Assurance of the essence of saving faith – Grace Evangelical Society

Don’t We All Doubt Our Salvation?

August 15, 2023 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Assurance of the essence of saving faith

Paul asks, You say having assurance is the essence of saving faith. This leaves no room for doubt if it’s based on assurance. How do you know you’ve really believed? Assurance seems relative. It comes and goes like emotions. Experientially we all have doubt. If you tell me the essence of saving faith is to

The Role of Christ in Our Salvation, Part 3: The Promise of Christ

July 21, 2022 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Assurance of the essence of saving faith, The promise of life, the word of life

Not only did Jesus need to be the right Person and do the right works for us to be saved, but He also had to make the right promise. Without the promise of everlasting life, no one could be saved. Why is the promise of Christ essential for salvation? Because the promise of everlasting life

Six Questions on Assurance, Part 3

October 15, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Assurance of the essence of saving faith, Galatians 3:6, Genesis 15:6, Hebrews 11:10, John 8:56, Romans 4:3

We are considering six objections to the teaching that assurance of everlasting life is of the essence of saving faith. In this blog we consider objections three and four. The third objection is that John 20:31 is saying someone can correctly perceive who Jesus is and yet not believe that by faith in Him, he

Six Questions Regarding Assurance of Salvation, Part 2

October 14, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - 1 John 5:13, Assurance of Salvation, Assurance of the essence of saving faith

In this blog I will discuss the first two objections to assurance being of the essence of saving faith as stated in Part 1. Those two objections are that when a person believes in Christ, he has objective assurance, even if he is not sure he is eternally secure, and that 1 John 5:13 proves

Assurance Is the Essence of Saving Faith

July 16, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Assurance, Assurance of the essence of saving faith, Berkhof’s view of saving faith, Eternal Security

We’ve written on this before. See here for a 1997 article by Zane Hodges. And here is a 2017 article by Shawn Lazar. Here is a 2008 article by me. Here is my recent review of a booklet which argues that assurance is of the essence. So why look at this issue again? Today I