How Can A Sinner Know

“How Can a Sinner Know” was written by Charles Wesley in 1742 and published in Hymns and Sacred Poems. The hymn reflects early Methodist teaching on the assurance of salvation and the witness of the Spirit. It addresses the question of how an individual may know that his or her sins are forgiven and that reconciliation with God has been accomplished through Christ.

The text is structured as a theological inquiry followed by biblical affirmation. It begins with the central question of assurance and proceeds to answer it through scriptural themes. Romans 8:16 speaks of the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. This passage forms a primary foundation for the hymn. Likewise, 1 John 5:10-13 declares that believers may know they have eternal life, and Hebrews 10:22 calls believers to draw near in full assurance of faith. The hymn also reflects the self-examination urged in 2 Corinthians 13:5.

Wesley emphasizes the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit, presenting assurance not as presumption but as a gift grounded in Christ’s atoning work. The language of the hymn affirms justification by faith and the personal appropriation of redemption. It maintains that assurance arises from trust in Christ and the Spirit’s confirming work within the believer.

The hymn became a representative expression of Methodist theology in the eighteenth century, particularly in relation to the doctrine of conscious assurance. It has appeared in numerous Methodist hymnals and continues to be cited in discussions of evangelical experience and soteriology.

“How Can a Sinner Know” stands as a doctrinal hymn that articulates the Methodist understanding of salvation by faith and the believer’s confidence in the promises of God.