God Wants You to Be Sure
Can a person really know he is going to heaven? Many sincere people say no. They hope so. They are doing their best. They think that claiming to be sure would be pride. The apostle John wrote a letter with the opposite aim.
“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”1 JOHN 5:13 · KJV
John did not write so that believers might guess, or wish, or feel fairly good about their chances. He wrote that ye may know. And he wrote about something they already had: that ye have eternal life. God wants you to be certain.
Being sure of heaven would be arrogant if you had earned it. You did not earn it, and that is the point. Taking God at His word about what Christ has done is simple faith.
A believer's personal confidence that he has eternal life. It rests first on God's promise, and it is confirmed by the Spirit's witness and the fruit of a changed life (1 John 5:13; Romans 8:16).
Eternal security is what God does: He keeps His own, whether they feel it or not. Assurance is what a believer enjoys: he knows he is kept. Security never changes. Assurance can grow or fade, and God wants it to grow.
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For Deeper Study
- Full AssuranceAmazon H. A. IronsideA short classic, written to answer the doubts of anxious believers from the promises of God.
- Salvation Is ForeverAmazon Robert G. GromackiA careful, text-by-text answer to whether a saved person can ever be lost.
- Stop Asking Jesus into Your HeartAmazon J. D. GreearA Southern Baptist pastor's account of his own years of doubt, and how to rest in Christ. Helpful for anyone who keeps starting over. He is often counted among the Calvinists in his convention, and we differ there.
- Am I Really a Christian?Amazon Mike McKinleyA plain warning against false assurance from a Baptist pastor of Reformed convictions. We differ on election, so read it with the promises of this study open.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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Eternal Security
Everyone who is genuinely born again through faith in Christ is kept by the power of God and will never perish, because salvation rests on Christ's finished work and God's unbreakable promise.
Open Doctrine