Those who do not have “assurance of salvation” often suffer. Instead of certainty of salvation, there is uncertainty or even sheer fear: uncertainty about one’s own salvation and fear of an unknown God who not only appears vengeful but also acts capriciously. Salvation uncertainty is a serious problem that haunts many people. In this article we will look into this and try to find the reasons and the solution.

Who speaks of certainty of salvation?

Assurance of salvation is not a word of the Bible. Who uses this word? As positive as the word sounds, the background is negative. Certainty of salvation is only an issue when people are uncertain. So we should not be distracted by the positive wording, but question the Christian context in which this word thrives. I have heard this word over and over again, both in free churches and in rather strict Reformed churches of Calvinist character. There, it is not so much about the churches themselves or the people who go in and out of them, but about the internalized thoughts about who God is and how He relates to us.

It is about questions like these: Is God for us or rather against us? And if He were for us, does He perhaps revoke His love and grace at one point, only to punish us afterwards? Is there an expiration date on His grace? And if I don’t make “it,” am I lost forever? Such an understanding of God is not liberated by grace, but dependent on “chance” (the unpredictable God), “my perseverance” (the ice-cold, demanding God I must live up to), or other such things.

The word “assurance of salvation” thrives exclusively in the environment of a doctrine of heaven and hell. In this, God is good to some, but ungraciously punishes all others. Linked to an “eternal”, i.e. an “endless” outcome, there is something like a sword of Damocles hanging over the lives of the “insecure”. It has already been said here several times: The doctrine of heaven and hell is not only a false doctrine, but the consequences for many believers (!) are catastrophic. They are terrified and often carry this legacy with them for the rest of their lives. For these people, the gospel is not a good news, but it remains a threatening message. They are threatened in life.

Courage to live

We are not all the same as human beings. We feel differently. Our origins differ. The churches and faith communities in which we move are different. They all have their own imprint. Versatility is the rule. Everyone reacts to this in his own way and always only with his own possibilities. Some take difficult teachings in stride and find a way around these thoughts. Others, however, can barely lift the load.

Presumably, this is largely related to our trust in God. Or, more generally, we could say here “courage to live” or “confidence in life,” if we leave out the reference to God for the time being. Courage to live and trust in God are not to be confused, but how one stands in life has not only to do with internalized religious views. Our lives are strongly influenced by early childhood experiences. Have we experienced love and affection? Were we trusted to do something? Were we encouraged to go our own way as well? Were our parents available and good to us? Did we have friendly people around us who encouraged us, who liked us? Have we been strengthened in coping with this life? Those who affirm all this have had it good. That was a brilliant start in life. You could call this an “advance of God’s grace.” However, not everyone fared so well.

Others have experienced different things. Some became entangled in a negatively shaped image of man, worldview and image of God. The parents were perhaps never able to express their love or were not there at all. Possibly they had rigid views of life. If you are not free yourself, it is difficult to pass on freedom. Our early experiences with family or direct acquaintances, teachers and others may shape us negatively. Such a starting position leads to a different start in life.

Now, if one has received such an “advance of God’s grace” (or: just not received), and then one arrives at a living faith, then it makes a difference. One experiences God as good and gracious, while another struggles with the reality experienced and is unsure of God’s affection. It is also not even enough to say that God is gracious if there is no emotional connection (socket) for this statement (plug). In such a situation, you would first have to install the socket – which certainly requires some creativity and perseverance.

Putting this together, it should become clear that we can find a living faith with different starting points.

The basis for trust in God

Those who already find God’s grace with a healthy dose of courage to live can hit the ground running. Trusting in God’s grace confirms and deepens what has already been experienced in one’s own life. It is “simply” taken to a whole new level. But even if our start in life was quite different, there are plenty of other possibilities. As this saying goes, “He who rises rumpled in the morning has the most opportunities for development during the day.” We are not nailed down to our origins. We may and can unfold, develop. It may just take a helping hand to smooth out the crumpled sheet.

We are the product of our accumulated experience. This also means that we are always part of the development. We can decide every day which experiences we want to have today. Do you share this positive view? Perhaps we have discovered that God is for us because we have believed the gospel. Then it also contains the seed for a new development. He may speak into our lives.

So those who have not experienced trust in God may discover it. That would be an invigorating new start. One may rely on God’s promises as well as learn and discover how peace comes, how confidence arises, how new life is awakened. Presumably, this is a process. You learn something, experience something. Trust is something that develops slowly, step by step.

But now there is something else that deserves our attention: we are also shaped by the Christian environment of which we are a part. We are shaped by the teachings proclaimed there and inevitably absorb something of the community’s views. The statement is neutral. However, this experience can be shaped both positively and negatively. Let’s take a look at the different options.

The imprint of the community

There are different types of community:

1. Christocentric doctrine

One can be at home in a community built on God’s grace, wherein one corrects thoughts about heaven and hell and leads people out into the freedom of Christ. That is one possibility. It is a truly Christocentric teaching.

2. anthropocentric doctrine

Another possibility is that there is nothing going on at all in the community being visited. There are churches, assemblies and communities that are primarily social and do not have much to do with living faith. There you might be left out in the rain with your thoughts. A diffuse, general religiosity hardly has the power to intervene in a life-changing way. Life is concrete, so trust in God also wants to receive concrete foundations. Spirituality alone cannot do that. It is an anthropocentric teaching – man and his experience are central.

3. a mixed gospel

A third possibility would be that you are in a community where a real mess of grace and law is preached. This is a mixed gospel. Typical statements here are:

• God is for you, but …
• You must believe, otherwise God can do nothing for you and you will be lost forever.
• You must persevere until the end
• You must complete the good run
• You must …

It is easy to see here that the human being is placed centrally. This is an anthropocentric approach. One’s own performance is decisive. Rarely do the representatives of these communities see it similarly, but in practice this is the result of the teaching: If I do nothing, God can do nothing. It depends on me. If I fail, God will also fail toward me. This is a direct result of this teaching.

This does not always sound as radical as I outline here. In many communities, things are more moderate. However, this does not improve the foundation. If the base is dilapidated, a stable house cannot be built on it. It is not possible to establish a healthy understanding of life and faith on a dubious foundation. The prerequisites are missing. Those who are simply more moderate are not better as a result, but simply less pronounced. This also means, as a rule, that one has less profile, less teaching and drifts back and forth between the most diverse interpretations and teachings. There, too, the power of the gospel is missing.

In this mixed gospel, something is demanded of man and something is given by God. A little “me” and a little “him”. This is religious behavior, but through it not a living and liberating faith. I have often experienced it in such a way that Christ truly is proclaimed (about which one may rejoice: Phil 1:18), but at the same time many (unwritten) expectations, specifications and misinterpretations put the believers under pressure. Anyone who thinks for himself and enters such a community for the first time is immediately shooed out – a major problem of many free churches.

It is in this environment of a mixed Gospel that uncertainties such as a “certainty of salvation” emerge. They show up in people who have been in such communities longer or who grew up there.

The liberation towards Christ

A sound doctrine would be the alternative. This should lead to Christ, because that is the core of the gospel. We should grow up to Him precisely so that we will no longer be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, Paul writes in Ephesians 4:11-16. It is the way toward union with Christ and trust in God’s working. It is also the way away from own contributions. We need to learn how God sees us. He looks at us in Christ. We have been blessed in Christ (Eph. 1:3-7). What is now in Christ is no longer in me. If what is in Christ is sufficient before God, then that may change my faith and trust – from spasm to strength. I may trust in God and His Christ.

Liberation toward Christ cannot flourish in a mixed gospel. It has the wrong premises. Things are mixed up in the Bible that have nothing to do with each other. Texts are misinterpreted detached from their own context. This results in tangible problems. That’s where the uncertainties arise. This gives rise to ego-centeredness, which comes at the expense of Christ-centeredness. This is the gospel, which is not a true gospel, which Paul puts under the ban.

Are these words enough? Unfortunately, not always for those affected. Views and Bible passages have been internalized that do not disappear by a few other Bible texts. One must learn to read the internalized Bible passages anew. Perhaps certain views also need to be reconsidered. It needs alternative thinking. This takes time. In exchanges with other people who have freed themselves from these thoughts, I hear again and again that these processes can take a very long time. But that’s not the only challenge. Often, a change in oneself triggers fierce resistance within one’s own faith community. Those who free themselves from fears trigger fears of change in others (!). So those who set out for themselves often still have to justify themselves in the faith community. This is a double effort. Instead of experiencing accompaniment and encouragement, many report a lack of understanding, rejection and exclusion.

Let’s assume, for simplicity’s sake, that people want to face all these challenges courageously. Where do you start then?

Obstacles to the certainty of salvation

Whoever wants to know the reasons for an assurance of salvation should also deal with the reasons for uncertainty. Only when we understand the gospel of grace and do not mix it with other ideas can we see more clearly. Now these are theological obstacles to overcome:

1. The Gospels are not written for us
2. The law is not for us
3. We should know the gospel that applies to us.

1. the gospels are not written for us

Most of the problem texts that question an assurance of salvation are taken from the Gospels. This stems from the assumption that the Gospels are talking about today’s church, which they are not. Jesus addressed himself exclusively to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt. 15:24) and came to confirm the promises made to Israel (Rom. 15:8). Jesus addresses Israel, not the nations. He is talking about Israel’s expectation, not about today’s church. He speaks of Israel’s believers as the unmarried bride, not of today’s church as the body of Christ – which only Paul did. The theme in the Gospels is the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom in the “age to come.” It is about the future life in this coming age (“the aeonian life”, often translated as “the eternal life”). The transition to the new kingdom and the situations that apply there are described in detail in the Gospels (Sermon on the Mount Mt 5-7). The imminent upheaval (the parables of the kingdom of heaven, Mt 13) and the direct description of this upheaval (end-time discourse, Mt 24 and Mt25) all speak of an imminent upheaval that was to be short-lived. In this context, the following statements are made, whereby some see their assurance of salvation threatened:

• “But he who endures to the consummation will be saved” (Matt. 24:13, at the close of this age, Matt. 24:3, just before the consummation, Matt. 24:14, the tribulation, Matt. 24:21).
• “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be shown of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (Jn 3:5, Jesus to Nicodemus, the “teacher of Israel” Jn 3:10 about a promise of Ezekiel to Israel Ezek 36:24-28)
• “That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eonian life” (John 3:16, Jesus in conversation with Rabbi Nicodemus about the coming Messianic age. See also here, here and here).
• “But rather fear Him who can destroy the soul as well as the body in Gehenna” (Matt. 10:28 Jesus on the judgment in the Messianic Kingdom. See “Is Gehenna Hell?”)

These and other passages can be interpreted conclusively from the context and basic text and have nothing to do with our time.

2. the law is not for us

A persistent misconception is the importance of the law to the community. Calls of the law are not wrong, but we should always keep in mind that the law is
a) was given to Israel, the people who were brought out of Egypt (Ex 20:2) – so this does not apply to us, and
b) the law was added by God only to make it clear that no one can keep it (Rom 3:20 and Rom 7:7; Gal 3:19).
We should not start with grace and try to continue in the law (Gal 3:1-14; Gal 4:21; Gal 5:1-6, etc.). We should leave the passages on the law in their own context and not confuse them with our situation today. Jesus speaks only to Israel about the Law, not to us:

• “Therefore, whoever breaks even one of these least commandments and so teaches men will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:19).

3. we should know the gospel that applies to us

Along with a misplaced emphasis on the Gospels, Paul’s letters are deemed “too difficult” or “too problematic” and are rarely used. However, let’s keep in mind that only Paul was an apostle to the nations and his message to us has a very different focus than that of Jesus and the Twelve Apostles to Israel. There is something like a development in the New Testament. We should realize that not everything is “somehow” for us at the same time. Some things speak directly to us, others do not. This has far-reaching consequences for life and faith. Now what is special about our vocation?

• We are part of the community from all nations. Paul calls this church out as apostles to the nations (Rom 11:13Eph 3:1-13)
• We are God’s workmanship, called by grace, wholly without works (Eph 2:8-10)
• God looks at us “in Christ” (Eph. 1:3-7). When God looks at us, what Christ did applies
• etc.

Discovering certainty of salvation

There is a real assurance of salvation only when we learn that everything was given to us by grace.

Paul provides the theological basis for this. The church that receives this message is the church from all nations. We make part of it. Let us learn to trust in God’s promises. This is not difficult. If it is unfamiliar, we can learn many things from Paul about this overflowing grace. For Martin Luther, reading the Letter to the Romans (one of Paul’s important letters) sparked the Reformation.

If we go back to the liberating message of grace in Paul’s epistles, we will gain a better understanding of today’s world and thus gain freedom, confidence and vision. Faith is not an achievement, but salvation is given to us by grace.

Here is God’s promise:

“If God is for us, who can be against us?
He, who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all,
how should He not also with Him grant us all these things in grace?”
Rom 8:31-32

Let’s go back to the beginning of this post. There, it was outlined that our attitudes in life were shaped at an early age. It is probably realistic to say that we have all been harmed in some way. I guess that’s part of life. But the question is how we deal with it. If we now come to know God as a gracious God who bestows every spiritual blessing on us in Christ (Eph. 1:3), then we have a perfect starting point for a new direction.

If we are loved by God, then it can overflow, then we can also give this love to others. We learn to love ourselves. If God is our Father and He is good to us, we too can become fathers and mothers in gratitude. We also learn to see each other and the neighbor with God’s eyes. Paul writes that the love of Christ urges him to speak of this love and grace (2 Cor. 5:14-21). He has experienced grace and gained confidence. Therefore, he can look to His God and Father with confidence and look away from himself.

His life became fruitful this grace alone.