"The Doctrine of Assurance" by Shane C. Montgomery

  Are you a Christian? Are you saved? If so, how do you know? It is a fair question, one that you should be asking yourself everyday. I bring this up because we see two sides to this coin. We as believers tend to take assurance either to one extreme or the other, for the most part I encounter those confessing Christians who rest on the finished work of Christ on the cross for their salvation, this is all they need, someone told them that if they trust in Christ they have eternal life and this is something no one can take away from them. Well, most people when pressed will tell you they trust in Christ and I hope they do, but the problem lies in they are taking John 3:16 and crawling up on top of that verse and just living there, that was never the intent of that verse.