A. Such as truly believe in Christ, and endeavour to walk in all good conscience before Him,¹ may, without extraordinary revelation, by faith grounded upon the truth of God’s promises, and by the Spirit enabling them to discern in themselves those graces to which the promises of life are made,² and bearing witness with their spirits that they are the children of God,³
be infallibly assured that they are in the estate of grace,
and shall persevere therein unto salvation.⁴

This question deals with a subject that is seldom a concern of professing Christians today. It has to do with whether we are for real as Christians. Or more particularly, it has to do with whether we can know for sure, i.e. ‘infallibly’ if we are for real.

If my experience is anything to go by, most professing Christians, in this day of shallow religiosity, fall into one of three camps.

One camp would simply shrug their shoulders, and say, "So what? " But this callous attitude is dangerous. If they were as callous about their physical health, as they were about their spiritual health, they would not live long.

The second camp is found mostly amongst (American) fundamentalists or those influenced by dispensational easy-believism. These believe that they are saved so long as they put up their hands or walk down the aisle when the altar call is given, or when they sign the decision card and pray the sinner’s prayer. And then they are taught never to doubt their salvation! Once saved always saved!

No, we do not doubt the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints! But we do have severe doubt that all those who are deemed converted through these means are truly converted.

The third camp, on the other hand, is found amongst those who have been influenced by Roman Catholicism or a works-righteousness theology akin to the Romish idea. One in this camp would simply say: "It is impossible for me to know for sure if I am saved in this life. I will do as much good works as I can, and I hope God will be merciful to me."

This last camp sounds very pious. But it goes against the Scripture and is in fact a demonstration of false humility that betrays a denial of God’s faithfulness.

The fact is that infallible assurance of salvation is attainable, important and scriptural.

This does not mean that infallible assurance can be obtained in any way. In particular, legalists assume that they are saved simply because they are doing a lot of good works; formalists assume that they are alright because they are baptized or a member of a sound church; emotionalist assume that they are for real just because they feel in their hearts that they are born again; and then there are those who claim some supernatural experience or extraordinary experience. But all these are basing their assurance on shifting sand!

Only "such as truly believe in Christ, and endeavour to walk in all good conscience before Him" may have assurance of salvation. And their assurance must be built upon three solid grounds.

The first and primary ground is the "truth of God’s promises" to believers. This is the basis of our assurance. Without God’s promise, we can have no assurance that we will be saved. But the Word of God gives us many such promises, for example, the Lord Jesus says "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life…." (Jn 3:36); "him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (Jn 6:37b).

Therefore, the first place I must look to obtain infallible assurance of salvation is the promises of God. I must believe God’s promises. If I do not, I cannot in the first place be saved, not to mention have assurance of my salvation. But how do I know I believe correctly or that my faith is genuine, after all, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer 17:9). There is therefore a need for the two secondary grounds that by a threefold cord we might be left without doubt that God has indeed begun a work in our heart.

The second ground has to do with the evidence of "those graces to which the promises of life are made," namely a change and new life. The apostle Paul teaches us that "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Cor 5:17). We are granted assurance of faith when the Spirit of Christ enables us to discern changes in our hearts, which came about not by our own will or nature, but by a special working of God in our heart.

But we must again remember that this ground cannot stand alone. It must be corroborated by the other two grounds for it to be a valid basis for assurance.

The third ground has to do with the testimony of the Spirit of Christ in our heart. Our catechism speaks of the Spirit "bearing witness with [our] spirits that [we] are the children of God." It is one thing to know about God and quite another thing to know God (c.f. 1 Jn 2:3). The Holy Spirit indwelling in our hearts enables us to know God (cf. 1 Jn 3:24b). The apostle Paul puts it this way:

That is to say that the Holy Spirit causes us to know that we belong to God. How does He do that? He does it in the same way as He works faith, love and hope in us. And He works this assurance in conjunction with the application of the other two grounds of assurance in our heart.

Thank God that by His enabling and provision, we can know we are for real!

But the question may be asked: "Is it possible for us to be mistaken about the genuineness of our assurance?" The answer is yes. However, we need not be, for the Scripture also indicates what true assurance will produce in the saint, compared to false assurance. A.A. Hodge in his commentary on WCF 18.2 provides us a set of tests based on these indications:

Do you have infallible assurance of salvation? Is it genuine? W