The Assurance of God's Salvation: 1st John Lesson 17

1 John 3:19

 As we return to 1 John this morning for our study of God’s Word, we encounter a very important topic. In our text John talks about the issue of assurance and confidence regarding one’s standing before God and our relationship with Him. Let’s read 1 John 3:19-24.

 If you have ever dealt with doubts regarding your salvation and your relationship with God, raise your hand. (I want you to note that my hand is up.) Keep your hand up. Look around. I don’t want you to pay attention to any particular individual, but rather to the number of hands that are raised. The vast majority of those who call themselves Christians will deal with doubts regarding their salvation. There is a reason John writes about this issue.

 It is a major reason John wrote this letter. I’ve said almost weekly that his purpose is stated clearly in 1 John 5:13. “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” Assurance and confidence regarding one’s salvation is probably the key theme of this letter. John wants his readers to “know” the truth concerning the issue of eternal life. He doesn’t want us to have to deal with a “hope so” faith. He wants those who believe in the name of the Son of God to know that you have eternal life.

 The fact that John writes what he writes in 1 John 5:13 should tell us that the issue of assurance is a possibility. It is possible to know that you have eternal life. It is possible to have assurance. It is possible to win in the battle against doubt.

 The issue of assurance is a controversial topic in the church. There are entire denominations that teach that one can never have assurance of salvation. The Roman Catholic church teaches that it is a sin to assert one’s confidence is the certainty of eternal life. In response to the Reformation the Catholic church held the Council of Trent in the middle 1500’s. Their intent was to clarify the doctrines of the Catholic church. This council documented the church’s position on the security of the believer and the issue of assurance. 

“No one can know with a certainty of faith which cannot be subject to error that he has obtained the grace of God.” 

“No one, moreover, as long as he is in this mortal life ought so far to presume, as regards the secret mystery of divine predestination, as to determine for certain that he is assuredly in the number of the predestinate.” 

“If anyone says that a man who is born again and justified is bound of faith to believe that he is assuredly in the number of the predestinate, let him be anathema.” (From MacArthur sermon on 1 John 5:19)

 How would you like to live under that kind of uncertainty regarding your eternal life? According to that form of teaching it is not only impossible to know you have eternal life, to claim to have assurance is to bring a curse upon yourself. That is depressing.

 We all know people who attend churches that teach that it is possible for a person who is born again to lose one’s salvation. Many of the major denominations teach that it is possible for one to be born again and lost again. In this view, one can not know for certain that he or she has eternal life because one can never know for certain where the threshold is for forfeiting one’s salvation. How much sin in my life does it take for me to forfeit my salvation? I don’t know. What particular sin could I commit that might make me loose my salvation? Catholics outline those and call them mortal sins and venial sins. The mortal sins are the ones that separate you from grace. But in light of the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount this could be problematic.

 Murder would certainly be one of those mortal sins. Murder is a direct violation of one of the Ten Commandments. Surely murder is a mortal sin. But what about anger? What about hatred? We know what Jesus said about that sin, as well as the sin of adultery and lust in the heart. I don’t know how you separate a mortal and venial sin in the eyes of God. How does a person know when they have sinned away the possibility of eternal life?

These are certainly not biblical teachings. And they are not the kinds of things that produce praise in the heart of people. The uncertainty associated with a lack of possible assurance is cause for anxiety and fear, not praise and adoration and love. Worse than that, these false doctrines flat out contradict the clear truth of God’s word. John said clearly in our text for this morning, “We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our hearts before Him.”

Let’s look at this verse closely. “We will know…” The Greek verb is “ginosko.” It means to come to full knowledge. It describes an understanding in a completed sense. We find this verb often in John’s writing. It is used over 50 times in these 5 chapters of 1 John. He wants us to “know.”

The interesting thing is the mood of the verb. It is in the indicative mood. This is the mood of certainty and reality. If John had wanted to communicate anything less than the idea of certainty, he would have used the subjunctive mood. This is the mood of potentiality or possibility. When John says, “We will know…” he is telling us that what we will fully understand we will know with certainty and reality.

We will know “by this…” What is “this?” Here we only need to look at the context. “This” refers to the things John has been saying, or is about to say. If you look at what he has been saying you will find that it isn’t really any different than what he is about to say. Looking back at 3:10 we read that the difference between the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. The children of God practice righteousness. The children of God love one another, not as Cain, who was of the evil one. Children of God will be hated by the world because of their commitment to walk according to God’s truth. Children of God have passed out of death into life. The evidence of life is seen in their walk. The children of God lay down their lives for one another, following the example of Jesus. The children of God do not close their hearts to their brothers in need. 

We will know by this, by the careful examination of our lives against the truth previously written, that we are of the truth. If John is referring to what he is about to write, we find that if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. We believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and we love one another, just as He commanded us. We who keep His commandments abide in Him and He abides with us as evidenced by the presence of the Holy Spirit in us.

You can almost boil this epistle down to three tests. The test of obedience to the commandments of God, love for one another, and a commitment to truth are the prominent themes of this letter. If we obey God, if we love one another, and if we abide in God’s truth, we will know.

We will know by this “that we are of the truth.” John does not say that we will know by this that we “know” the truth. He says that we will know by this that we are “of” the truth. This means that the basis for our assurance is in the reality that we do more than acknowledge the truth as true, we live according to the truth. There is a vast difference between “knowing the truth” and being “of the truth.”

This is a critically important point. Follow me closely on this. There are some churches that teach correctly regarding the doctrine of the security of the believer. And there are some who have an assurance and a confidence which is based more on the truth of a doctrine than on the evidence that they are of the truth. The fact that the doctrine of eternal security is a biblically valid doctrine is not a reason to have confidence that you are of the truth. John has repeatedly said that the reliable evidence is in what is revealed in your life, not your words.

I have counseled people in marriage crisis. I have dealt with church members walking in direct disobedience to the revealed will of God. I’ve dealt with some who are living sinful lifestyles and they refuse to repent. They believe they are saved securely and headed for heaven. They can’t come to this conclusion because the evidence produced by their lives reveals that they are of the truth. They are not of the truth. They know the truth. They are aware of what the truth is, but they are not living in the truth. Yet, they have confidence and assurance in their salvation. Their assurance is an assurance based on the knowledge of the truth of a doctrine, not the evidence of a transformed life.

There are churches today, many of them even in our city, where an invitation will be offered for anyone to come and pray a prayer to ask Jesus into their heart. Some will respond to that invitation, even though the Bible does not describe this approach to salvation anywhere. These people will be told they are sinners and need to be saved from their sin. If they will confess their sin and ask God to forgive them and ask Jesus to come into their heart and save them, they will be saved and they will receive the gift of eternal life.

I’m not saying that none who have had that experience have gotten truly saved. Some have. That may have been the experience by which many of you came to salvation. This is how I was initially trained to do evangelism. I convinced a lot of people to pray that prayer, and get baptized, and join the church. But far to many of those people never showed any evidence of a transformed life. They got baptized and joined the church. As soon as the power of the emotion subsided, so did their spiritual zeal. They wandered away. Yet, they had assurance of their salvation, whether they were truly saved or not.

The basis of our assurance is not a doctrine. Eternal security is a beautiful, powerful, biblical doctrine. But the fact that a doctrine is true is not the basis for our assurance. Assurance and eternal security are not the same thing. Assurance that will stand the test of the presence of God is an assurance based on the evidence that we are “of the truth.”

Too many people have an assurance based on a doctrine. Many others have an assurance based on an experience. They had a religious experience at a church camp, or a revival, or when a preacher came to visit them at the hospital, or at their home. They had a religious experience on the creek bank. Some claim to have seen a vision, or heard a voice, or saw a light. Some survived a tragedy. There are many people who have assurance of salvation based on some experience. John wants us to have assurance based on evidence, not experience.

I’m glad I don’t have the responsibility for determining who is and who isn’t truly a Christian. That is way above my pay grade. That is for God alone to determine. John makes it clear that each one of us can know that we are of the truth and have assurance that will stand the test of God’s presence.

We need to talk about that last phrase in verse 19. We will know by this that we are of the truth, “and will assure our hearts before Him.” It is possible to have assurance “before Him,” that is, before God.

This is another important aspect of this verse. How can we have our hearts assured before Him? It is one thing to have assurance as you stand among other sinners. When I compare myself to those worse than me, it is easy to see why I deserve the gift of salvation. I’m never as bad as the other guy. 

When we stand before a group of other sinners, even within the church, it is easy to build some basis for assurance. But things are completely different when we stand before God. The biblical record shows us that the presence of God is a devastating experience. What did Isaiah do when he found himself in the presence of God? What did Peter, James, and John do on the Mount of Transfiguration? What did John do on the Isle of Patmos when he received the Revelation?

When we stand in the presence of Holy God the only basis for any assurance is the fact that we are clothed, not in our own righteousness, but exclusively in the righteous robes of Jesus Christ. We get credit for His deeds, not our own. My friends, when a person is truly born again and made a new creature in Christ and old things pass away and all things become new, that person determines to live in a way that proves they are “of the truth.” 

The truth of a doctrine will not do you any good in the presence of God, unless you are of the truth. No experience will stand the test of God’s presence. What it will take to stand in the presence of God with assurance of heart is the evidence that we are “of the truth.” And the evidence that we are of the truth is the evidence that we obey God, we love one another, and we love and abide in the truth.

Does this mean that we will never, or should never deal with any doubts? No it does not. We will deal with doubts. John goes on to say that we will have this assurance before Him, “in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our hearts and knows all things.” This is going to take some time to explain so I am going to save it for next week.

I want to wrap up this message from verse 19 with some biblical truth related to our assurance in salvation. We need this truth because there are deceived people out there who will challenge your belief in the security of the believer.

The truth of this passage, that we will know and have assurance, stands or falls on the doctrine of eternal security. If the Bible teaches that we can have assurance, then John wants us to have this assurance. If the Bible does not teach that assurance is possible, I have no idea what John is talking about in these verses.

I want to demonstrate from the Scriptures that those who are truly saved are secure. Jesus asserted this more than once. John certainly believed it. Peter certainly believed it. Paul assuredly believed it. If our Lord and His apostles believed in having assurance about one’s salvation, I have no idea why so many people teach and believe otherwise.

Let’s turn to John 5:24.

John 6:35-40

John 10:27-30

Romans 8:28-39

Phil. 1:6

1 Peter 1:3-5

Jude 24