Some Questions About Assurance

Summary

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Grace in Focus: “Some Questions About Assurance”

Date: October 15, 2025
Host: Bob Wilkin (B), Guest: Sam Marr (C)

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Overview

This episode is a compact, in-depth discussion on the topic of assurance of salvation, a persistent question among Christians wrestling with different gospel messages in the New Testament. Host Bob Wilkin and guest Sam Marr respond to a listener named Matt, who struggles to harmonize “faith alone” evangelism with calls to repentance found in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke). The duo clarifies distinctions between justification (how to receive eternal life) and sanctification (how to live as a believer), tackles problem passages, and addresses the role of repentance in the gospel.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Listener Question: The “Faith Alone” Gospel vs. Repentance

[01:02]

• Matt, a listener not “explicitly a Free Gracer,” seeks assurance amidst teachings that seem to require both belief and repentance for salvation.
• He’s heard diverse messages: “the Gospel of John is the only explicitly evangelistic book,” but the Synoptics stress repentance and entering the Kingdom.

[01:47]

• Matt references a sermon equating John 3:16 (faith alone) with the “wide gate” that leads to destruction, while the “narrow gate” requires more (repentance, obedience, perseverance).

2. Confusion About “The Narrow Gate” and the Synoptic Gospels

[02:38] — Sam:

“The wide gate is John 3:16, right? …That’s the way to hell. That’s the way to—I’m not going to make it because I’m only believing... The narrow way then is I’ve got to turn from my sins, I’ve got to follow Christ… That’s the narrow way, basically.”

• Many pastors, Sam notes, avoid John 3:16 or Ephesians 2:8-9, instead favoring verses from James, 1 John, or Hebrews that seem to mandate works or repentance.

3. Harmonizing Calls to Belief and Repentance

[03:49–04:13]

• Matt reasons: Jesus says both “believe” (John) and “repent” (Synoptics), so both must be necessary.
• Sam explains: Jesus taught faith in Him for everlasting life and also called people to “follow Him” for abundant, significant living—these are separate issues:
  • Belief = Eternal Life (Justification)
  • Following/Repentance = Discipleship/Sanctification
• Eternal rewards and meaningful Christian living are related to repentance and following Christ, not the initial gift of eternal life.

4. The Absence of “Repentance” in John’s Gospel

[05:28–06:46]

• Bob’s major revelation to Matt: “The Gospel of John never uses the word ‘repent,’ and Christ never told the people he was evangelizing to repent.”

  • [05:40] Bob:

    “I told him, you know, you can go look for yourself. …that really impacted him heavily…”

• The phrase “go and sin no more” only appears twice, both in John:

  • John 5:14 – the man healed at Bethesda
  • John 8:11 – the woman caught in adultery

  These are not evangelistic messages but relate to immediate earthly consequences of sin.

5. Analysis of “Go and Sin No More” Passages

[08:15] John 5:14

• Jesus warns the healed man against sin—“lest a worse thing come upon you”—but does not mention eternal life.
• [08:30] Sam:

  “Jesus doesn’t say stop your sinning so that you can have eternal life... What he’s talking about is something worse happening to you in the future... talking about his well being in this life.”

[09:49] John 8:11

• Same pattern: Jesus tells the woman, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more,” as a warning about life consequences, not eternal salvation.

• [10:15] Sam:

  “Anything that’s in rebellion against God was going to lead to calamity. …the Lord does not talk to her about everlasting life or believing in Him. Neither one is an evangelistic passage.”

• Repentance in these contexts is “life restoring,” not life receiving.

6. Study the Context—Discern Justification vs. Discipleship

[11:17] Bob:

“Don’t take our word for it. Go read the Bible for yourself… The evangelistic book of John doesn’t mention repentance. So maybe when I read Matthew, Mark and Luke… When I encounter the word repentance, just think: is this talking about everlasting life or is this talking about discipleship or the nation of Israel or any number of other things?”

7. The Gospel Writers’ Purposes Differ

[11:45]

• John’s Gospel explicitly focuses on offering everlasting life (John 20:31), while the Synoptics address disciples already following Jesus.
• [12:02] Sam:

  “The point is well taken that he doesn’t always evangelize in every encounter… sometimes he realizes the person needs something else, or… they’re already born again.”

8. Encouragement for Seeking Assurance

[12:55] Bob:

“Amen.”

[12:56] Sam:

“Matt, this is a great question. And it shows that Matt is a person who’s seeking the truth. We all should be praying about these matters… it’s the spirit of God that opens our eyes so that we can understand the Word of God.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [03:49] Bob:

  “He said both. So we have to do both.”
  (Summarizing Matt’s struggle merging belief and repentance.)

• [05:40] Bob:

  “I didn’t realize [Jesus] never talked about repentance in John. So that’s pretty significant.”

• [08:30] Sam:

  “He’s not talking about his eternal destiny, he’s talking about his well being in this life.”
  (Clarifying the context of John 5:14)

• [10:15] Sam:

  “Repentance is life restoring. So if we’re walking in rebellion against God, to repent is a good thing, but it doesn’t give me eternal life.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:02 – Matt’s question and context
• 01:47–03:49 – Confusion between faith, repentance, wide/narrow gate
• 04:13–05:28 – Harmonizing belief in John and repentance in Synoptics
• 05:28–06:46 – The missing “repentance” in John’s Gospel
• 08:15–10:15 – Analysis of “go and sin no more” and its non-evangelistic purpose
• 11:17–12:02 – How to read “repentance” in Matthew, Mark, Luke
• 12:55–13:02 – Final encouragement and call for spiritual discernment

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Final Thoughts

Bob and Sam urge listeners to examine the context of biblical passages, differentiate between passages about receiving eternal life (justification) and those about living as a disciple (sanctification), and rely on the Spirit for discernment. Assurance of salvation rests on Christ’s promises in John, not on continual works of repentance or discipleship. The episode encourages personal study and prayerful consideration of the Gospel’s message for both salvation and Christian living.

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Transcript

[A]

The following is a listener supported ministry from the Grace Evangelical Society. When Bible verses talk about the gospel or faith, how do we know whether or not passages are talking about eternal salvation, justification or abundant living sanctification? Please listen today. We're glad you're joining us here on Grace in Focus. This is the podcast and broadcast ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Find [e-mail] we have many written articles in our archives which you can study and research. We also have a place where you can find out about our conference ministry. We have a national conference each year in May and we also do regional conferences and our bookstore where you can find Bob Wilkins latest book the Gospel is Still under Siege. It's [e-mail] now with today's question and answer discussion, here is Bob Wilken along with Sam Marr.

[B]

We got a call from a guy, we'll just call him Matt. He listens to Grayson Focus on the radio sometimes. But he is not explicitly a free gracer. But he called because he's struggling with assurance. And that's a lot of the phone calls we get are people that really, they want to be reassured, which is great. We want, it's great.

[C]

We want people to deal with assurance. I believe it led you into talking with them about some of the things he'd heard from various pastors, either online or live, things they'd said about John and the Synoptics, Matthew, Mark and Luke. Some things which you can see would easily lead people to have some measure of confusion.

[B]

Yeah, we had a long scattered conversation, but just to hit some of the highlights of it, one of the first things he said was that he had heard you and Ken and various other people talk about the Gospel of John being the only explicitly evangelistic book in the New Testament. And he can't reconcile that with verses in the Synoptic Gospels that talk about repent for the kingdom is here, things about entering the kingdom. And he gave an example of a sermon he heard from a pastor who said that verse is about the wide and the narrow gate. The wide gate represents the people who think grace is easy. Or as we would say, it's so easy it's free or so cheap, it's free. They're all crowding around the wide gate and missing out. And the narrow gate is for the people who realize that it's not as easy as just believing there's something else to it.

[C]

Okay, wait a minute. The wide gate is John 3:16, right? It's believing in Jesus is the wide gate. That's the way to hell. That's the way to. I'm not going to make it because I'm only believing. I'm not repenting, I'm not working, I'm not following, I'm not obeying. Right. Essentially, that's the broad way. The narrow way then is I've got to turn from my sins, I've got to follow Christ, I've got to obey him. I've got to persevere to the end. That's the narrow way, basically. And so what you've got is John 3:16 is certainly not something we're going to highlight. If I'm a pastor and I hold this view, I'm not going to highlight John 3:16 or Ephesians 2:89, or Revelation 22:17. I'm going to go to verses like maybe James, Chapter two, or I'm going to go to First John, or I'm going to go to Hebrews and I'm going to take some verses. But now I believe that what Matt was saying is the pastors, he's heard, they like to go to the Synoptic Gospels, to Matthew, Mark and Luke.

[B]

Yeah. The bulk part of our conversation was talking about verses in the Synoptic Gospels where Christ is calling for people to repent. For Matt, he was saying, well, the Gospel of John might be talking about believe and have everlasting life, but then the same guy, Jesus, is talking about repenting before the kingdom in the synoptic. So clearly he. He said both. So we have to do both.

[C]

Yeah, and this is a common problem that we have to deal with when we're sharing our faith, when we're helping people deal with this issue of assurance is how do we harmonize verses in the Gospels that call to turn from your sins, to follow Christ, to count the cost of discipleship. And yet in John, it's simply believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you believe in him, you'll never perish, you'll never hunger, you'll never thirst, you'll never die, you'll never be cast out. And the simple way to harmonize it is the Lord Jesus taught both. He taught, believe in him for everlasting life, to be secure forever and follow him in order to have fullness of life. Be someone who counts the cost of discipleship so that your life can be meaningful and significant, that your life can be more than simply, okay, I know I'm going to heaven when I die, but I'm making a mark in life that's pleasing to God. And of course, once a person learns this they can learn about eternal rewards too.

[B]

Yeah, so we talked about that for a little bit and then there were two big, I think, moments in the conversation we had. This was an hour long conversation and very pleasant talking to him. And at the end he had very kind things to say about Ges. But there were two big things I think that had an impact on him. And the first was when I told him that the Gospel of John never uses the word repent and Christ never told the people he was evangelizing to repent. I don't think he believed me at first, but I told him, you know, you can go look for yourself. And so I think that had a huge impact on him because I think in his mind he was probably like, well, even if it's not emphasized in John, it's there somewhere. It's still the same guy. But I think that that really impacted him heavily and it, you know, that made a big difference for me. I was raised with the free grace message, even if I didn't hear that term. But I didn't realize he never talked about repentance in John. So that's pretty significant. There's two, I think key verses to analyze. I was reading an article of yours before we started this. The phrase go and sin no more does appear twice in John and actually appears only in John. Yeah, that blew my mind that he never even said that in the Synoptics. But if we want to look at those verses real quick, it's John 5:14 and John 8:11.

[A]

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[C]

Gesseminary.org you mentioned how Matt was saying, well, surely repentance has to be there somewhere. Even if the words repent, repentance don't occur, the concept must be there. He's not alone. There are a lot of pastors and theologians who have said in the Gospel of John the concept is there and they cite various verses. Well, I have an article if you go to faithalone.org where I shoot that idea down. Besides, surely if we know that Jesus preached repentance, right, and we find it in Matthew, Mark and Luke, then if John's writing an evangelistic book and repentance is a condition for being born again. John's not going to just give some kind of vague, maybe allusion to repentance. He's going to mention it. And so he didn't. All right, so let's go to your two verses. What are they? John chapter five and John chapter eight.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

So which one first?

[B]

Yeah, we'll do five, 14 first. This is the man who's healed at the pool of Bethesda. And I think it's a little while after he heals him. But Jesus talks to him again and he says, see, you have been made well. Sin no more lest a worse thing come upon you.

[C]

So what's interesting here is Jesus doesn't say stop your sinning so that you can have eternal life. He doesn't mention eternal life here. He doesn't mention believing in him here. What he's talking about is something worse happening to you in the future than what's already happened to him in the past. And he's not talking about his eternal destiny, he's talking about his well being in this life. What this verse should tell us is, look, if a person is delivered by God from some difficulty in their life that was caused by sin in their life and then they turn back to that sin, they could expect that that difficulty in their life is going to come back and even worse. And so the issue here is not his eternal destiny. We don't know if this man was born again or not. But what we do know is that this man needed to avoid sinning more lest something worse would happen to us. Now this, by the way, doesn't guarantee that the reason he was paralyzed in the first place was due to some sin. But it is to say that as God grants mercy to this man, God does not want him to go into a life of sin.

[B]

Yeah, I think the same. In 8, 11, the woman caught in adultery, they try to stone her, Christ stops them. In verse 11 he says, Neither do I condemn you, Go and sin no more. And it's the same as the man at the pool of Bethesda, except for here she actually is caught in sin and he's telling her that sin almost caused your death. Don't go into and do the same thing, sin no more to avoid that.

[C]

Right. And it wouldn't have to necessarily be adultery. It could just be. Anything that's in rebellion against God was going to lead to calamity. Now again, like the man at the pool of Bethesda, we don't know if this woman was born again or not. But what we do see is the Lord does not talk to her about everlasting life or believing in Him. Neither one is an evangelistic passage. Possibly one or both of them were already born again. Possibly the Lord evangelized them after these incidents. But John doesn't go there and neither do the Synoptics. These incidents aren't even found in Matthew, Mark or Luke. I think, Matt, you've raised a good point. There is an issue here concerning sin. My book Turn and the Power of Repentance talks about the fact that repentance is life restoring. So if we're walking in rebellion against God, to repent is a good thing, but it doesn't give me eternal life.

[B]

Yeah, I'd say don't take our word for it. Go read the Bible for yourself. Read God's word, pray, ask the Holy Spirit to help you discern. But just keep in mind the evangelistic book of John doesn't mention repentance. So maybe when I read Matthew, Mark and Luke, I can read that. And when I encounter the word repentance, just think, is this talking about everlasting life or is this talking about discipleship or the nation of Israel or any number of other things?

[C]

Right.

[B]

And pray about it. And I think you'll see, if he wanted these people to have everlasting life, he would have said, believe in me for everlasting life, because that's what he did in John. But the writers of those other books, their goal wasn't to teach their readers how to have everlasting life, because they were already disciples, right?

[C]

Now, of course, he does want everybody to have eternal life. But I think the point is well taken that he doesn't always evangelize in every encounter he has with every person. And sometimes he realizes the person needs something else for the time being, or that they're already born again. But the point is, he did evangelize a lot and the people of Israel knew his message. The message was well known in Israel that Jesus promised to save or to give eternal life to all who believed in him. And even at the cross, people were mocking him about that. Matt, this is a great question. And it shows that Matt is a person who's seeking the truth. We all should be praying about these matters. Not just assurance of eternal life, but everything related to the Bible. Because ultimately it's the spirit of God that opens our eyes so that we can understand the Word of God.

[B]

Amen.

[C]

Alright, well, thanks so much. And remember, keep grace in focus.

[A]

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