Why Calvinists Lack Assurance and How to Have 100% Certainty Now

by Jonathan Perreault

For many Calvinists, gaining assurance of salvation means constantly examining their lives, scrutinizing their good works, and asking: "Have I persevered enough?" The following statement by John Piper is typical of Calvinists when he says, "we persevere. That is the way we have assurance."¹ Not surprisingly, Calvinists can never say with 100% certainty in this life if they're really saved or not because according to their belief system, they have to wait until they die before they can find out if they really persevered to the end and finally made it to heaven. But what if you misjudged the fruit in your life and thought you were saved, only to face judgment and realize your trust was never in Christ alone? By then, it's too late. There are no second chances after death. The Bible says: "it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). 

In contrast to Calvinism, the Bible makes it clear that we can have real assurance of our salvation right now! The apostle John says: "These things I write to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13).² We can have a "know so" salvation, not a "hope so" salvation. In fact, the Bible tells us that faith is the assurance! Commenting on Hebrews 11:1, W. H. Griffith Thomas writes: "It is important to notice that this verse is not a definition of faith in itself, but only a description of its effects. The word 'is' is emphatic. Faith is described in a two-fold way. It is the foundation of things hoped for, and the 'conviction (or proof) of things not seen.' The word rendered 'substance' or 'foundation' indicates that faith must have a basis—the Word of God. And so the vital question is not 'Do we believe?' but 'Whom do we believe?' It is not a case of sincerity of belief, but of the truth of what is believed....It will be seen throughout the chapter that faith is not passive but active certitude".³ In other words, faith is being absolutely certain that what God says in His Word is true. The Bible says, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Rom. 10:17).

But Calvinists have a different focus. For example, in his book "Free Grace" Theology: 5 Ways It Diminishes the Gospel (Wheaton: Crossway Publishers, 2016), Wayne Grudem treats good works as the benchmark of salvation and the basis for assurance (e.g. see pp. 79, 86-87, 89, 92). Grudem's focus is not on God's Word, but on himself; that's how he gains assurance: by looking at himself. That's why he asks, "How do I know that I have believed and that I have been born again?"⁴ What Grudem is saying is that in his view, the only way to have any real assurance of salvation is to look at your life and see if there are any positive changes after you got saved (or supposedly got saved), and if there are, then he says you can have some measure of assurance that you're saved. In response to Grudem's question, my first thought is that if you have to ask that question, maybe you haven't been born again! Maybe you never did believe. So one possibility is that Grudem may not be born again. Even Grudem would have to admit that this is a possibility according to his theological viewpoint, because as I mentioned, he thinks that people can't really know for sure they're saved until they die. In regards to this, someone has wisely said: "If you don't know you're saved, how can I know you're saved?"

I like how D. L. Moody responded whenever someone would say, "I can't believe." (Maybe we could update the statement to say, "I can't believe that I'm saved.") Mr. Moody would ask: "Believe whom?"⁵ And so in answer to Grudem's question, "How do I know that I have believed?," I would ask: "Believed whom?" Notice that W. H. Griffith Thomas made the same point in his statement above. He said that "the vital question is not 'Do we believe?' but 'Whom do we believe?' It is not a case of sincerity of belief, but of the truth of what is believed."⁶ And so this shows again that the real question is: "Believed whom?" That changes the focus of the original question, doesn't it? It takes the focus off myself and puts the focus on something or someone outside of myself. And biblically, that is where the focus of our faith should be: not on ourselves, but on Christ! We need to take our focus off ourselves and turn our eyes upon Jesus! The Bible encourages us to be "looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Heb. 12:2). In the Gospels, what happened to Peter when he tried to walk on the water but then took his eyes off the Lord? Peter began to sink! Likewise, when we take our eyes off Jesus we too will begin to sink into doubts and despair. The Bible says that Christ has been made unto us our "righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30). We have God's Word on it, and that is where our assurance is found. In other words, our assurance is based first and foremost on God's Word, knowing that what He says in His Word is true. Or in the words of W. H. Griffith Thomas, faith is having an "active certitude" or an absolute certainty that what God says in His Word is true. Such as this promise given by Jesus Himself: "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life" (Jn. 5:24, NKJV).

Saving faith looks outside of ourselves to Christ. Whereas doubt focuses back on ourselves or in some way takes the focus off Christ and His promise of eternal life. We need to "turn our eyes upon Jesus and look full in His wonderful face!"⁷ The great Bible teacher H. A. Ironside affirms the true basis for assurance when he says: "And now the One who is alive forevermore (Rev. 1:18) is presented as an object for the hearts of His own. 'He was seen'; and the same apostle exclaims, in another place, 'We see Jesus!' (Heb. 2:9). Poor sinners are first led to see the utter impossibility of improving or rendering themselves more fit for God's presence. The eye of faith is then directed to the One who died, in whom believing, they are 'justified from all things' (Acts 13:38, 39). Now they have also an object for the heart, even Christ in glory (2 Cor. 3:18). How different this from what you [focusing on the sinner] have presented! Here, '’Tis Jesus first, ’tis Jesus last, ’Tis Jesus all the way,' while you are cast entirely on yourself."⁸

Calvinists lack assurance because they are focusing on themselves when they should be focusing on CHRIST! 

’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, Just to take Him at His word; Just to rest upon His promise; Just to know, “Thus saith the Lord.”

ENDNOTES:

¹ John Piper, "What We Believe About the Five Points of Calvinism" (March 1, 1985), www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-we-believe-about-the-five-points-of-calvinism

² "These things" (Grk. tauta egrapsa) in John 5:13 refers to the immediate context (1 Jn. 5:9-12), not to the entire epistle (cf. 1 Jn. 2:1, 2:26).

³ W. H. Griffith Thomas, Hebrews: A Devotional Commentary (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1977), p. 141, ellipsis added. Note: Notice that Griffith Thomas says that "faith is not passive but active certitude". (Ibid.) This is very important to point out because Calvinists oftentimes take the position that faith is passive in the sense that they view faith as a gift of God. They typically cite Ephesians 2:8 in support of their view that faith is a gift of God. But Greek scholars such as Daniel B. Wallace reject this view.  In reference to the word "faith" in Ephesians 2:8, Wallace says that "it is not a gift per se". (See Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, pp. 334-335.) Nonetheless, it is still a popular viewpoint among Calvinists. In regards to faith supposedly being the gift of God, D. L. Moody has wisely said: "Faith is taking God at His Word; and those people who want some token are always getting into trouble. We want to come to this: GOD SAYS IT—LET US BELIEVE IT. But some say, Faith is the gift of God. So is the air; but you have to breathe it. So is bread; but you have to eat it. So is water; but you have to drink it. Some are wanting a miraculous kind of feeling. That is not faith. 'Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God' (Rom. 10. 17). That is whence faith comes. It is not for me to sit down and [passively] wait for faith to come stealing over me with a strange sensation; but it is for me to [actively] take God at His Word." (Moody, The Way to God, p. 51, emphasis his, brackets added.)

⁴ Wayne Grudem, "Free Grace" Theology: 5 Ways It Diminishes the Gospel (Wheaton: Crossway, 2016), p. 89, emphasis his.

⁵ D. L. Moody, "Mr. Moody on Believing." The Institute Tie (September 1900), Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 151.

⁶ W. H. Griffith Thomas, Hebrews: A Devotional Commentary, p. 141.

⁷ Helen Howarth Lemmel, "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus" hymn (1922), adapted.

⁸ H. A. Ironside, The Mormon’s Mistake, or What Is the Gospel?, p. 5.