Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine?
Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine?
Can we be
sure that Jesus is ours? A wonderful book written in the 17th century by a Scottish minister called The Marrow of Modern Divinity has helped me
over the last several years in wrapping my mind around that subject. It’s
written in the form of a play (much like Pilgrim’s Progress). The conversations
of the characters deal with the nature of God, Jesus Christ, sin, salvation,
the Church, and other subjects about the Christian faith. The last section deals with
application of these truths, and one of these conversations happens between
Evangelista and Neophytus. For our purposes, we’ll call them Pastor and Newbie (short for new believer – I sort of updated the language,
but it still sounds like an old conversation. If you can, read in a Scottish
accent!).
***
Pastor:
How are you, Brother Newbie? You seem to be deep in your thoughts.
Newbie:
Pastor, I was thinking of that place of the Bible, where the apostle exhorts us
“to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith or not” (2 Cor. 3:15); and it
seems to me that someone could think he is in the faith, when he is not. So,
Pastor, how can I be sure that I’m in the faith.
Pastor:
I would not have you to make any question of it, since you have grounded your
faith upon such a firm foundation that will never fail; or the promise of God
in Christ is of a tried truth, and never yet failed any man, nor ever will.
Therefore, I would have you to close with Christ in the promise, without making
any question whether you are in the faith or not; for there is an assurance
which rises from the exercise of faith as a direct act, and that is, when a
man, by faith, intentionally lays hold upon Christ, and concludes
assurance from there.
Newbie:
Sir, I know that the foundation that grounds my faith is sure, and I think I
have already built on it; yet, because I conceive a man may think he has done
so when he has not, therefore I desire to know how I may be assured that I am
truly saved?
Pastor: OK, I get it; it seems you do not want a ground for your believing, but for your believing that you have believed.
Newbie: Yes, that’s what I want![i]
***
On this blog and in the Sunday morning sermons, I’ve talked about God, sin, salvation by grace through faith, and parts of salvation such as repentance and forgiveness of sin. And we’ve talked about knowing these truths; knowing God, Jesus, the truth of salvation, how to be saved. The basis of our faith, the foundation to build our lives and His Church on, truth that gives us strong assurance. This post's subject is (as the Pastor said), “believing that you have believed.” How can we know that we know we are saved? Is it possible for us to have assurance of salvation?
It's easy for we Baptists to say yes, or anyone else that believes that once you’re truly saved, you’re always saved (Presbyterians, non-heretical Lutherans, Calvary Chapel churches).
By the way, Once Saved, Always Saved might not be the best
title of addressing this issue. How often have we seen someone walk an aisle at
an altar call at VBS, church camp, or a worship service; then eventually walk
away from that commitment and live no differently than someone who is lost?
There’s no fruit in keeping with repentance, there’s no sign of God’s saving
grace in him. There’s simply an event we can possibly point to, and too often
that’s an event pointed to by a preacher like me in a funeral after this
person’s untimely death (or the preacher silently affirming the veracity of
this kind of commitment presented by loved ones). Perhaps a much better descriptor of
this great doctrine is Once TRULY Saved, Always Saved (or truly saved for
eternity).
Roman Catholicism has a massive problem with this belief, as we see in the Council of Trent (the counter Reformation). The rebuke of a defender of Romanists: “The [principal] heresy of Protestants is, that saints may obtain a certain assurance of their gracious and pardoned state before God.”[ii]
They believe salvation can be taken away from a believer. They’re not alone in this belief, for anyone who holds to an Arminian belief will hold to some form of losing your salvation, including Methodists, Pentecostals, Churches of Christ, any denomination coming out of the 19th century Holiness movement (including the Assemblies of God), and General Baptists (The church I pastor, Carney FBC probably would have come out of the Particular Baptist movement, or that at least is the belief system with which we are currently most aligned).
To be fair, this belief is a
spectrum of beliefs, but in a nutshell, some action must be accomplished (such
as a sacrament like communion) or some behavior must be observed (good works)
to keep the faith. There also will be actions and behavior that must be avoided.
Did you commit murder? You lose your salvation! Did you burn a Tesla this
weekend? You lose your salvation! Did you listen to Bon Jovi? You lose your
salvation! (Ok, maybe that last one’s not so fair…)
It’s not necessarily as far from the belief of assurance as we would like to believe it is, because we believe those who are truly saved will exhibit fruit that will play out in certain actions and behaviors. Eph. 2:10 – “We are His workmanship, created for good works in Christ, which God has prepared beforehand that we would walk in them.” Gal. 5:22-23 – “For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law.” How good are we at exhibiting those?
Even the warning before these verses to the Galatians should give us pause: “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19-21).
Guilty as charged! How can we inherit the kingdom of
God and know that we haven’t lost our salvation?
[i] Edward Fisher, The Marrow of Modern Divinity.
From The Whole Christ by Sinclair Ferguson, p. 195-96.
[ii] Robert Bellarmine quote, from The Whole Christ
by Sinclair Ferguson, p. 181.
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