Second Peter chapter one instructs us to confirm our calling and election.

It is so important that I be diligent in making my calling and my election sure,

because if I'm sure about my being numbered among the elect,

then I can be certain with respect to my salvation, not only today, but in the future as well.

But how do we know that the assurance we have isn't false assurance?

How can we as Christians really know that we're saved?

Hello and welcome to renewing your mind on this Thursday, I'm Lee Webb.

If those questions have haunted you, if you've ever thought that it's impossible to know for sure that you're saved,

are you seeing Sproul invite you to think again.

We're going to continue now with our study of the question of the assurance of salvation.

We've spent quite some time already examining false and counterfeit methods of assurance.

And we've seen that one of the most critical problems that we face with respect to false assurance

is having a false understanding of salvation and its requirements.

And so now we're going to turn our attention to how can we actually gain a true and sound basis for our assurance of salvation.

And I think the first place that we have to look again is at theology.

Again in our day and age people tend to downplay the importance of theology,

but when we examine Peter's charge that we be diligent in making our election and our calling sure in order that we might grow and produce the fruit of our sanctification,

we see there in his thinking the close relationship that exists between election and assurance.

Now we need to understand the proper biblical doctrine of election,

and we need to understand the proper biblical doctrine of salvation,

because those two concepts are inseparably related.

We can distinguish between election and salvation, but we can never tear them apart.

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