An Assurance of Salvation

I am sometimes asked if an Orthodox Christian can have an assurance that he or she will be saved.  The question usually comes from my converts from Evangelicalism.  They were previously taught that when one is saved, one is given the assurance that they are saved and this assurance offers a real and constant source of comfort.  They ask me, “Were we misled?  Can an Orthodox Christian have the same assurance of salvation?” 

The question is sometimes regarded as one of the definitive differences between Evangelicalism and (say) Roman Catholicism.  In his fascinating and excellent book Crisis of Confidence, Carl Trueman wrote, “The one thing that every Protestant who converts to Rome loses is the normative expectation of the assurance of faith”.  Trueman quoted the words of a Roman Catholic cardinal who, when asked by a student if he was sure of his salvation, shook his head and said, “Nobody can be certain of that”.  One might have wanted to quiz the Cardinal a little more before drawing sweeping conclusions.  Did the Cardinal mean that he was not certain if he was saved now?  Or did he simply mean that he was not certain that he would persevere until the end?  Unless one believes in the Reformed doctrine of “once saved, always saved”, the two are very different questions.

Anyway, what can we say from the Orthodox perspective?  Can an Orthodox Christian have the assurance of present salvation so that (may God forbid) if he or she was hit by a bus on the way home from Sunday Liturgy they could know that they would be with the Lord?  That is the question I would like to address. 

I take it for granted that, given the immense amount of material in the New Testament warning us against apostasizing that apostasy is therefore a possibility.  I do not warn my grandchildren about the dangers of walking on the ceiling, because walking on the ceiling is not possible for them.  I do warn them about the dangers of playing traffic because playing in traffic is a possibility.  It is same in the New Testament:  we are often warned that we must “pay the closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it” (Hebrews 2:1) because such drifting away into apostasy and damnation is a possibility.  But what of the present?  May we have the assurance that, if persevere in our faith and do not drift away from it we will be saved?

I believe that we can have such assurance of salvation, but the nature of the assurance is linked with the nature of the salvation.  In Orthodoxy, salvation is a process, not a fixed state, so that our assurance is also not fixed, but dynamic.  Allow me to explain.

To say that in Orthodoxy salvation is a process does not mean that salvation is something we gain gradually, like a person slowly filling a cup with water—today I am 10% saved, and later I will be 20% saved, and then later still maybe 50% saved, and only later I may be 80% saved, all the time not knowing whether I may reach the state of being 100% saved.  That is not what is meant by salvation being a process.  Rather, salvation is a process and a journey because life is a process and a journey. 

Furthermore, salvation is not just a matter of finding forgiveness (the Evangelical understanding), but also of sanctification, transformation, and healing.  Indeed, the Greek word σώζω/ sozo can mean both “save” and “heal” (compare Matthew 9:21-22).  Salvation, in the New Testament, is a comprehensive term, and includes forgiveness, sanctification, healing, transformation, glorification—a package summed up for the Orthodox in the little (and almost untranslatable) word “theosis”.  Salvation consists of becoming partakers of the divine nature, of becoming through grace what Christ is by nature (2 Peter 1:4, Romans 8:29). 

This takes time and may not be completely finished by our life’s end.  Indeed, although even now we have received the gift of adoption to sonship (Ephesians 1:5), this adoption will not be complete until the final resurrection of the dead, when the final redemption of our bodies occurs (see Romans 8:23).  During our sojourn in this age, the process of our inner transformation, the healing of the heart, the victory over the passions (to say nothing of waiting for the final redemption of our bodies) is an ongoing process.  Every day we get a little closer to our goal, being changed “from glory to glory” as we walk with Christ and behold His glory (2 Corinthians 3:18).  This ever-growing closeness, this process of maturing, this journey through life with Christ, is what we mean when we say that salvation is a process.

But what about our assurance along with way as we continue the journey?  What can we say about a subjective feeling of assurance?—for by “assurance” most Evangelicals mean a subjective feeling.

In Orthodoxy such assurance is rooted in our sacramental experience.  Take baptism, for example.  When one is baptized, one can have the assurance that in baptism one’s sins were forgiven (see Acts 2:38, 22:16).  One arises from the font knowing that the past with all its sins has been washed away and that one has been freely forgiven. 

It is the same with a devout partaking of the Eucharist:  in the anaphora prayer of St. John Chrysostom the priest prays that the Eucharist “may be to those who partake for the purification of soul, for the remission of sins, for the communion of Your Holy Spirit, for the fulfillment of the Kingdom of heaven, for boldness towards You, and not for judgment or condemnation”.

Or take, for another example, the experience of the sacrament of confession:  after the prayer of absolution, the priest says to the confessing penitent, “Have no further care for the sins which you have confessed; depart in peace”.  The sacramental life of the Orthodox Church may be summed up in another line from the anaphora, which declares that God “did not cease to do all things until You had brought us up to heaven and endowed us with Your Kingdom which is to come”. 

All of the sacraments are therefore replete with assurances of forgiveness, salvation, and peace.  This means that a devout Orthodox Christian whose life is rooted in the sacramental power of the Church experiences a constant flow of forgiveness.  The Christian may sin every day, but their repentance releases the power of Christ in His sacraments to forgive, heal, and transform.  It is in the mercy of God that we experience in the Church pre-eminently through the sacraments that we place our hope.  Having been baptized into Christ’s Body and remaining in His Body through our Eucharistic participation, we can have the assurance that we are saved.  When we call to God and ask for His forgiveness, He will forgive us, because we are part of the Body of His Son.

But, one may ask, is there no danger of self-deception?  The words of our Lord contain many warnings about those who believed that they were saved, but who were not. Thus many will say to Christ on the day of judgment, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and cast out demons in Your name and do many mighty works in Your name?”, and He will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you evildoers!”  How can we be certain that we will not find ourselves among the self-deceived and fatally-presumptuous?

The answer is again found in the nature of salvation.  Because salvation is a process and a journey, each day we take another step and dedicate ourselves to God again.  That is what St. Paul means when he bids those who think that they stand to take heed lest they fall, and for us all to work out our salvation in fear and trembling (1 Corinthians 12:10, Philippians 2:12-13).  Though we have experienced Christ’s mercy and salvation, we do not rest like those who are at ease in Zion (Amos 6:1).  Rather we stretch ourselves out to grow further, forgetting the good things that lie behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, pressing on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14). We do not take our salvation for granted but press ever onward to further growth.

Salvation is a bit like (forgive the analogy) walking up on a down escalator:  you can ascend if you walk quickly, but if you stop, you will go down.  In the same way, we must press on to further growth in Christ; if we decide to stop growing, we will go spiritually backwards.  Assurance is therefore a paradox:  if you are a bit worried about your salvation, you don’t need to be.  If you are not worried at all, you might find yourself in danger.  The paradox does not fit well into a logical system, but it fits into life. 

None of this of course means that we are somehow trying to earn our salvation, for Christ’s mercy comes freely to us who deserve no mercy at all.  But it comes to us as we walk with Him on a journey, and in that journey we are called to continual and continuous growth and obedience and to daily dedication.  That is why St. James said that we were saved by our works, and why Christ said that to enter into life one must keep the commandments (James 2:24, Matthew 19:17).  Neither the Lord nor His apostle meant that God’s mercy could be earned or merited.  Both meant that His mercy comes to us as we strive to be faithful to Him, as we turn to Him again and again in our brokenness and sinfulness and find His mercy.  It is in this constant striving and turning that we experience the constant flow of forgiveness.  It is this striving and turning that St. Paul refers to as πίστις/ pistis, “faithfulness, faith”.  It is in this that we find our consolation and assurance.