The Assurance of Salvation - Doctrine of the Week

How can a person know that they are saved? This is really the most important question.

And can a person know for sure that when they die, they will go to heaven?

Well, the Bible says in 1 John chapter 5 verses 11 through 13, and this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the

Son of God. So part of having faith is knowing and having confidence in that which you cannot see.

In this passage, the apostle John, who is perhaps closer to Jesus than any of the other apostles, he says that if you have the

Son of God, that is, if you believe that Jesus was who he says he was, if you believe that he died on the cross for your sins and rose from the grave, if you believe that,

John says, I have written these things so that you may know, not that you may hope, that you may know that you have eternal life.

So this is the assurance of salvation. And if you're given eternal life, this isn't a trick question.

How long is eternal? It lasts for eternity, amen?

So for eternity, if a person knows Christ as their Lord and Savior, they can be assured that their sins have been forgiven and that when they die, they will receive the gift of eternal life, which they technically already have.

But notice something else John says that you may continue and that you may continue to believe in the name of the

Son of God. So that is an essential part as well. So we see that a true believer, in conclusion, a true believer receives their eternal life from Christ and they not only possess eternal life, they are to walk in full assurance of the faith.

And then finally, they are to keep the faith. Amen? Keep the faith.