Are You Sure of Your Salvation? by Rev. James Slopsema

We must not be afraid to approach the matter of the assurance of salvation by first asking: are you sure of your election? In fact, this is the best and preferable approach. For, in the first place, God always sovereignly executes His eternal counsel. Says Isaiah in 46:10, "Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." In His eternal counsel and good pleasure God has elected in Christ a people whom He determined to save. That counsel shall stand! He will do His good pleasure! If I know, therefore, that I am one of God's elect, then I also know most assuredly that God has sent His Son to die for me; that through that death He did not merely make salvation possible, but actually saved me, blotting out all my sins, on the basis of which I am a rightful heir to all the blessings of salvation.

Furthermore, if I know that I am elect, I also have the assurance that I will be saved to the very end, that I will never fall away from salvation. For God not only sovereignly executes His counsel, but He never repents from it. His counsel, including His purpose of election, is unchangeable. God never changes His mind. Of this Jeremiah testifies in 4:27,28 when he says, "For this hath the Lord said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end. For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it."

This, therefore, is the most basic and fundamental question regarding the assurance of salvation: am I one of God's elect? If we know that, then we know most assuredly that God has saved us in Christ, and that He will preserve us in that salvation to the very end. With the assurance of personal election we have a sure, immovable foundation for the assurance of salvation.

In close connection with this is the question: are you sure of your calling? Peter not only exhorts us to make our election sure but also our calling. In fact, he lists calling first, before election: "Give diligence to make your calling and election sure." The calling mentioned by Peter is not, as is frequently the presentation today, a well-meant offer of salvation. That idea is completely foreign to Scripture, in the first place. Besides, if that were the calling here, the text would be relegated to the ridiculous and the absurd. For then we must strive and give diligence to attain the assurance that God has offered us salvation through the preaching of the gospel. Rather, calling, as it is mentioned by Peter, is the saving, efficacious call of God to His elect. It is that work of the Holy Spirit in the heart and soul whereby, in connection with the preaching of the gospel, He consciously changes the elect sinner from death into life by His irresistible grace. By His grace He smashes his hard heart of enmity and pride. He quickens him spiritually so that he believes on Christ, flees to the cross, and turns away from and fights against his sins, walking in a new and holy life. That is the calling of which Peter speaks.

This question of the assurance of one's calling is also very important in the matter of the personal assurance of salvation. This is easily seen if we understand, in the first place, that the saving call of God is rooted in His election. The call is the fruit of election so that all whom God has chosen to salvation He also calls to salvation. This is certainly implied by the apostle Paul in Romans 8:30 when he writes, "Moreover, whom he did predestinate, he also called." But in the second place, we must keep in mind that, by itself, election is not a matter of our experience. No man is able to look into the book of life to see if his name is written on its pages. Election is an eternal decree of God. We are merely temporal. Therefore, it is only through our calling, which is God's work in us in time and the fruit of His election, that we are able to experience our election. And, therefore, by making our calling sure, we are able also to make our election sure.

In the first place, we must bear in mind that just as it is God Who must save us, so also is it God through His Spirit Who must give us the assurance of salvation. For according to Romans 8:16 it is the Spirit that beareth witness to our spirit that we are the sons of God. Only when the Spirit brings that testimony do we have the assurance of our own salvation.

But this testimony comes only in connection with the objective Word. This is where so many go astray. They divorce the testimony of the Spirit from the Word and fall into mystical subjectivism. It is, however, only in connection with the Word, and especially the preaching of the Word, that the testimony of the Spirit comes to the child of God. The Word reveals the whole work of God's salvation, starting from election, proceeding to the cross, passing on the call of God to salvation, and ending with the glorification of His people. When the child of God comes into contact with that Word he asks whether that is for him. Am I one of those elect? Did Christ die for me? Has God called me to salvation? Does this all apply to me? Then, in connection with that Word, the Spirit testifies to our spirit. That is, He applies that Word of God to us personally so that we have the assurance of our salvation.

However, all is not yet told. We may not divorce the testimony of the Spirit from the Word; but neither must we divorce it from our calling. Peter admonishes us to make our calling and election sure. By making our calling sure, we thereby also make our election sure which is the immovable basis for the assurance of salvation. But we make our calling sure only by walking in the way of that calling. That means a walk of sanctification. For thereunto are we called. The Spirit does not testify to our spirit, does not apply to us personally the Word of salvation, apart from our daily walk and life in the midst of this world. Only when we walk uprightly in the way of our calling, fighting against our sins, striving to do that which is good before God does the Spirit give us the assurance of our salvation.

It implies, first of all, that we must seek out and attend to the pure preaching of the Word. It stands to reason that the Spirit does not work His testimony of assurance in connection with the lie. To the degree, therefore, that the preaching has become adulterated with false doctrine, to that degree the people of God will lack the blessed assurance of their own salvation. If you desire to have a strong and flourishing assurance, which is also the demand of God, then it is imperative that you regularly attend the pure preaching of the Word.

But, in the second place, this also implies that we must strive to walk uprightly before God according to all the commandments of His Word. We must fight against all our sin. Daily we must put off the old man and put on the new man of righteousness. Only then will we have the strong personal assurance of our own salvation, so that we can proclaim with the apostle Paul, "I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor 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" (Rom. 8:38,39).

The more the soul is conformed to Christ, the more confident it will be of its interest in Christ.

Chapter 18: Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation

1. Although hypocrites and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes, and carnal presumptions of being in the favor of God, and estate of salvation; which hope of theirs shall perish: yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love Him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before Him, may, in this life, be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace, and shall never make them ashamed (Job 8:13,14; Micah 3:11; Deut. 29:19; John 8:41; Matt. 7:22,23; 1 John 2:3; 1 John 3:14,18,19,21,24; 1 John 5:13; Rom. 5:2,5).

2. This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion, grounded upon a fallible hope; but an infallible assurance of faith, founded upon the divine truth of the promises of those graces unto which these promises are made, the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God: which Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption (Heb. 6:11,19; Heb. 6:17,18; II Pet. 1:4,5,10,11; 1 John 2:3; 1 John 3:14; II Cor. 1:12; Rom. 8:15,16; Eph. 1:13,14; Eph. 4:30; II Cor. 1:21,22)

REFORMED WITNESS

Are You Sure of Your Salvation?

Chapter 18: Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation