Doubt and Christian lifeDraft · awaiting advisor review
How can I know I’m saved?
In short
Christians are not told to find assurance in the strength of their feelings, but by looking to Jesus and trusting God’s promise that whoever believes in him has eternal life. A changed life – growing love for God and others, a real fight against sin – is a confirming sign. Doubts and struggles do not by themselves mean you are not saved.
The Objection
Feelings are unreliable, and some who were once sure of their faith later abandoned it. Jesus warned that many who call him “Lord” will be turned away. Claiming certainty can be presumptuous and breed complacency. And if assurance depends on the fruit of a changed life, honest people who see their own sin can never be sure. Better, many argue, to live between hope and fear, leaving judgement to God alone.
Put as its strongest advocates would put it.
The Christian Case
- Scripture
The New Testament says believers can know they have eternal life. It grounds this in God’s promise about his Son, not in their own record. Jesus says no one can snatch his sheep out of his hand, and Paul says nothing can separate believers from God’s love in Christ.
- Scripture
Assurance has inner and outward sides. The Holy Spirit bears witness with believers’ spirits that they are God’s children, and love for others and obedience are signs of new life. Yet the Bible also urges self-examination and warns that words alone are not enough.
- Philosophical argument
If salvation depended on how strongly you feel or believe, no one could be sure, since feelings rise and fall. If it rests on God’s promise, assurance depends on the trustworthiness of the one promising. A weak grip on a strong rope still holds. The father who cried “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief” was not turned away.
- Historical evidence
Assurance was a major Reformation dispute. The Council of Trent (1547) taught that without special revelation no one can know with the certainty of faith that they have received God’s grace. Protestants stressed that believers can be assured. The Westminster Confession (1646) admits a true believer may wait long and struggle before gaining assurance. John Wesley described his heart as “strangely warmed” in 1738.
- Christians differ
Reformed Christians hold that true believers will persevere to the end, so assurance now is assurance for ever. Wesleyans and many Arminians teach present assurance but believe a person can fall away. Catholic and Orthodox Christians speak of confident hope in God’s mercy rather than certainty of final salvation. Lutherans point troubled consciences to baptism and God’s word.
Where the Evidence Is Weaker
Self-examination by “fruit” is hard to measure, and anxious or depressed people often judge themselves too harshly, while careless people may judge themselves too kindly. The Bible’s promises of security sit alongside real warnings against falling away, and Christians have not agreed on how to fit them together. Cases of people who seemed devout and later renounced faith remain painful and are not easily explained by any view.
Arguments to Avoid
- Saying that once you have prayed a particular prayer you are safe whatever you later believe or do.
- Telling someone that because they doubt, they cannot really be a Christian.
- Treating strong emotional experiences as proof of salvation, or their absence as proof against it.
- Caricaturing Catholic or Orthodox Christians as believing they earn salvation by works.
Read for Yourself
1 John 5:11–13
11And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 13These 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.
Romans 8:31–39
31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 33Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. 34Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John 10:27–30
27My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. 30I and my Father are one.
Luke 15:11–24
11And he said, A certain man had two sons: 12And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. 13And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. 14And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. 15And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. 17And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 19And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. 20And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 21And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. 22But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: 23And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: 24For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
Further Reading
- The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance and Assurance · Thomas R. Schreiner and Ardel B. Caneday (2001)
- Life in the Son · Robert Shank (1960)An Arminian case that believers can fall away.
- Gentle and Lowly · Dane Ortlund (2020)
Drafted with Opened AI and awaiting review by Opened’s apologetics advisors. Labels show the kind of support each point has: Scripture is what the Bible says; historical evidence and philosophical arguments can be checked by anyone; “Christians differ” marks questions on which faithful Christians disagree.
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