Assurance of Salvation

Are you Saved? Are you sure?

Below John MacArthur gives 12 Tests of Assurance





TWELVE TESTS ON ASSURANCE

A. Do You Enjoy Fellowship with Christ and His Redeemed People? If you regularly participate in such fellowship, that's a sign you are a Christian (cf. Heb. 10:24-26). First John 1:3 says, "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ." We have fellowship with God the Father, God the Son, and everyone who has fellowship with the Father and the Son. When you were saved you entered into fellowship with Jesus Christ and His redeemed people. If you have shared in the prayers, praises, and testimonies of God's people, that's an indication you belong to Him.

B. Are You Sensitive to Your Sin?

First John 1:8, 10 says "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.... If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." If you have a continual sensitivity to the sin in your life and are in awe of holy God, that's an indication you are a Christian.

C. Do You Tend to Hate the World and its Evil?

First John 2:15 says, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." If you love the system of the world and all that it stands for, that indicates you are not a Christian. However, if you have a basic hatred of the evil in this world, even though you may fall into its trap now and then, that's an indication you are a Christian.

D. Are You Obedient to God's Word?
First John 2:3-5 says, "By this we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whosoever keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected; by this know we that we are in him."

E. Do You Await the Coming of Jesus Christ?
First John 3:2-3 says, "Beloved ... it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure." If you love Christ and eagerly await His coming, that indicates you are a Christian.

F. Do You See a Decreasing Pattern of Sin in Your Life?
First John 3:5-6 says, "Ye know that he was manifest to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not; whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him." A true Christian will experience a decreasing frequency of sin in his life.

G. Do You Make Sacrifices for Other Christians?
First John 3:14 says, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death." Then in verses 16-17 John says, "We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whosoever hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his compassions from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?"

H. Do You Experience Answered Prayer?

First John 3:22 says, "Whatever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight." Answered prayer is the result of keeping God's commandments and doing what is pleasing in His sight. So if you're seeing answers to your prayers, that indicates you are a Christian.

I. Do You Experience the Internal Work of the Holy Spirit?

First John 3:24 says, "By this we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit whom he hath given us." John also says, "By this know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit" (1 John 4:13). The Spirit in us cries, "Abba, Father" (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6). Although you may be experiencing doubt at the present time, if you can look back and see the Spirit's leading in the past, that's an affirmation that you belong to God.

J. Are You Able to Discern Between Spiritual Truth and Error?
First John 4:1-6 says, "Believe not every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world. By this know ye the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God; and this is that spirit of antichrist, of which ye have heard that it should come, and even now already is in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world; therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. By this know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error." A true Christian does not fall prey to false teaching about Jesus Christ, the doctrine of salvation, and other basics of the faith.

K. Do You Believe What the Bible Teaches?
First John 5:1 says, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." Why should you believe that? Because the Bible, which proves itself to be the Word of God, says so.

L. Have You Ever Suffered on Account of Your Faith?
The devil doesn't attack the tares; he attacks the wheat (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43). Philippians 1:28 says, "In nothing [be] terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation." When you are attacked by the enemy, remember that he is judged, but you are saved.



12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. 1 John 5: 12-13