When I was a Jehovah’s Witness, I viewed those who were assured of their salvation as being very presumptuous. Looking back now, that only makes sense because I did not have the testimony of the Holy Spirit. At that time, I did not think that the words of Romans 8:16 applied to me since I was not one of the 144,000 “anointed”.

Romans 8:16 – “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,”

Of course, at that time, I was right that those words did not apply to me, but it was not because I was not one of the 144,000 anointed Jehovah’s Witnesses, but that is another story. The point here is that assurance of salvation is one of the core differences between Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christians. Jehovah’s Witnesses do not have it, Christians do. Why is this important? Reading the following quote from “This We Believe” really brought it home for me. Hopefully it will for you too.

The Holy Spirit assures us that God is our Father and loves us. God has poured out his love into our hearts. (Rom. 5:5) Romans 8:15-16 says that when we cry “Abba, Father,” the Holy Spirit is witnessing to our spirit that we are God’s children. Few experiences can provide more power in our lives than to have the assurance of salvation.

Think of what it could do for us:

We would be joyous in our service for God, but not driven in our works, or mistaken in the notion that our works would save us.

We would be delivered from frantic preoccupation with taking our spiritual temperature minute by minute.

We would be free and spontaneous in our witness, exercising patience, and understanding as well as speaking with conviction and challenge.

We would not get overwrought with our friends about future security, for we would be assured of our present relationship with Christ – who loves us with an immeasurable love. – This We Believe, pp 201,202

(Originally published Oct 18, 2008 on blog.docbob.org)