Craig —

The Church teaches that we have a sure hope of salvation through the Mercy of God, who will give us the grace to endure to the end. We have assurance of salvation through Christ, if we stay in Him.  Abiding in Him means abiding in His will. We do not have assurance that we will be saved no matter what we do.

Mary Ann

Hi, Craig —

Just to add to what Mary Ann has said, because each and every individual born into the world has their OWN free will, they are FREE to use that will to abide with Christ, Our Lord, or not abide.

The choice is theirs, and for that reason throughout life we can have a moral assurance of salvation, if we abide in Christ, but as you stated in 1 Corinthians 9:24, we, like St. Paul, have to run the race to completion, hoping to freely choose to abide in Christ until our
[passing | particular judgment].

Hope this helps,

Mike