More Thoughts About Assurance

Around New Year's of 2003, I made two decisions that changed my life dramatically in the short term.  One decision was that I was going to train for and run a marathon.  The other decision was that I was going to ask Liz to marry me.  Both occupied my thoughts and changed my actions: I was adding a fairly long-distance run to my schedule five times a week, building my mileage according to a plan that I checked often.  My evenings consisted of running, cooking, eating... and spending time with my soon-to-be fiancee.  In the first few weeks of 2003, I went out and found a ring, I thought about how I would ask her, tried to be sneaky (unsuccessfully) in hiding my plans as I tried to talk to Liz's dad and make all the other arrangements I needed to make.  

Two major decisions.  Both life-changing in the short-term.  Only one really changed my life.  I married Liz and my life was changed for the better forever.  But by January 2004, I was in worse shape than I was in 2003.

People make decisions all the time.  Some stick and some don't; some are life-changing and some make no difference at all.  The same thing is often true when people make decisions to follow Christ.

So what do we make of that?



Doctrine Isn't the Point Here

Sunday the sermon was about assurance of salvation, how we can have peace in our hearts that we are saved.  To talk about assurance is different from talking about the security of a believer's salvation.

Some would look at those who make decisions for Christ that might make a short-term impact but then fade away and say that person was saved, but they lost their salvation when they wandered from faith.  Others would say that person is still saved (but backsliding) or that their salvation was never real in the first place.

There are extremes at both sides, of course.  Some teach a very precarious salvation that is lost very quickly with unconfessed sin.  Others teach a very cheap, transaction-like gospel that makes eternal salvation only a prayer away, regardless of what happens afterward.  Most people in the middle can agree that the complete apostate is not saved (whether he lost his salvation or never had it) and that God's grace allows for our inevitable sinfulness after we come to know him. 

But how sin is too much?  How much fruit proves salvation?  These types of questions--and most of the security of the believer debate in general--stems from the desire to be able to look at someone else and to be able to tell them whether or not they are going to heaven.  Churches and church people want to be able to separate the sheep from the goats themselves here on earth, but that's really not our place.  The issue that is really addressed in the Bible is not the general issue of the security of the believer (although I don't believe the Scripture teaches that those who have truly been born again can lose their salvation).  But what the Bible does address is personal assurance.  After all, it doesn't matter one bit whether I believe you are saved or not.  You either are or you aren't and the only one who knows for sure is God.

What God Wants Us to Know

But God does not leave us in the dark.  He wants to reveal to us the truth.  He wants us to know, too, about our own salvation, so that we can rest in Him.  1 John 5:15 says, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life" (emphasis added).

The point of Sunday's message was that we cannot know that we have eternal life if we are living in disobedience.  We know for sure when we see the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, when we gain personal knowledge of God through a daily relationship with the Holy Spirit, and when we persevere to the end.  We are never so secure in our salvation that we can assume that we can walk away from obedience and fellowship and still be saved in the end.  That warning is the biblical message.  But as we walk with the Holy Spirit day by day, he whispers peace to our hearts, and we know we are forever his.

John 10:27-29 says, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand."

This passage is one of the proof-texts for those who believe in "once-saved-always-saved."  But another way to look at this passage is to understand that Jesus is saying that God won't allow his children to stray away from him for long.  And the doubt regarding our salvation that God wants us to feel when we are disobedient serves as motivation to bring us back. 

What We Need to Change

So what do we need to change in light of these truths?

1. The way we encourage one another

 We all know friends, former church members, and family who once made a profession of faith and maybe were even active in church for a long time, who have fallen away.  Maybe they just aren't going to church anymore, or maybe they have made life decisions or developed habits that have changed them and alienated them from active fellowship.  What people often say at that point is, "Well, at least they're saved."  And we say that on the basis of the decisions they made in the past.

The apostles knew nothing of this "at least they're saved" attitude.  They warned and they pleaded and they prayed.  They expressed confidence in them that their faith was genuine but called them to perseverance to "make their hope sure" (Hebrews 6:11).  The "at least they're saved" attitude is cowardice and laziness on the part of those of us who are called to leave the ninety-nine and find the one.

Our evangelism has to be geared toward making lifetime disciples, taught to obey the commands of Jesus, rather than leading people to a decision and a prayer and believing our job is done.

There is no end to the discipleship process, whether we're talking about our own "follow-ship" or our role in spurring one another on and encouraging one another to finish the race.  We are not home until we're home.

2.  The way we examine ourselves.

On Sunday, I invited you to examine yourself, as 2 Corinthians 13:5-6 commands, to see whether you are in the faith.  The way to examine the genuineness of your salvation experience is not to examine the experience itself (how sincere you felt, whether you cried, how much you understood) but to look at yourself now.  Is Christ emerging in you more and more as time goes by?  Do you see the Holy Spirit at work in your heart and actions over time?  Are you more loving than you used to be?  Do you freely forgive as God gives you a heart like his?  Do you long more and more for eternity, to be with your Father in heaven and for God to make things right in this world (the "Abba" cry that the spirit of sonship brings)?

When you examine yourself (and you don't fail the test), you will find that Christ Jesus really is in you.  And he is giving you the power to finish the work of your salvation.  And you "work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12), not with arrogance or complacency based on a past experience and a doctrine you have been taught about salvation.

Conclusions

One of my favorite tests of whether a theological doctrine is valid or not is the action or practice that is its natural outflow.  The biblical teachings about personal assurance of salvation always draw us nearer and nearer to Christ.  We dare not stray and we would not want to stray anyway, as our perseverance turns to faith and faith to a hope that never disappoints, because God continually pours out his love into our hearts by the Spirit he gives.

Praise the Lord.