it may have said, oh, by the way, this means that if you believe in Him, you’re going to heaven.

BOB: Okay. Now let me mention, I got a couple thoughts. First of all, what is his expression? Doesn’t he say 100% sure? 

KEN: Yeah, he does use the phrase 100% assurance, which is a repetition, right? 

BOB: If I believe that by faith in Jesus, I have everlasting life, then I’m assured that I have everlasting life. There’s no degrees of assurance. Now it’s very common in Christianity talk about assurance and then full assurance.

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BOB: I’ve even seen some people in the bigger free grace community, flexible free grace people who talk about assurance and full assurance. And I think the reason they do that is because they think that people can have some level of assurance based on their works early in their Christian life. And then later, they get full assurance when they realize it’s not by works, it’s by faith, but that’s wrong.

KEN: Because they see it as a sanctification issue. 

BOB: Yeah, they do. They don’t see it as the bullseye in evangelism. So what I would say, James is stop talking about 100% assurance and just say assurance or certainty or I’m convinced. Secondly, I would say it’s possible that James has a faulty memory. It’s very hard for us to remember what we believed and what was said to us when we were 10 or 9 or 11 or 12, especially if it’s been decades since then. In fact, the very fact that he said, I’m not sure if I was born again here or later, suggests he’s not certain of his memory. So I would point that out. He might have a faulty memory. But if he heard John 3:16 and he was convinced that by faith in Jesus, and he doesn’t quite say this either, but if it was on the basis of faith in Jesus, he was convinced he was going to spend eternity forever with the Lord. Then yes, he was born again at that point. 

KEN: And really, that’s the question. What he’s saying is, is that possible? 

BOB: And yes, it’s possible. 

KEN: Yeah. And in fact, I would take it a step further. I would say there’s going to be many people in the kingdom that that’s exactly what happened, that either at AWANA or like in his case, a Sunday school class, a child hears John 3:16. And the Lord has made it to where a child can understand it. 

BOB: Well, hopefully it’s mom and dad, because mom and dad should be telling their child this starting at what age two or three or whatever age, what age did you start with your girls? 

KEN: Oh, yeah. I mean, as soon as we told him, itty-bitty, you know, as they were growing up. Now, he doesn’t mention his parents. He mentions a Sunday school class, but you’re right. Hopefully it was his parents. But I mean, I think about through the years how many times I’ve been involved in Sunday school class with kids or AWANA with kids. And I often wonder how many of these children understand it. Now, we don’t know, but can they understand it? They absolutely can. 

BOB: Let me give you a quick story. Years ago, I was asked to speak at an AWANA banquet for the AWANA kids between ages five and like 12. I don’t know what they were called Cubbies or something. So I spoke on the Judgment Seat of Christ for kids that age. I had a five-year-old come up to me and say, this is so delightful. She said, I know I’m saved. I know I’m saved forever by faith in Jesus. And I love the fact that if I live for Him, he’s going to reward me. And someday, I can rule with Him. And this was a five-year-old girl. 

KEN: She knew more than most seminary professors. 

BOB: Let me say one other thought I had. Well, two other thoughts. One is the fact that James doesn’t know for sure when he was born again is no big deal. It doesn’t matter. What matters is he knows today, he’s born again. And his assurance today is not based on what he believed when he was a kid. It’s based on what he believes today. Even if he was born again when he was a kid, if he no longer believes the saving message, he’s lost assurance. 

KEN: Right. And by the way, I didn’t read it, but he said that later he did lose assurance. So he had assurance when he was younger, but then he lost it. 

BOB: So let me say there’s such a thing as flawed assurance. There are people who say, I am certain I’m born again, but then their reason is wrong. I had a friend in college who got involved with the Athletes in Action Bible study. He was the pole vaulter. I was running the 400, 800 meters. He was from a charismatic background, believed you could lose your salvation. But he was in a Bible study with us and heard us talking about eternal security and the promise of everlasting life. And he told me one day, he said, Bob, I’m absolutely sure I’m going to be in the kingdom. I said, that’s terrific. And he said, you know how I know. And I said, no, he says, because God revealed to me, he spoke to me and told me, I’m going to persevere. That’s false assurance. And the same thing happened with James Dobson’s dad, Dobson on the radio said, I’m focused on the family. My dad nearly died and during his recovery, God visited him and gave him a dream and told him he was going to persevere and he was guaranteed to make it. And so he said, I’m so glad to know that my dad’s going to make it. 

KEN: Man, that is so sad. 

BOB: That is so sad and if someone has flawed assurance, even if they say they’re certain, that’s not certainty. Maybe they had a feeling, right? I had some feeling and that feeling tells me I’m assured. 

KEN: Yeah, I wonder if there’s there’s people who say, yeah, I had a dream and God told me I was one of the elect. Or something like that. And that would be false assurance. 

Well, James, thanks for the question. I would just add to that I believe that as we read John 3:16, the Holy Spirit, and again, as a child, who hears John 3:16 or hears it read, that the Holy Spirit can convict them thatf the truths that they have assurance of eternal life because they believed in Jesus. Thank you for the question James and as always, keep grace in focus.

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