Every Christian wants to know that they are genuinely saved. As a pastor, I have talked with numerous members of our church who are troubled by doubts and uncertainty. Such people want some level of confidence that they genuinely are a Christian. Can they have such an assurance?
Assurance has always been a basic need for the Christian. In fact, one of the primary motivations of the Reformation was to meet this need. Full of superstition and anxiety, the people needed the assurance that only comes through the true proclamation of the gospel.
Thankfully the Bible is not silent on assurance. In his kindness the Lord directed the authors of Scripture to address this very real human need. One book that addresses this topic as one of its main themes is the book of 1 John.
1 John is a letter written to a group of confused Christians. From the letter itself we know that a group of people have started to believe false doctrine, started their own church, and are claiming that they are the “real” Christians. A confusing situation indeed.
Imagine if a group from your church—people whom you knew and loved—began to believe in something other than the real Jesus, left to start their own church, and then denounced you as a false Christian. You might find yourself asking: what if they’re right? What if I’m not a true Christian? This is the situation that John addresses and he writes explicitly to give these Christians assurance of their genuine salvation.
We know this because John tells us. 1 John 5:13 says, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (emphasis mine). He is writing so that these believers might have confidence in their salvation. Yet, how does John give them this assurance? We might expect him to whip up their emotions. To stir up their faith via powerful rhetoric like a mighty king rousing his troops for battle. He doesn’t do this. Rather, John provides throughout the book three tests that they can use to determine the genuineness of their faith: a theological test, a moral test, and a social test.
This is extremely helpful. John decouples assurance from felt emotion. In short, if you want to know you are saved, here are three objective ways that you can tell. If you can pass these tests then you can have assurance. But if you fail to pass these tests then assurance is not warranted. As John Stott writes in The Letters of John (InterVarsity Press, 2009), “To fail to pass these tests is to stand self-exposed. We may still claim to be a Christian, to know God and to have life, but John insists that our verbal profession is negated by the facts.” Let’s look at each of these tests in turn as we seek real assurance.
1. Do We Believe the Right Things?
The first test a real Christian must pass is the theological test. This is not to say that an advanced degree in theology is required in order to be assured of salvation. That would be tantamount to a rejection of the gospel.
Nevertheless, there are certain things that a Christian must believe in order to really be a Christian. John makes this explicitly clear in his letter. In chapter 1 we read about the Jesus that John “heard,” saw, and “touched” (1 John 1:1). In other words, Jesus was a real human being. John writes later in 4:2–3, “every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.”
Likewise, we must believe that Jesus is divine. John calls Jesus “the life” and he says he is “eternal life” (1 John 1:2). He was “with the Father” and “made manifest to us.” Later in 1 John 2 we read, “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?” (1 John 2:22). Furthermore, we read that “no one who denies the Son has the Father” (1 John 2:23). In short, you can’t deny the humanity of Jesus, nor the divinity of Jesus, and remain a Christian. You must assert the historic Christian belief that Jesus is fully God and fully man.
Now, this is not the totality of what we need to believe in order to be a Christian. Yet, this sample shows us an important principle. There are certain truths we must believe in order to truly be a Christian. Truths found in God’s Word and expressed in the historic creeds and confessions of the church. Creeds like the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Chalcedonian Definition. If we find ourselves out of alignment with any of these creeds—which are great summaries of biblical teaching that have been affirmed by Christians throughout church history—then we should not feel assured of our salvation. Yet, if we are in alignment with them then we can have a certain level of assurance.
2. Do We Obey God’s Word?
But true faith is demonstrated in more than simply correct doctrine. 1 John also makes it abundantly clear that a true Christian does not make a practice of sinning. We see this clearly throughout the letter. For example, John writes, “Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4). In 1 John 3:6 we read, “No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.” To continue in sin and to habitually break God’s commands is proof that we do not know him.
This is a timely word for us today. Many churches continue to affirm the above-mentioned creeds and confessions. You can go on a number of church websites from various denominations to see this. However, some of these very same churches celebrate the breaking of God’s commands. They celebrate sin and sinfulness. The Apostle John is abundantly clear, those who make a practice of sinning do not know him.
But don’t we all sin? Yes, this is obviously true. Yet, John’s point is not to say that any sin proves that we are not saved. It is those who make a “practice of sinning” (1 John 3:4). We all sin, we all break God’s law, but the true Christian knows the evil of his sin, confesses it, and turns from it. John tells us that “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” and that “if anyone does sin” they have “an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 1:9; 2:1). If we celebrate sin—if we say that sin is not sin—then this undermines our assurance. But if we hate our sin, if we grieve over our sin, and seek to turn from it, then we can have real assurance.
Despite this, some might have particularly tender consciences. When we do fall into sin we can be prone to a significant amount of doubt and worry. For some of us, even reminding ourselves of the promises of the gospel does not relieve us from these worries. This is sometimes referred to as scrupulosity. If this is you, I would recommend speaking to your pastor about this. Really, this is a discipleship issue. What you need is someone to help you “be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). This takes time and wise counsel.
Others might be ensnared in a deeply entrenched pattern of sin like addiction. For these people, the big question is whether or not they hate their sin—both in word and action. You might be entrenched in this pattern of sin, but are you working to end the cycle? Do you genuinely despise this sin and wish you could be free of it?
For the person who is genuinely grieved by their deeply entrenched sins and is putting in place practical steps to kill them—usually with the help of a wise counsellor or under the direction of the elders of the local church—I think assurance is warranted. Yet for the person who continues in sin, clearly still loving it by acting out on it and not looking for ways to kill it, how can they enjoy the assurance that John is talking about?
3. Do We Love One Another?
The last test that John gives us is a social test; how do we relate to our brothers and sisters in Christ? This test is all about love for one another: “Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness” (1 John 2:10). Notice the stark contrasts in this passage. It is either love or hate; light or darkness. There is no middle ground. Later John argues that we should not love “in word or talk but in deed and in truth” and that “by this we shall know that we are of the truth” (1 John 3:18–19).
There are two things that we should take away from this. First, we should recognize that love is seen in our deeds. Our world has created many slogans about love (love yourself, love is love, all you need is love). Yet, slogans will not do. John argues that the true Christian, the one who “abides in the light,” practices real deeds of love towards his brothers and sisters in Christ (1 John 2:10).
Secondly, we should notice who these deeds of love are for. They are for our brothers and sisters in Christ, for one another. While love for strangers is good and should not be discouraged, one of the distinguishing marks of a Christian is their love for one another. This should not surprise us. After all, Jesus said that this will be the distinguishing mark of his disciples, “if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). This makes the local church extremely important. It is very hard to love one another if you don’t have any “one anothers” to love. We can have real assurance if we are showing genuine acts of love to our brothers and sisters in Christ, and this is done primarily within our local church context.
Conclusion
All of us want to feel assured in our faith. We all want to have confidence regarding our salvation. 1 John goes a long way in giving us this confidence by providing concrete practical tests which we can use to tell whether or not we are indeed a real Christian. We must believe the right things, we must obey God’s Word, and we must love one another.
Take some time to ponder these three tests. Where do you stand? If you find yourself failing in one area, I would call you to repent, turn from your sin, trust in Christ, and walk in obedience to the Lord. If however you find yourself passing these tests, then rest in your assurance and know that you are saved.
