by James Thomas

Created on: November 11, 2009

Salvation is two sided. Salvation does not rest solely on the shoulders of man but is also dependent on the grace that is solely God's to grant. So it is clear that salvation has a duality in its very nature that needs to be discussed on this subject of assurance.

Man's side of salvation is clearly conditional to several requirements that God has deemed necessary for man. The first is knowledge for salvation. This is taught in verses such as 1 Timothy 2:4, 2 Tim 3:7, and Hebrew 10:26 which record the application of the knowledge of truth to unbelievers. Romans 10:14 describes the process of education for a person to become a believer through the process of hearing the knowledge transmitted to them. Therefore knowledge becomes an important requirement for a believer and a condition to which a person must submit to in order to be saved. I referenced knowledge as the first condition for salvation because most people do not deny this requirement with the presupposed understanding that a person cannot be saved in Christ without knowing of him first. It simply does not make logical sense. In this manner, conditions of salvation establishes precedence in the scriptures and opens the person up to understanding that if God has established one condition, has he required more? The answer is clearly yes when we read about other commands such as confession and baptism.

Through the expansion of knowledge, believers will see all of the requirements or conditions for salvation. The scope of this document is not to list and express upon these conditions but to show that in order to have assurance of salvation, proper knowledge of the truth must be attained by the believer. This is in essence the man's side of the assurance of salvation, the proper attaining of knowledge and proper application of this knowledge.

Obedience is also a key part in the conditions of salvation. Once the knowledge has been attained, a believer must act upon this knowledge. 2 Corinthians 8:11 teaches an important principle to believers. This principle is in the performance of a task that a person is ready and willing to do. Paul shows that the acceptable part of the will is the performance and not the desire. The context of this verse is not teaching on salvation but does show a basic principle of ethical conduct that the apostle expected of the disciples of Christ.

Once man has identified the basics of the knowledge toward salvation and performed the acts in obedience to this knowledge, man's portion

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