Ditching the Checklist: Assurance of Salvation for Evangelicals (and Other Sinners) - Paperback

by Mark C. Mattes (Author)

Ditching the Checklist was written to help Evangelicals and other Christians who, due to grounding the assurance of their salvation in evidences of their new birth instead of Christ alone, struggle over whether or not they are saved. Evangelical leader J. D. Greear describes anxiety over whether or not one is saved as a major problem among Evangelicals. With ample testimony from Scripture and appealing to the thinking of Luther, this booklet addresses this anxiety head on. Mark Mattes argues that faith alone in Christ, and neither a decision for Christ nor altered manners, is both necessary and sufficient for salvation. Many Evangelicals struggle with the assurance of their salvation precisely because teachers like John MacArthur and John Piper add superfluous things on to Christ like moral improvement or pious feelings to secure sinners of their salvation. This booklet challenges such add-ons. Mattes encourages Evangelicals to place their trust in Christ alone, not themselves, and to help Lutherans understand that their cherished beliefs about salvation are grounded in Scripture. This booklet also shows Evangelicals, and Lutherans, unaware of it, that the Lutheran doctrine of baptismal regeneration as well as infant baptism are not holdovers from Roman Catholicism but are scriptural.

Author Biography

Mark Mattes serves as the Lutheran Bible Institute Chair in Bible and Theology at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa. He has authored several books, including Luther's Theology of Beauty: A Reappraisal (Baker Academic, 2017), The Role of Justification in Contemporary Theology (Eerdmans, 2004), and Law and Gospel in Action: Foundations, Ethics, Church (New Reformation Press, 2019), and edited numerous other books. He serves as an Associate Editor for Lutheran Quarterly and on the Continuation Committee of the International Luther Congress.