# Assurance of Salvation ## Intro Can a Christian actually *know* he is saved, or is the best anyone can do to hope? The New Testament says you can know. John wrote one of his letters for exactly this reason: "These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God" ([1 John 5:13](/codex/1-john-5-13/), ASV). That knowledge rests on three things, in this order. First, what Jesus did and what God promised. Second, the Holy Spirit's own witness inside the believer. Third, the changed life that real faith produces. The first is the foundation. The other two confirm it. Scripture also warns that some people feel sure and are wrong ([Matthew 7:21-23](/codex/matthew-7-21-23/)). So assurance is not a feeling you work up. It is trust in Christ that looks at the right things, and is honest about what it sees. ![Three robed angelic figures approach a young man in a brown coat beside a tall wooden cross; the nearest figure takes his hand and passes him a small roll](/codex/assets/stothard-christian-shining-ones-at-the-cross.jpg) *Christian Saluted by the Three Shining Ones at the Cross, an illustration to Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress by Thomas Stothard, about 1788, Hood Museum of Art. At the cross Christian's burden falls away and he is handed a sealed roll to read on the road, Bunyan's picture of assurance. Public domain ([Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pilgrim%27s_Progress,_Christian_Saluted_by_the_Three_Shining_Ones_at_the_Cross,_by_Thomas_Stothard,_about_1788,_from_the_Hood_Museum_of_Art_-_P.960.47.2.4.jpg)), cropped from a sheet of four.* ## In full Assurance of salvation is the believer's settled confidence that he is presently reconciled to God through Christ and, on most Protestant accounts, that God will bring him to final salvation. Classical Protestant confessions locate it on three grounds: the objective promises of God in the gospel, the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit to adoption ([Romans 8:15-16](/codex/romans-8-15-16/)), and the subjective evidence of grace in the believer's life. The Canons of Dort (Fifth Head, Article 10) and the Westminster Confession of Faith (chapter 18.2) list the same three grounds in the same order. The doctrine has two edges. Against doubt, it holds that God means his children to know they are his ([1 John 5:13](/codex/1-john-5-13/)). Against presumption, it holds that profession and religious activity do not establish that a person belongs to Christ ([Matthew 7:21-23](/codex/matthew-7-21-23/); [2 Corinthians 13:5](/codex/2-corinthians-13-5/)). Traditions divide on two further questions: whether assurance belongs to the essence of saving faith or is a fruit that may come later, and whether present assurance extends to final perseverance. Reformed, Lutheran, Wesleyan, Pentecostal, Free Grace, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox answers are compared below. The neighboring question, whether a true believer can finally fall away, has its own page: [Perseverance and Apostasy](/codex/perseverance-and-apostasy/). ## Two questions people run together 1. **Am I saved now?** This is the question of present standing: forgiven, justified, adopted. Every tradition treated here affirms that a believer can have real confidence about it, though they differ on how much certainty is proper. 2. **Will I be saved at the end?** This is the question of final perseverance. Here the traditions part ways. The Reformed answer that the one truly saved now will be kept. Wesleyan, Pentecostal and Catholic teaching answer that present grace is real and secure while faith continues, and that final salvation is not to be presumed. Most confusion in arguments about assurance comes from answering the first question with texts about the second, or the reverse. ## The three grounds ### 1. Christ's work and God's promise The first ground is outside the believer. It is the finished work of Christ and the promise God attaches to it. - **The promise is stated as knowledge.** In [1 John 5:13](/codex/1-john-5-13/) the verb "know" is *eidēte*, from *oida*, the ordinary verb of knowing (see [*oida*](/codex/g1492-oida/)). The verb "have" is present tense: "ye have eternal life," a present possession, not only a future hope. - **The promise is tied to Christ's keeping.** "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand" ([John 10:28](/codex/john-10-28/), ASV). "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" ([John 6:37](/codex/john-6-37/), ASV). - **The promise is tied to justification.** "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus" ([Romans 8:1](/codex/romans-8-1/), ASV). Paul's argument in [Romans 8:31-39](/codex/romans-8-31-39/) runs from God's act in giving his Son to the conclusion that nothing in creation can separate the believer from God's love. See [Justification by Faith](/codex/justification-by-faith/) and [Imputation Doctrine](/codex/imputation-doctrine/). The logic matters. If a believer's standing rested on the quality of his own obedience, he could never be sure, because his obedience is never complete. Because it rests on Christ's righteousness reckoned to him, it can be known. ### 2. The witness of the Spirit The second ground is inward. "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God" ([Romans 8:16](/codex/romans-8-16/), ASV). Two witnesses agree on one fact: the Spirit of God and the believer's own spirit. The verse before ties this to the cry of adoption, "Abba, Father" ([Romans 8:15](/codex/romans-8-15/); [Galatians 4:6](/codex/galatians-4-6/)). This witness is not a mood. It is the Spirit testifying to the Son and to the believer's adoption, and Scripture requires every inner claim to be tested against what God has revealed ([1 John 4:1-3](/codex/1-john-4-1-3/)). The full treatment, including Calvin, Wesley, Plantinga and Craig, is at [Witness of the Holy Spirit](/codex/witness-of-the-holy-spirit/). ### 3. The fruit of a changed life The third ground is the evidence of grace. Jesus' own rule is "by their fruits ye shall know them" ([Matthew 7:20](/codex/matthew-7-20/)). First John is built around this kind of test, so much so that Robert Law's classic study of the letter was titled *The Tests of Life* (1909). John gives three: 1. **A doctrinal test.** Confessing that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and is the Son of God ([1 John 4:2](/codex/1-john-4-2/); [5:1](/codex/1-john-5-1/)). 2. **A moral test.** "Hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments" ([1 John 2:3](/codex/1-john-2-3/), ASV). 3. **A relational test.** "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren" ([1 John 3:14](/codex/1-john-3-14/), ASV). Fruit is evidence, not payment. Paul places good works after grace and faith, not before them: saved "by grace through faith," and then "created in Christ Jesus for good works" ([Ephesians 2:8-10](/codex/ephesians-2-8-10/)). A tree's fruit shows it is alive. It is not what keeps the tree alive. ### Why the order matters Put fruit first and assurance becomes a running audit of one's own performance, which ends either in pride or in despair. Put the promise first and the fruit becomes what it is meant to be, a confirmation. Both Dort and Westminster put the promise first for this reason. The Free Grace view (below) argues the promise alone is enough; the Lordship view argues the promise is confirmed by fruit (see [Lordship Salvation](/codex/lordship-salvation/)). ## False assurance Scripture treats false assurance as a real danger, not a hypothetical one. - **[Matthew 7:21-23](/codex/matthew-7-21-23/).** Jesus describes people who call him "Lord, Lord" and point to prophecy, exorcism and "many mighty works" done in his name. He answers, "I never knew you" ([Matthew 7:23](/codex/matthew-7-23/), ASV). Two details sharpen the warning. Their appeal is to their own works ("did we not..."), not to him. And his verdict is "never," which says the relationship never existed. - **Self-examination is commanded.** "Try your own selves, whether ye are in the faith; prove your own selves" ([2 Corinthians 13:5](/codex/2-corinthians-13-5/), ASV). - **The rocky ground.** In the parable of the sower some "receive the word with joy" yet "have no root" and "for a while believe" ([Luke 8:13](/codex/luke-8-13/), ASV). Joy at the start is not the same thing as root. John Bunyan put the danger into a single scene. At the end of *The Pilgrim's Progress* the character Ignorance, who had trusted his own good heart, reaches the gate of the Celestial City and is turned away, and the narrator observes that there was a way to hell even from the gates of heaven. ### What false assurance is not Struggling with sin is not the same as having no faith. John writes to believers, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves" ([1 John 1:8](/codex/1-john-1-8/), ASV), and then, "if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" ([1 John 2:1](/codex/1-john-2-1/), ASV). Peter denied Jesus three times. Jesus had prayed "that thy faith fail not" ([Luke 22:32](/codex/luke-22-32/), ASV), and Peter was restored ([John 21:15-19](/codex/john-21-15-19/)). The question is not whether a believer still sins. It is whether he is trusting Christ, and which way his life is turned. ## How the traditions treat assurance | Tradition | Is assurance possible? | What it rests on | Does it cover final salvation? | |---|---|---|---| | Reformed | Yes, and normal for mature believers, though not of the essence of faith | Promise, Spirit, fruit (Westminster 18.2; Dort V.10) | Yes, since the truly regenerate persevere | | Lutheran | Yes | The external Word and the sacraments, especially baptism | Present standing; a believer can lose faith (Augsburg Confession XII) | | Wesleyan | Yes, as the common privilege of believers | The direct witness of the Spirit, confirmed by its fruit | Present salvation; final salvation conditioned on continuing faith | | Classical Pentecostal | Yes | Regeneration by the Spirit, who "testifies with our spirit" | Present salvation; unconditional security is rejected | | Free Grace | Yes, and part of saving faith itself | The promise alone, not fruit | Yes, unconditionally | | Roman Catholic | A firm hope, but not a certainty of faith | God's mercy, the sacraments, perseverance in grace | No absolute certainty without special revelation (Trent) | | Eastern Orthodox | A confident hope | God's mercy and a life of ongoing participation in Christ | Final salvation is not presumed | ### Reformed The Westminster Confession (1646), chapter 18, holds that true believers may be "certainly assured" that they are in a state of grace, on the three grounds above. It adds a pastoral qualification that matters: this assurance "doth not so belong to the essence of faith" that a true believer cannot "wait long, and conflict with many difficulties, before he be partaker of it" (18.3). It can be shaken, weakened and restored (18.4). So a believer who lacks assurance is not thereby shown to lack faith. The Canons of Dort (Fifth Head, Articles 9 to 13) make the same three grounds the basis of assurance of perseverance, and insist that true assurance produces humility and diligence, not carelessness. See [Canons of Dort](/codex/canons-of-dort/) and [Calvinism](/codex/calvinism/). ### Lutheran [Martin Luther](/codex/martin-luther/) pointed the troubled conscience away from its own feelings to promises that stand outside it, the preached Word and the sacraments. His Large Catechism tells the believer whose sins and conscience oppress him to answer, "But I am baptized," and to hold to the promise of salvation God attached to baptism. Confessional Lutheranism combines this strong present assurance with the teaching that a justified person can lose the Holy Spirit and faith (Augsburg Confession, Article XII). ### Wesleyan John Wesley's account of his experience at Aldersgate Street on 24 May 1738 became the model for the Wesleyan doctrine. He wrote that he felt his heart "strangely warmed," that he did trust in Christ alone for salvation, and that "an assurance was given me" that his sins were taken away. Wesley taught a direct witness of the Spirit to adoption, followed and confirmed by the indirect witness of the Spirit's fruit, and warned that a claim to the first without the second was delusion. Assurance in this tradition is of present salvation. It does not guarantee that the believer will persevere. ### Classical Pentecostal Classical Pentecostalism inherited the Wesleyan emphasis. The Assemblies of God position paper *The Assurance of Salvation* (adopted by the General Presbytery in August 2017) teaches that at regeneration the Holy Spirit comes into the believer "bringing assurance of forgiveness of sins," citing [Romans 8:16](/codex/romans-8-16/), and that believers who confess their sins may struggle "never needing to doubt their salvation." It insists that believers "are not in a revolving door, moving in and out of the grace of God." It also rejects the unconditional security position and holds that salvation "may be forfeited or abandoned by willfully turning away from Christ." See [Perseverance and Apostasy](/codex/perseverance-and-apostasy/) for that half of the teaching. ### Free Grace Free Grace writers, notably Zane Hodges, argue that assurance is of the essence of saving faith: to believe Christ's promise of eternal life is to be sure one has it. Looking to fruit for assurance, on this view, shifts the believer's gaze from Christ to self. Critics on the Lordship side answer that this severs faith from repentance and leaves false converts comfortable. See [Lordship Salvation](/codex/lordship-salvation/). ### Roman Catholic The Council of Trent (Session 6, 1547) taught that all should "place and repose a most firm hope in God's help" (chapter 13), while rejecting the claim that a believer can know "with a certainty of faith, which cannot be subject to error," that he has obtained grace (chapter 9). It anathematized the claim that anyone will "for certain, of an absolute and infallible certainty," have the gift of perseverance to the end, "unless he have learned this by special revelation" (canon 16). The Catechism of the Catholic Church names presumption, hoping to be saved without conversion or merit, as a sin against hope (CCC 2092). Catholic teaching thus affirms confident hope while denying that final salvation can be known with certainty. See [Council of Trent](/codex/council-of-trent/) and [Catholic Church](/codex/catholic-church/). ### Eastern Orthodox [Eastern Orthodox](/codex/eastern-orthodox/) theology frames salvation as an ongoing participation in the life of God (see [Theosis](/codex/theosis/)) rather than a single completed transaction. Orthodox writers often speak of salvation in three tenses, having been saved, being saved and hoping to be saved, and they treat confident hope in God's mercy as right and claims of final certainty as presumption. ## Tensions - **Is assurance part of faith, or a fruit of it?** The Reformers often spoke as if assurance belonged to faith itself. The Westminster Confession (18.3) says a true believer may "wait long" before having it. Free Grace teaching returns to the stronger claim. The difference is pastoral: on the first view, a person without assurance should doubt his faith; on the second, he should not. - **Certainty or hope?** Protestant confessions affirm that believers can know they are in grace; Trent denies a "certainty of faith" on the point. Both sides affirm confident trust in God's mercy, so the dispute is narrower than it is often presented, but it is real. - **Present or final?** Wesleyan and Pentecostal teaching affirms full assurance of present salvation while denying unconditional security. Reformed critics argue that assurance of present salvation without assurance of perseverance is unstable; Wesleyan replies that it rests where Scripture rests it, on present trust in a faithful Christ. ## Counsel for the one who doubts 1. **Look first at Christ, not at your feelings.** The ground of salvation is what he did. Feelings rise and fall with sleep, health and circumstance. The promise does not. 2. **Ask the right question.** Not "Have I sinned since I believed?" but "Am I trusting Jesus Christ, and do I want to follow him?" A person who is troubled by the thought of being far from God is showing a concern that hardened unbelief does not have. 3. **Confess and keep walking.** "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins" ([1 John 1:9](/codex/1-john-1-9/), ASV). 4. **Read 1 John slowly.** It was written to give assurance. Its tests are meant to reassure the honest believer as well as to unsettle the self-deceived. 5. **Notice the pattern in Hebrews.** Right after its sternest warning, the writer adds, "But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak" ([Hebrews 6:9](/codex/hebrews-6-9/), ASV). Warning and reassurance are given to the same people. 6. **Do not doubt alone.** Talk to a mature believer or a pastor. Seasons of depression or spiritual dryness can feel like the absence of God; they are not proof of it. See [Doubt and Fear](/codex/doubt-and-fear/). 7. **Use the key you already have.** In Bunyan's allegory, Christian and Hopeful are imprisoned by Giant Despair in Doubting Castle until Christian remembers that he carries a key called Promise, which opens every lock in the castle. ## Common objections **"If I can be sure, why not live as I please?"** Paul raised the question himself and answered it: "Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid" ([Romans 6:1-2](/codex/romans-6-1-2/), ASV). The hope that Christ will be seen as he is moves the believer to purity, not away from it ([1 John 3:3](/codex/1-john-3-3/)). The Canons of Dort (Fifth Head, Articles 12 and 13) argue the same: real assurance produces gratitude and care, not carelessness. **"Isn't claiming to know you are saved arrogant?"** It would be if the claim were about one's own goodness. The claim is about Christ's work and God's promise. Doubting a promise God made in order to give assurance ([1 John 5:13](/codex/1-john-5-13/)) is not humility. **"If salvation can be lost, how can anyone be assured?"** Wesleyan and Pentecostal theology answers that assurance concerns present trust in a faithful Savior who keeps those who keep trusting him ([1 Peter 1:5](/codex/1-peter-1-5/), "guarded through faith"). Reformed theology answers that the same God who began the work will complete it ([Philippians 1:6](/codex/philippians-1-6/)). The full debate is at [Perseverance and Apostasy](/codex/perseverance-and-apostasy/). ## See also - [Perseverance and Apostasy](/codex/perseverance-and-apostasy/), whether a true believer can finally fall away - [Witness of the Holy Spirit](/codex/witness-of-the-holy-spirit/), the inward ground of assurance in depth - [Justification by Faith](/codex/justification-by-faith/), the objective ground in Christ's righteousness - [Lordship Salvation](/codex/lordship-salvation/), the debate over fruit and assurance - [Sanctification](/codex/sanctification/), the growth that confirms faith - [Canons of Dort](/codex/canons-of-dort/), the Reformed confession on perseverance and assurance - [Council of Trent](/codex/council-of-trent/), the Catholic rejection of certainty of grace - [Becoming a Christian](/codex/becoming-a-christian/), first steps for a new believer - [Doubt and Fear](/codex/doubt-and-fear/), pastoral help in seasons of doubt - [Repentance](/codex/repentance/), turning that marks real faith
## Common questions this page answers **Q: How do I know if I am really saved?** By looking at three things in order: what Christ did and what God promised ([1 John 5:13](/codex/1-john-5-13/); [John 10:28](/codex/john-10-28/)), the Holy Spirit's witness that you are God's child ([Romans 8:16](/codex/romans-8-16/)), and the change faith produces in your life ([1 John 2:3](/codex/1-john-2-3/); [3:14](/codex/1-john-3-14/)). The promise is the foundation; the other two confirm it. **Q: Can a Christian be sure of going to heaven?** The New Testament says believers can know they have eternal life ([1 John 5:13](/codex/1-john-5-13/)). Protestant traditions affirm this assurance; Reformed teaching extends it to final perseverance, while Wesleyan and Pentecostal teaching ties it to continuing faith. Catholic teaching affirms a firm hope but denies a certainty of faith without special revelation. **Q: Can someone think they are saved and be wrong?** Yes. Jesus warned of people who called him Lord and did mighty works in his name, to whom he will say, "I never knew you" ([Matthew 7:21-23](/codex/matthew-7-21-23/)). Paul tells believers to examine whether they are in the faith ([2 Corinthians 13:5](/codex/2-corinthians-13-5/)). **Q: If I still sin, does that mean I am not saved?** No. John writes to believers that anyone who claims to have no sin is self-deceived, and that when we sin we have an Advocate, Jesus Christ ([1 John 1:8](/codex/1-john-1-8/) to 2:1). Peter denied Jesus and was restored. What matters is trust in Christ and the direction of your life. **Q: What does it mean that the Spirit bears witness with our spirit?** In [Romans 8:16](/codex/romans-8-16/) Paul says the Holy Spirit testifies together with the believer's own spirit that he is a child of God. It is the Spirit's testimony, not a mood, and it always points to Jesus and agrees with what God has revealed. **Q: Why do Catholics say you cannot be certain of salvation?** The Council of Trent taught that believers should have a most firm hope in God's help, but rejected the claim that anyone can know with a certainty of faith that he is in grace, or with absolute certainty that he will persevere to the end, apart from special revelation. **Q: What should I do if I doubt my salvation?** Look to Christ and his promise rather than to your feelings, confess any known sin ([1 John 1:9](/codex/1-john-1-9/)), read 1 John, and talk with a mature believer or pastor. Concern about being right with God is itself a sign of a heart God is working in.