Assurance

Goals for this Week’s Study

  • Review Sunday Morning’s Message.
  • Help group members receive the assurance that comes with knowing their salvation is secure!

Getting Started

Open your group with prayer.

NOTE: Anyone who has been raised in church is going to have an opinion on the topic of “eternal security.” Maybe even you are still struggling to fully grasp that God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit seals, protects, and surrounds you to give you eternal life! However, I encourage you (and your group members) to follow Pastor Daniel’s example and search the scriptures for themselves and not rely on what he (Pastor Daniel) or anyone else has told you. Let everyone know that today’s group will focus on looking at the scriptures and allowing them to speak for themselves.

DISCUSS:

  1. Why is it so natural to believe that we can “lose” our salvation? Try to steer the conversation towards the topic of grace – the unmerited favor of God. If conversation stalls, bring up how most things in our lives are performance-based. Our jobs, relationships, etc.
  2. Why is it counterintuitive to believe that when God saves us we are secure for eternity?

Scripture

I’m including several passages below, use or reference back to throughout your study.

1 John 5:11-13 NLT

11 And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. 13 I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.

John 5:24 NLT

24 “I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.

1 John 2:19 NLT

19 These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.

Ephesians 1:13 NLT

13 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own[a] by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago.

John 10:28 – 29 NLT

28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, 29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else.[a] No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand.

Philippians 1:6 NLT

6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

Study Questions

  1. If someone were to ask you ‘what does it mean to be saved?’, what would you say? [Put faith in Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Repent of my sin, Confess Jesus as Lord of my life and commit to follow Him. There may be other answers, but these are the main ones.]
  2. When does eternal life begin? [Now, 1John 5:11, John 5:24]
  3. Pastor Daniel said that the question, ‘Can I lose my salvation?’ is the wrong question. He said the right question is whether or not you were ever saved to begin with. Why is the distinction between those questions important? [Many people put faith in the fact that they said a prayer, walked an aisle, even that they got baptized as the evidence of their salvation. While those methods are how many of our relationships with Jesus began, salvation is about much more.]
  4. Do you think being able to be eternally secure through Jesus Christ fair? [NO, it’s not. But, nothing about salvation is fair. A perfect, sinless, blameless person was brutally murdered to pay for the transgressions of the world…that is NOT fair.]
  5. How do you know that you know that you are saved (on a scale of 1 to 10, you rate a 10!)? See tests below:
  • Love Test – John 14:23 says that if you Jesus, you will obey Him. Are you obeying God’s Word? Pastor Daniel said “if your salvation didn’t produce a change in you, then it probably didn’t save you.”
  • Fruit Test – No one can judge your heart, but they can judge the “fruit” you produce. When you have the Holy Spirit living within you, Galatians 5:22 says that “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control” will multiply in your life. Is it?
  • Voice Test – John 10:27 says – “my sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me.

Final Thoughts:

The greatest thing ever is:

  • Being saved,
  • Knowing for sure that you are saved, and
  • Understanding that you are secure and can’t lose your salvation!

PRAY over your group at the end! Pray that they will experience the freedom that comes with knowing that you know that you know that you are saved!

Adam Eldridge