Know You Have Eternal Life

What assurances of eternal life do you have? I recently wrote that you need to be careful how you view yourself when you interpret scriptures. To the degree you doubt whether you are saved, you increase the chance that you’ll interpret the Bible incorrectly.

The way to be saved is believing that Jesus is the Christ. If you have doubts about your salvation, you’re probably not saved. But if you’ve made this declaration and you know in your heart it is true, by faith, then you have been born of God.

1 John says clearly that once you cross over to being a believer, you can know you have eternal life, with confidence. Chapter 5 drives this point home. But even earlier in Chapter 1, John provides the formula for having complete joy: to have eternal life and fellowship with the Father and the Son (verses 3 and 4).

John says he is writing so that your joy may be complete (1 John 1:4). Later he writes so that you may know you have eternal life.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.

We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

1 John 5:1, 13, 14, 18

I’ve skipped over a difficult passage about a “sin that leads to eternal death.” I will address it in a future post. For now, focus on the positive. Reread the verses I did select. Verse 18 is especially reassuring. 1 John 3:6 makes it clear that those who keep on sinning (with hardness of heart and without repenting) never had salvation.

No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

1 John 3:6

If you have any doubts also consider verses 5:1 and 5:13. If there is a way to lose salvation, the only way would be not believing and trusting in Jesus Christ. God promises you eternal life as long as you keep in your heart the gospel message which you heard when you became a Christian (see 1 John 2:24-25). This should be the very thing we as believers are eager to do.

Matt Pavlik

Christian Counselor - New Reflections Counseling

Matt Pavlik is a licensed professional clinical counselor who wants to see each individual restored to their true identity. He has more than 15 years of experience counseling individuals and couples at his Christian counseling practice, New Reflections Counseling. Matt and Georgette have been married since 1999 and live with their four children in Centerville, Ohio.

Matt’s books, , , and , contain practical exercises that help God’s truth spring to life.