Recently I just finished an outstanding book by Donald S. Whitney entitled How Can I Be Sure I’m a Christian? What the Bible Says About Assurance of Salvation. This is a terrific resource for any person struggling with assurance of salvation. This book takes you straight to God’s Word for the answers to our most troubling questions on this topic.
In one particular chapter, Whitney does a survey of First John, reminding us that John wrote this letter for the sake of those “who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). Using this text as his guide, Whitney poses ten questions to help folks like us to determine the validity of our faith. So if you want to know if you’re going to heaven, examine yourself in the light of these evidences of true Christianity.
1. Do you share the intimacies of the Christian life with other believers?
“If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.” - 1 John 1:6-7
2. Do you have a deep awareness of your sin against the word and love of God?
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. . . . If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has not place in our lives.” - 1 John 1:8,10
3. Do you live in conscious obedience to the Word of God?
“We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands. The man who says, ‘I know Him,’ but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys His word, God’s love is truly made complete in him.” - 1 John 2:3-5
4. Do you despise the world and its ways?
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” - 1 John 2:15
5. Do you long for the return of Jesus Christ and to be made like Him?
“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, even as He is pure.” - 1 John 3:2-3
6. Do you habitually do what is right more and sin less?
“Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. . . . This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; neither is anyone who does not love his neighbor.” - 1 John 3:7-8,10
7. Do you love Christians sacrificially and want to be with them?
“We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.” - 1 John 3:14
8. Do you discern the presence of the Holy Spirit within you?
“This is how we know that He lives in us: We know it by the Spirit He gave us. . . . We know that we live in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.” - 1 John 3:24; 4:13
9. Do you enjoy listening to the doctrines the apostles of Jesus taught?
“We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.” - 1 John 4:6
10. Do you believe what the Bible teaches about Jesus Christ?
“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” - 1 John 5:1a
These are good questions that everyone professing to know Christ as Savior should ask him/herself. Please note: None of the attitudes and actions referred to in these questions do anything to earn salvation; rather, they are evidences of salvation. Certainly there are other evidences as well, such as the inner confirmation of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:16). But these attitudes and actions set forth in 1 John are what we could call “signs of the saved.” They are evidences of true Christianity, proofs that one has indeed been born again by the Spirit of God (John 3:3-8; cf. 2 Cor. 5:17).
May the Lord help each of us answer these biblically-based questions honestly and humbly, that we might know for sure that we are truly saved and on our way to heaven.