Christian Books on Assurance of Salvation: 13 Classics
If you are asking "how can I know I'm saved?", start with R. A. Torrey's How to Succeed in the Christian Life. It was written for new believers, and its third chapter answers that question from the Bible in a few plain pages. If your doubts run deeper and have lasted for years, read John Bunyan's Grace Abounding. Bunyan went through it all, and he came out the other side.
The old writers were careful here, and they said two things together. First, you can know. God has spoken so that His children may be sure: "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life." Assurance doesn't rest on how strong your feelings are. It rests on God's promise and on Christ's finished work. Second, not everyone who feels sure is safe. So the Puritans also taught people to examine themselves, gently and honestly, to see whether their faith was real. Read the books below with both in mind. If you are a tender conscience, lean on the first group. If you are comfortable and careless, read the second.
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.
Romans 8:16
Here are thirteen of the best books on assurance in TheWay Library, all free to read.
Start here: you can know
1. How to Succeed in the Christian Life, by R. A. Torrey
Fifteen short chapters for people just starting out. Torrey's chapter on assurance points the reader away from feelings to what God has said, and then tells him to stop reopening the question.
Having settled it, let it remain settled. Never doubt it.
How to Succeed in the Christian Life, Assurance of Salvation
More on Torrey is in Who Was R. A. Torrey?. Read How to Succeed in the Christian Life.
2. The Way Made Plain, by James H. Brookes
An American pastor's clear walk through the way of salvation for seekers: why sincerity can't save, why nothing stands between the sinner and the Saviour, the believer's safety, and assurance. The chapter on the dying thief is the one to read first.
The moment he is in Christ by believing on Him he is as certainly and completely saved as he will be a thousand years afterwards.
The Way Made Plain, chapter 12
3. Every-Day Religion, by Hannah Whitall Smith
Smith opens her book of plain Bible lessons with 1 John 5. God has given eternal life in His Son, she says, so believers ought to know they have it. A good book for someone who is tired of introspection.
God hath given to us eternal life in Christ, and whoever believes in Christ has this life; and of course, ought to know it.
Every-Day Religion, lesson 1
4. The Blood of the Cross, by Horatius Bonar
A two-hour book on what God thinks of Christ's blood, and what that means for the careless sinner, the awakened sinner and the saint. Bonar's point is that peace comes from seeing the blood the way God sees it. See also Horatius Bonar's books.
He has seen sin in the light in which God sees it; but he has also seen the blood in that same light also.
The Blood of the Cross, chapter 9
For the doubting and afraid
5. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, by John Bunyan
Bunyan's own story, written from Bedford jail. He spent years sure he had sold Christ and was lost, with verses that seemed to fight each other in his head, until texts like "My grace is sufficient for thee" broke through. Nobody describes the misery of doubt better, or the relief.
Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed; I was loosed from my afflictions and irons; my temptations also fled away
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
See Who Was John Bunyan?. Read Grace Abounding.
6. How to Deal with Doubts and Doubters, by H. Clay Trumbull
Short chapters drawn from real conversations. Trumbull deals with people who are waiting for more faith, waiting to feel something "break," or afraid they have committed the unpardonable sin. Useful for you, and for helping a friend.
They think that right feeling is more important than right action and if they do not have the first, it is only an added evil for them to attempt the second.
How to Deal with Doubts and Doubters, chapter 10
Read How to Deal with Doubts and Doubters.
7. The Forgiveness of Sin, by John Owen
Owen's long exposition of Psalm 130, "But there is forgiveness with thee." He wrote it for souls in the depths, and he shows that forgiveness can hold you up even before you feel sure of it. Many have judged it the best thing Owen wrote.
Pardon flows immediately from a sovereign act of free grace.
The Forgiveness of Sin, chapter 5
8. Smooth Stones Taken from Ancient Brooks, by C. H. Spurgeon
Spurgeon's collection of short sayings from the Puritan Thomas Brooks. Many of them touch on faith and assurance, and they are easy to read a few at a time.
Faith can not be lost, but assurance may; therefore assurance is not faith.
Smooth Stones Taken from Ancient Brooks
The witness of the Spirit
9. Forty-Four Sermons, by John Wesley
Wesley's standard sermons. Read "The Witness of the Spirit" and "The Almost Christian" together: one tells you how God assures His children, the other warns how far a person can go and still not belong to Christ.
The testimony of the Spirit is an inward impression on the soul, whereby the Spirit of God directly witnesses to my spirit, that I am a child of God
Forty-Four Sermons, The Witness of the Spirit
See John Wesley's books. Read Forty-Four Sermons.
10. Triumphant Certainties, by Alexander Maclaren
The title sermons take the three "we know" statements at the end of 1 John 5. Maclaren preaches certainty without pride: we know because God has shown us Christ.
There is one truth on which we can stay our hearts, one God in whom we can utterly trust, the God revealed in Jesus Christ.
Triumphant Certainties, The Last Words of the Last Apostle
Examine yourselves: going deeper
11. The Christian's Great Interest, by William Guthrie
The great Scottish book on assurance, from a seventeenth-century country minister. Part one shows how a person may know he has a saving interest in Christ: by faith closing with Christ, and by becoming a new creature. Part two shows how to get that interest if you don't have it. Thomas Chalmers wrote the introduction to this edition.
To a sinner in distress, we unfold the pardon of the gospel; and we bid him look unto Jesus, that he may rejoice.
The Christian's Great Interest, Introductory Essay
Read The Christian's Great Interest.
12. The Saint Indeed and The Touchstone of Sincerity, by John Flavel
Two Puritan treatises in one book. The first is on keeping the heart. The second tests true grace against its counterfeits, and it is kind to the honest doubter.
True grace is willing to be tried, and nothing is more desirable to an upright soul, than to know its own condition.
The Touchstone of Sincerity
13. Thoughts on Religious Experience, by Archibald Alexander
A wise Princeton professor's book on real and false Christian experience. He discusses how temperament, melancholy and the excitement of crowds can color what we feel, and what the true marks of growth are. Good for anyone whose doubts come with low moods.
Men may possess unsanctified knowledge and be nothing the better for it, but they cannot grow in grace without increasing in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thoughts on Religious Experience, chapter 13
Read Thoughts on Religious Experience.
More to explore
Assurance starts with faith, so if you're not sure what saving faith is, read Spurgeon's All of Grace first; it heads our guide to the best Christian books on faith. Several of the books above are Puritan, and our guide to the best Puritan books has more. Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections is the classic test of true and false religion; the library's text still has some scanning errors, but it is worth the effort.
Where to start
- New believer: Torrey, then Brookes.
- Long, painful doubt: Bunyan, then Owen.
- Helping someone else: Trumbull.
- Want to test yourself honestly: Guthrie, then Flavel.
More books are on the assurance topic page.