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Can I Know For Sure That I Am Saved?

A question like this is a very natural one to ask. After all, we ask for guarantees on items we buy all the time, so we are just following our instinct to want some assurance of quality.

Fortunately, unlike the so-called "lifetime" guarantees which men offer and then seldom honor, any statement given by God has a Scriptural "absolute." That is, we can trust God to accomplish everything that he promises. Numbers 23:19 tells us

"God is not a man, that He should lie; nor the son of man, that He should repent: has He said, and shall he not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?"

With this assurance of the perfection and reliability of God's words to us, we can rest with complete confidence in any declaration or promise given to us by the Lord of heaven and earth. We can act in full reliance upon every word of God, including his promise of our salvation and eternal life.

The disciple John was privileged to be very close to Christ's heart. He wrote the book of John in which he describes not only the Savior's life, but also His death. Toward the end of his account (20:30), John writes,

"Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life through His name."

Could that possibly mean anything besides being "saved?" John recorded Jesus' own words in John 5:24

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life."

Believing is the key to eternal life. We had better find out what to believe. We could read the entire book of John, and surely arrive at the correct answer, but God has given us the answer in a single verse. Of course, I am referring to chapter 3, verse 16. Let's look at it together.

"For God so loved the world, [He certainly does not mean the rocks and soil, but people who dwell here] that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."

There it is again. He ends this verse with the very word we are after: that important word life. If being saved means "eternal life," then all He requires of me to be saved is to agree with Him that I am a sinner and need a Savior, and trust the Lord Jesus Christ as MY Savior. I can do nothing else. The wonderful truth is that once I have done this, I can know for sure that I am saved!

Do you need a little more "quality assurance?" Toward the end of his life, the apostle John wrote,

"…the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness that God has borne concerning His Son. And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life." 1 John 5:10-13

We'll end with this final reminder, "And this is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life." 1 John 2:25

[Ephasis in Scripture quotations added]