I will be doing a series of pertinent posts regarding the issue of Assurance of Salvation which will interrupt my posts on Feminism. This series of articles is dedicated to one of my blog readers and dear sister-in-Christ Evelyn Soon, whom I sincerely think should start a blog of her own =). (When she does, I will make sure some blog traffic goes her way ... :P)
Anyway, here goes:
One of the distinguishing features of true biblical, historic Evangelical Christianity is our belief in the doctrine of Assurance of Salvation. In other words, we believe that a person who is truly saved can be fully assured that s/he is truly saved, and that from thence on, s/he can rest in the full assurance that s/he is a child of God. Since that is so, its effect on believers would be one of comfort and joy. To put in simply, a saint who is saved by Christ is saved forever (Once saved, always saved), and will never need fear the punishment of hell anymore. In more technical and precise terms, the saints will persevere forever in their faith in Christ and will thus be saved by him and taken into glory into His presence, never again fearing the outpouring of the wrath of God against their sins but loving God who saves them from their sins and the consequences of their sins.
The classic proof-text normally used to prove the reality of believers being able to have an Assurance of Salvation is the familiar passage of 1 John 5:13, which is shown below:
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you eternal life. (1 John. 5:13)
In a normal bible study studying this particular subject, emphasis is placed on the phrase "that you may know", indicating that Scripture is here telling us that we are able to know that we are saved, and thus we should have the assurance of our salvation. Questions are typically asked of the person who may be doubting whether they believe in the name of the Son of God, i.e. the Gospel message of our Lord Jesus Christ, and upon the basis of an answer in the affirmative, assurance of their salvation is said to be attainable and has thus been attained, since they profess belief in 'the name of the Son of God'.
Now, for such a bible study, the usage of the proof-text of 1 Jn. 5:13 is definitely correct, insofar as the text in question does say that we can know that we are truly saved. However, by just leaving it as this level, it is no wonder that oftentimes our assurance of salvation is just so shallow, and we can thus begin to question and doubt our salvation even. Why is that so? Well, as we begin to grow in Christ, we come to see our own sins and know our own failings more and more. The more we know about God and about ourselves, the more we hate our sins and even ourselves. We may start to question whether we are truly saved, especially if we do not have the victory over sin that we have been taught to expect. So, does God really love us? When we see ourselves in the light of Scripture, we see the barreness in ourselves, and our fruitlessness in ministry, and we wonder why that is so. Since Jesus says that by their fruits you shall know them (Mt. 7:19-20; 12:35), and that every branch that does not bear good fruit would be thrown into the fire and burned (Jn. 15:5-6), we start to worry as we see our barreness. Are we actually false believers, we may start to ask ourselves. We then return to the verse which had seemed so familiar at that time: 1 Jn. 5:13. OK, yes, it does say that we can have assurance of salvation, but now I am not so sure about the believing part. Am I truly believing in Christ, or just paying lip service to Him? After all, I may well be deceiving myself, since the heart is deceitfully wicked and cannot be understood. (Jer. 17:9). So the believer's assurance starts to falter, and his/her walk with God may suffer as a result, nevermind about ministry.
It is my opinion that such a thing should never need to occur, if we come to know and understand, and to take to heart the deeper things of the Lord in Scripture concerning the subject. As we grow deeper in our walk with God, to stop at the surface level exposition of 1 John 5:13 is to invite the shipwreck of our faith, as the flesh, the world and the devil conspire to destroy our effectiveness for our Lord and if possible, to destroy our faith in Him also. To such believers who are truly shaken and tossed to and fro due to various reasons, I emphatize with all of you and my heart breaks for the many people who may be at this stage, and others also who may even be contemplating quitting the Christian faith altogether. To all of you, I submit this. But first, we must set the background first; the entire basis for the doctrine of the Assurance of Salvation, which is the Gospel work of our Lord Jesus Christ by His death on the cross of Calgary. So what is the Gospel?
The Bible consistently proclaims the sinfulness and depravity of Man, who though knowing the things which God commands and the penalty of death attached to disobedience, nevertheless violate God's laws and furthermore give approval to those who do the same (Rom. 1:32). It proclaims the sinfulness of Man (Rom. 3:10-18), destroying Man's pride by showing his total depravity in the eyes of an all Holy God who burns with wrath against them and their sins (Rom. 2:5). It furthermore declares that NO ONE seeks God, that there is no fear of God in their eyes (Rom. 3:18), and that ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). In other words, the situation of Man as stated in the Scriptures is one of utter despair and without hope. Man, despite his intellect, acheivements, wealth, etc, is utterly lost, condemned to hell by his own sins, and that willingly too; he willingly chooses to go to hell and would not have things any other way. Such is the plight of Man, who can control almost anything but his own eternal destiny.
Into this hopeless situation, we see the precious and marvelous words in verse 21 of Romans chapter 3: "But now". But now what? "... the righteousness of God has been manifested... " (Rom. 3:21) For what purpose? "[for all] are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith" (Rom. 3:24-25a) To what end? That we might be "saved by him from the wrath of God" (Rom. 5:9) and received reconciliation through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:11). Faith, redemption, justification, propitiation, reconciliation. What do all these words mean? And what do they have to do with us having assurance of salvation?
[to be continued]
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