To me, everything else in life pales in comparison to having assurance with regards to eternal life. This is sometimes the only pursuit I can fall back on when tending toward depression. This can give meaning to everything else in life.

I am going to begin with the assumption that the New Testament Gospels are historical. Not just that they have been accurately preserved, but that they represent literal history. I know this is a huge assumption, and I will give evidence and logic for why I believe this in a future post.

Some things I don’t believe are necessary for me to find true assurance are the belief that the Bible is inspired (however you define that) or the use of the other books of the New Testament. I will use both of these ideas (though I define the first one differently than most) to flesh out and expound upon how assurance fits into our daily lives, but they are not the source upon which my assurance is based. So, here is my logic about finding assurance:

1. Jesus claimed to be the Son of Elohim (Matthew 26:63-64). If this claim is true, I feel safe in believing the words he speaks.
2. Jesus predicted that he would be killed and raised to life the third day (Matthew 16:21). If this prediction came true, it would be amazing evidence that his claim to be the son of Elohim was true.
3. Jesus was resurrected as he predicted (Mark 16:4-6). This provides good confirmation that Jesus’s claim to be the son of Elohim is true. Therefore, I feel confident in trusting what he says.
4. Jesus said the only way to get to heaven was by following Him (John 14:2-6). This statement can only be true or false. Since I trust what Jesus says, I must only look to him to obtain assurance of eternal life.
5. Jesus said to make every effort to be saved because many would try and fail (Luke 13:23-24). I didn’t say this; Jesus did. So, I believe it is true. I don’t think obtaining assurance about salvation is necessarily going to be easy.
6. Jesus said those who follow him will be saved (John 10:9). Based on the last point, I don’t think following Jesus/Y’shua is a simple action you take or just some bad things you avoid, I think it is a lifestyle of following his teachings, which are many.

The question then becomes, what does this lifestyle look like? In a nutshell, it is following the commands of the Christ. There will be much variety of opinion on how best this is done. If you want to know my take on it, please see my statement of belief, or my blog posts on scriptural commands, here and here.

Now what commands to start with? This is where, though I don’t principally base my assurance on them, we can be helped out by looking at the book of Acts, which is the history of the early church after Jesus’s ascension, as well as some of the epistles in the New Testament. All of the commands and instructions in these books are also in the gospels. However, some seem elevated over others, so it makes sense to start with them. Three in particular stand out to me:

1. Believe in your heart that Elohim raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 10:9-11). This is one of the things I mention in my post about what the word ‘Christian‘ means, which is believing in the bodily resurrection of Jesus. In order for this belief to be as solid as it needs to be, very strong evidence of the historicity of the Gospels is probably needed. I will provide this in an upcoming post.
2. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9-10). You need to speak your desire to make Jesus lord of your life. I believe this means that if you know His will you will follow it. Of course, it can be very hard to discern HIs will at times, and this is where paradigms such as living in appointed times by faith (also parts two, three, and four) and following the spirit can help.
3. Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38). I believe repentance, which is a lifestyle of turning away from the lusts of the flesh and turning towards obeying Christ’s commands, begins with baptism, which I believe should be done by immersion. I would do this for the reason stated in the reference, namely the remission of sins. I will cover baptism more thoroughly in a separate post.

What is the difference between salvation assurance and eternal rewards? I will cover this at a later time, but my short answer is that rewards equates to the length of time we have salvation assurance. For example, the thief on the cross I believe had assurance of salvation, but I believe his eternal rewards will be much fewer than Paul’s.

So, do I believe it is possible to know with 100% certainty that you will receive eternal life? Well, I believe it is theoretically possible (I John 5:13), but I am not looking for or expecting to have this. Like anything else we “know” in life, I am not looking for 100% certainty, but rather a certainty that is beyond a reasonable doubt. For example, I believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the earth is spherical. It may not be (just ask the Flat Earth Society), but though I do allow the possibility of being wrong about this, this does not concern me in the slightest. I am trying to find the same level of assurance about salvation. And for me, I have.

I believe that it is likely (though not imperative) that you or I will fail occasionally in living this lifestyle. Not fail at what we don’t know, but fail at what we do know and violate (Romans 14:23 or James 4:17). However, I believe that when I sin, I will be convicted about it and will not be able to really enjoy that failure. I will not be at peace and regain the fullest measure of salvation assurance until I start living consciously again and following what I understand at that time to be the Father’s will.

Do I believe that we lose our salvation every time we sin? No, but I do believe we lose our assurance of it, or at least the fullest measure of that assurance. I don’t use my conviction of sin as an excuse to continue in sin, lest though I have taught others, I myself should be a castaway (I Corinthians 9:27).