We’re Failing Our People

My next big project

Lately I keep coming back to the problem of Christian assurance. The more I ask around and talk to people, the more I find that many, many people in the pews struggle with feeling truly saved.

I often get the “I hope I’ve done enough” response, an understandable but sorely mistaken sentiment. I’m also running into numerous people who have been baptized two or three times out of fear that the first one didn’t count because of some misunderstanding at the time or that they haven’t been good enough to say they truly got it.

While there are plenty of studies on Christians who struggle with doubt in God’s existence or the validity of the Bible, it’s harder to find research on those who doubt their salvation.

However, it’s illuminating that one study found over half (52%) of self-described Christians hold a works-oriented view of salvation, and 41% of evangelicals believe one can get to heaven “by being or doing good.” If people think eternal life is based on reaching an unquantifiable level of “goodness,” it makes sense that many would wonder if they’ve reached it.

As I’ve written before, we in the churches of Christ can add another layer of uncertainty through our teaching on doctrinal precision. Of course, we should teach the importance of getting doctrine right, but for many people it isn’t followed up with assurance that they are saved, a reminder that God will reward them and lead them to truth if they are seeking to please Him, and that there is grace for second-level misunderstandings.

Christians should be able to mean it when they sing When We All Get To Heaven and Blessed Assurance and Nailed To The Cross and In The Sweet By And By. There should be no asterisks or fine print alongside I’ll Fly Away.

I don’t share these things to shame anyone who deals with these struggles. It’s quite the opposite, actually—we need clarity in our teaching so that the saved can truly feel saved.

So many times we evangelize the lost by asking “Do you know where you’re going when you die?” If we get them baptized and put them on the member roll and they still can’t answer that question, we’ve failed them. And if someone has grown up in the church, knowing about God and the Gospel almost from birth, and still feels salvation is a toss-up, we’ve failed them, too.

3 reasons why you need assurance of your salvation

1. You need assurance because God loves you and wants you to have it

The Scriptures are clear about this. Even in the Old Law that we love to deride as being so harsh and demanding, a person could walk away from the Tabernacle/Temple knowing their sins had been atoned and they were right with God. After his disastrous sins in the case of Bathsheba, David still anticipated restoration in Psalm 51.

Our assurance has only grown in the era of Christ. In 1 John 5:13, John said he wrote so his audience could know they had eternal life (an interesting phrasing I broke down here). In Colossians 3:3, Paul assured the Christians at Colossae that their lives were “hidden with Christ in God.” In the great resurrection chapter of 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle points the reader toward the great and final day when we will rise from the dead and be changed to live with Christ forever.

This list could go on and on, but the point is this: none of these passages suggest it’s a coin flip for the Christian. The authors expected Christians to have a firm hope because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

He did not leave heaven and go through all the trials and temptations He faced in this life to give His people a slight maybe. He came that we would have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10), and you can’t enjoy abundant life if you’re constantly wondering if you have it.

2. You need assurance because the lost should see confidence when they look at us

Notice I did not say arrogance or perfection. I’m clearly not saying that they should see a bunch of holier-than-thou Pharisees looking down on them.

Rather, they should see men and women so confident in the finished work of Jesus that we can say “I am a child of God filled with joy and assurance even in my imperfections.”

If they look at Christians and see a fearful, anxious group who are unsure of God’s love and just as worried as everybody else about what happens after death, why would they want to come to Christ?

Instead, we should be able to show them we possess a peace so great that—even in life’s greatest trials—it passes all understanding. We can handle anything here because we know the final score.

3. You need assurance because it is difficult to grow to maturity without it.

I’ll admit, my recent focus on this topic is a bit outside of my normal areas of emphasis. I am typically focused on the finer points of sanctified living, aiming at a more mature Christian audience with my writing.

I had originally started working on a book project to follow up on Church Reset and discuss the Biblical pattern for creating a united church culture, but I’ve shelved that project to focus on Christian assurance first.

Why?

What I’ve found is a resistance to press forward, often because people aren’t sure of their salvation. This, I suspect, is where responses like “You can’t bind that” and “But is it a sin?” come from when we begin to discuss going beyond the very basics of the faith.

People who are stuck in a works-based system won’t view “excel still more” as an invitation to grow even more and more abundantly in Christ, but rather as another 50lb weight added to their yoke. “I have to do even more? I’m already not sure if I’m doing enough and now there’s more?”

If we’re going to talk about the kind of Christ-like living that creates a tight-knit church family and shines a bright light to the world, we’re not going to get very far if everyone on board isn’t sure if they’re actually saved yet.

As I push for the church to be more, I’m realizing we’re going to have to go backward first and set a foundation that most people never received. To paraphrase the Hebrews writer (5:12-6:3), we need to press on to the kind of maturity in which we outgrow box checking and develop Godly wisdom and discernment… but we can’t until we have everybody standing firmly on the basics of the faith.

I want you to know God loves you, He sees you as His child, and He has guaranteed your salvation.

Yes, I believe salvation can be lost. Yes, some will go before the judgment seat with false assurance only to be shocked at the condemnation they receive. But these truths need not leave every Christian unsure of where they’ll wake up when they die.

So, with this post I’m announcing my next book - You Are Saved: The Christian’s Assurance

Writing is already well underway and, Lord willing, I aim to make it available by spring of 2025. With Church Reset I had some success making a dedicated Facebook page to share quotes and updates about the book’s progress, and so I’ve created one for this book as well.

Please go ahead and like/follow the page if you’d like to follow the journey to publication.

I will also be sharing rough drafts of chapters to paying subscribers on this site. Paid subs help fund the proofing and design of the book, and this is my thanks in return.

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:14-21

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