Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Part 1
"Assurance of salvation" is a topic widely discussed. HOW can one have it? Or, CAN one really have it? What's the difference between a sober "assurance of salvation" and a "cocksureness of salvation"? (Webster's New World College Dictionary defines the latter as "self-confident in a stubborn or overbearing way.") Matthew reports Jesus at least twice warning us against "cocksureness of salvation": "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not ... done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me." Those on His "left hand" will protest at last, "Lord, when ... did [we] not minister unto thee? ... These shall go away into everlasting punishment" (Matt. 7:22, 23; 25:41-46). They were self-confident, self-deceived up until the tragic last moment! So, should we forever be worrying about our personal eternal destiny?
On the other hand, John says, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life. ... We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness" (1 John 5:13, 19). On the surface, this seems contradictory, doesn't it? If you are a student in school constantly getting D's or F's, you don't have much enthusiasm for doing better, do you? Many tell us that you can't be a happy Christian unless you have the "assurance of salvation." Yet Jesus Himself warns us, Don't be stubbornly self-confident, "cocksure." The stakes are high; Jesus is right. "Many," even multitudes, who profess to be His followers will end up bitterly disappointed when it's too late to change their self-confident "cocksureness" into a rock-solid, genuine "assurance of salvation."
Simple common sense would suggest that while we must have a sober confidence without which happiness is impossible, we must also "give diligence to make [our] calling and election sure" (see 2 Peter 1:10). To look both ways before you cross a busy city street is not being fear-ridden; it's healthy. Can we have a "healthy" assurance? Is Bible teaching self-consistent? Where is sanctified spiritual common sense? Let's search for it tomorrow.
Part 2
How can we have a secure "assurance of salvation"? The apostle John likes to nail things down, to "know" this or that for sure. Some two dozen times in his First Letter he says we can "know" that we "know" the truth. Half of those times he uses the word ginosko, which means to be informed, to gain the knowledge of. The other half he uses the word eido which means to know by perception of truth, or shall we say, by common sense. He has "written unto you ... that ye may know (eido) that ye have eternal life" (1 John 5:13).
How can spiritual common sense give us this "assurance"? The answer is in verse 11: "God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16), not merely offered to give Him. Some five or six times in Romans 5 Paul emphasizes that God has given us the "free gift" that has reversed the "condemnation" that came upon the human race "in Adam," and as John says, that gift is "in Christ." The Father gave Christ to the world, that He might already be "the Saviour of the world," "the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe" (John 4:42; 1 Tim. 4:10).
What it boils down to is this: salvation is due to God's initiative; damnation can be due only to our own initiative in choosing not to "believe" the truth. As surely as Esau had the birthright, so surely you have eternal life in Christ. He gave Himself for you and to you. He not only offered to give you the gift of eternal life so that your salvation would depend on your own initiative; He actually gave you the gift so that in eternity you would never have any reason to "boast" that you took the initiative. It's 100% "by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God [there's that word again!]: not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8, 9).
Although Esau had the birthright, he chose to "despise" it and "sold" it for a trifle of worldly pleasure (Gen. 25:34: Heb. 12:16). "He that believeth not" takes the initiative in his being lost at last (John 3:18, 19), "despises" what God has given him "in Christ." Cherish your assurance in Christ, but don't be cocksure in yourself. You can trust Him but you can't trust yourself. You can very easily do something stupid. Look both ways before you cross the street.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
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