Q: I have a born-again Christian friend who says she is certain she is going to heaven simply because she “has been saved” as a Christian, and over the years I have met others with the same conviction. I am not so certain of my own salvation. Should I be?
The short answer is that we can never be absolutely certain of our eternal salvation as long as we are on earth. Even though we are living well now, we may one day go off the track, as did the Prodigal Son (cf Lk 15:11-32) or Judas.
We probably know people who were living exemplary lives at one stage but who later seemed to lose their way.
Nonetheless, many born-again Christians say they are certain of their eternal salvation.
Some even say that if a Christian is not one hundred per cent certain, they are not saved at all.
Many follow the “once saved, always saved” creed, by which they mean that once they have been justified or saved by God, they always remain saved and are certain of going to heaven. We admire their confidence, but we have to admit that it is not backed up by Scripture nor by the Magisterium of the Church.
And it flies in the face of common sense and the experience of our human frailty.
For example, if anyone was “saved” it was St Paul, who was converted by Our Lord himself and was led to a radical change of his life. Yet not even St Paul is certain of his salvation.
He writes to the Christians of Philippi, “Not that I have already obtained this [resurrection from the dead] or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:12-14).
Likewise, he writes to the Corinthians of the need to struggle in order to win the prize: “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1 Cor 9:25-27). If even the great Apostle of the Gentiles considers that he could still be disqualified, all the more should we.
Only at the end of his life, in his second imprisonment in Rome, is St Paul confident of his eternal salvation: “For I am already on the point of being sacrificed; the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Tim 4:6-8).
Aware of his own frailty, St Paul warns the early Christians to be on guard: “Therefore, let any one who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor 10:12). Likewise, he cautions them not to take it for granted that they are saved, but rather “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). In answer to the Protestant belief that a person can be certain of his eternal salvation, the Council of Trent teaches:
“No one, moreover, so long as he lives this mortal life, ought in regard to the sacred mystery of divine predestination, so far presume as to state with absolute certainty that he is among the number of the predestined, as if it were true that the one justified either cannot sin any more, or, if he does sin, that he ought to promise himself an assured repentance. For except by special revelation, it cannot be known whom God has chosen to Himself” (Sess. 6, Ch. 12).
It is for this reason that we are always advised to pray with hope and trust in God for the gift of final perseverance. In the words of the Council of Trent, “Similarly with regard to the gift of perseverance, of which it is written, ‘He that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved’ (Mt 10:22), which cannot be obtained from anyone except from him who is able to make him stand who stands (Rom 14:4), that he may stand perseveringly, and to raise him who falls, let no one promise himself herein something as certain with an absolute certainty, though all ought to place and repose the firmest hope in God’s help” (Sess. 6, Ch.13).
If we continue to struggle, with humble trust in God, we can be confident, if not absolutely certain, of our salvation.