# How to Know You're Saved: Assurance From 1 John Dr. Paul Pitts III spent three years studying assurance in 1 John. He tells Adam Mesa why the question "How do I know I'm saved?" leads us to look at Christ first. Source: Pray.com — https://www.pray.com/articles/how-to-know-youre-saved-assurance-from-1-john Author: Adam Mesa Category: Faith & Wisdom Published: 2026-10-22 Last revised: 2026-10-22 --- ## Key takeaways - **Start with the Savior.** Assurance grows when you look at who Christ is and what he has done, and it shrinks when you stare at yourself. - **First John was written to reassure.** John wrote as a shepherd to a shaken church, so the letter is more than a checklist to pass or fail. - **Feelings follow the truth.** Your emotions are gifts from God, and they need to be shaped by his promises. - **Growth is slow.** Becoming like Jesus takes a lifetime, and it asks for real effort and honest repentance along the way. - **Ordinary faith is enough.** Reading, praying and gathering with the church week after week is how most of the Christian life looks. ## A dissertation on a weekly question On this episode of Beyond the Letter, host Adam Mesa sat down with Dr. Paul Pitts III. Pitts is an associate pastor at Bethany Bible Church in Thousand Oaks, California, where he oversees campus outreach, preaches to middle school and high school students, and leads a Sunday morning theology equipping hour. Pitts came to ministry through football. He played at San Diego State, tore his ACL, and had to choose a major, so he picked religious studies. Later he studied at The Master's Seminary and pursued a doctor of ministry. He said he did not pursue that degree so he could be called doctor. He wanted to spend three years on assurance of salvation from the perspective of 1 John, because "how do I know that I'm saved?" is one of the most consistent questions a pastor gets. Mesa agreed. People come up to him weekly saying they feel they are not saved, or that God is mad at them. ## What John wrote the letter to do Pitts explained that 1 John is often preached as a book of tests for proving you are really saved. For someone who lacks assurance, he said, a pile of tests is the worst thing to hand them. Some will pass everything and turn pharisaical. Others will despair, because it is never clear how many tests there are or whether a 60 percent counts as passing. He argued that this is not how John wrote it. John was a shepherd writing to a church in crisis. False teachers had taught wrongly about the person and work of Christ and taken some people with them, which is why [1 John 2:19](/bible/web/1-john-2/#v19) says they went out from us. Pitts's reading is that John wrote to help believers behold Christ, to show them they belong to Christ, and to encourage them to abide in him. ## Look at Christ before you look at yourself That reading changes the question. As Pitts put it, "The better question may be, how do I know Jesus is sufficient to save a sinner like me?" Asking how you know you're saved tends to push you inward, and he compared the habit to dissecting a frog in science class. Asking whether Christ is enough sends your eyes to his life, his death, his resurrection and his promises. He gave a short summary of his view: "assurance of salvation is first and foremost assurance of the savior." He shared that the Puritan Thomas Goodwin struggled with assurance for seven years after his conversion, and that Martin Luther wrote that looking at himself left him without hope, while looking at Christ left him no way to be lost. Pitts also passed along Thomas Schreiner's picture of a tricycle. The big wheel is the person and work of Christ and his promises in the gospel. The two smaller wheels are the fruit of obedience and the assuring ministry of the Spirit, and both strengthen assurance without being the thing that carries it. Mesa came at the same point from another angle. He said you can tell what you love by what you choose, the way you can tell someone loves orange juice by whether they pick it from a table full of other juices. His question was whether following Christ has become homework or a joy. Pitts added two cautions. Someone who only professes faith casually can be falsely assured. And assurance is a gift from God, so lacking it does not mean you are not a Christian. ## Feelings follow, and forgiveness stands When someone says they feel God is angry with them, Pitts points them to the promises of God. In his words, "feelings are great followers, but terrible leaders." He called our emotions gifts, but he said they rise and fall like a roller coaster and need to be informed by Scripture. He used a marriage to explain it. After an argument, the closeness of a couple may be off, but the covenant is still there. In the same way, sin can strain our communion with God without breaking the union we have through Christ, since that union never rested on our performance. He pointed to this promise: > My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have a Counselor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. > > ([1 John 2:1](/bible/web/1-john-2/#v1), WEB) He also reminded listeners of how far God has removed our sins ([Psalm 103:12](/bible/web/psalms-103/#v12)). > As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. > > ([Psalm 103:12](/bible/web/psalms-103/#v12), WEB) Pitts said he does not want to downplay sin, because God is holy and takes sin seriously. But he said God also takes saving sinners seriously. When you fall, he urged, draw near to the throne of grace at once. Do not make yourself suffer for a while or stay away from church and the Bible. Christ has taken the punishment, so repent, receive forgiveness and press on. ## When six months in, nothing seems different Mesa asked how Pitts answers people who gave their lives to Christ and wonder why their marriage or circumstances have not improved. Pitts said sanctification is painfully slow for everyone, and God is fine with it lasting a lifetime. Jesus, he said, is no genie and no firefighter who fixes emergencies and leaves. He is Lord and King. Pitts said he would mostly ask questions. What exactly has not changed? If a marriage is strained, perhaps one spouse is resisting the Spirit's conviction, or communication needs to mature. If someone is out of work, they should still apply for jobs and go to the interview with humility, not as someone sure of special favor. He described the Christian life as synergistic. Salvation is something God does, but growth involves our effort too. God does not sanctify you through his word if you never open the Bible, or through the fellowship of believers if you isolate yourself. He pointed out that we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, and that the wording matters: "We only work out something we have." ## Ordinary days and a generation chasing what's next The conversation turned to Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Pitts named social media as a major factor, with its pull toward novelty, its comment culture and the insecurities it breeds. He said younger believers have to come to see that the scriptures are ancient but true, and that truth never goes out of style. He also cited Tim Keller's line that the internet is the friend of information but the enemy of thought, and warned that AI can become a crutch that dulls the critical thinking God has given us. Mesa described talking with a young woman after his sermon. She was attending church, reading her Bible and praying, and she wondered what comes next. He told her that this is what comes next, and that faith is lived out day after day. Pitts agreed and recommended Michael Horton's book Ordinary. Following Jesus can be extraordinary, he said, but it often looks plain: reading the Bible and feeling nothing, praying and sensing nothing, attending another Sunday service. He remarked that "we never graduate from the gospel." He recalled his grandfather's last days in 2014, when he asked the family to take care of his grandmother. His grandfather was thinking about the ordinary days they shared, not their vacation to Hawaii. ## What this means for you If you often wonder whether you are really saved, this conversation offers a change of direction before it offers a new test. Spend more time on who Jesus is, what he has done and what he has promised, and let those truths speak to your feelings. It also takes the pressure off a plain week. A quiet prayer, a chapter of Scripture and a seat in church are not a lesser form of faith. - When doubt comes, how much of your attention goes to yourself, and how much goes to Christ? - Which promise of God could you say aloud the next time your feelings argue with it? - Is there a step you can take, such as an apology, a job application or a conversation with your pastor, that trusts Christ to be with you in it?