HoHum:
Sometimes when we are in an airport, observe the difference between passengers who hold confirmed tickets and those who are on standby. The ones with confirmed tickets read magazines, chat with friends, or just sleep. The ones on standby hang around the ticket counter, pace and fret, fret and pace. The difference is caused by assurance. Confirmed ticket holders have assurance that they will get on the flight. Those on standby have no such assurance.
WBTU:
Some Christians believe that they are always on standby, no assurance of salvation. “Always trying, never sure”- They deny assurance altogether. Blessed assurance= Never assurance, I just don't know, if Jesus accepts me into his kingdom, oh no!
Those who hold this view live the best Christian life they can, fighting against sin and immersing themselves in good works of all kinds; yet they never experience the assurance, peace, and joy that comes from knowing they are saved. “If Judgment Day were to be held this very moment, would you be saved?” Their answer would be something like, “I hope so but one can never be sure.” Some go to this extreme when they reject the eternal security idea. They mistakenly equate blessed assurance as “once saved, always saved” and so reject any confidence in their salvation in Jesus. Arrogance to say with confidence that we are going to heaven (like a relative who one time said, "I've got God in my back pocket", not wise, need to avoid this kind of arrogance). Many times those who struggle with assurance are laboring under the old idea that we are saved by our works, by being good enough. Those who think this way most often are conscious of their sins and their unworthiness of heaven, and thus are filled with fear and anxiety about death and the final judgment. The best they can hope for is to die in church while praying prayers for forgiveness. Now, such lack of assurance does not mean these Christians are lost, but it does mean that they are missing out on the joy and peace that assurance brings. This “always trying, never sure” approach to assurance has as much biblical support as “once saved, always saved.” Both extremes must be rejected.
The best approach to assurance is summed up in the phrase, “Simply trusting, fully forgiven.” This phrase acknowledges the fact that the Christian is completely, 100% forgiven (justified) by the blood of Christ. We are completely free from the condemnation for sin. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” Romans 8:1, NIV. Assurance of salvation is based on the first part of the double cure (justification) rather than on the second part (sanctification). The Christian is a forgiven person, even though he is not a perfect person. The biblical approach to assurance is summed up here: we “who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” 1 Peter 1:5, NAS95. This emphasizes God’s faithfulness and the Christian’s faith as essential elements in assurance.
Thesis: Look at this phrase, “protected by the power of God through faith”
For instances:
Protected by the power of God
This stresses God’s faithfulness. We can be sure that God will never leave us nor forsake us. We have all the resources we need to protect us, shield us, guard us, keep us, from our enemies that want to rob us of our salvation. These resources include the indwelling Holy Spirit, the Bible, prayer, and the church. The greatest resource of all is God’s own faithful and unfailing love. This love is a firm basis for assurance, according to Paul in Romans 5:1-11, read. Our hope, or assurance, will not be disappointed because God’s love with all its effects has been poured out into our hearts (vs. 5). “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8, NIV. God’s love gave us the cross, and our faith in His cross brings justification; and because we are justified we are in a state of objective peace with God (vs. 1). We are no longer his enemies but have been reconciled to Him and are now His friends (vs. 10). Having been justified by faith, we are actually standing in- are positioned in- the saving grace of God (vs. 2). The result is that we have “hope of the glory of God,” a hope that causes us to “exult” or rejoice (vs. 2). Our lives are full of joy, and we are “happy on our way to heaven”, as Brother Don DeWelt liked to express it. A key word here is hope. Must know that biblical hope is not like wishful thinking. “I hope I find a winning ticket for the Power Ball lottery this week”. Biblical hope is a feeling of certainty, not uncertainty, and thus is equivalent to assurance. We rejoice in the “assurance” (confidence) of the glory of God (5:2).
Paul’s point in the latter part (vs. 6-11) is to show us why is it possible to have such assurance. Specifically he says that justification by faith is a firm ground for confident hope (assurance), because the love of God that made reconciliation possible while we were still His enemies will not fail us now that we are His friends. This point is made by comparing the 2 basic transitions made by those who are saved. The first transition, from our past to our present state, is from wrath to grace; the second transition, from our present to our future state, is from grace to glory. When we think about the transition from wrath to grace, and then from grace to glory, the key question is: which of these transitions is more difficult? Answer is that the first transition is by far the more difficult. Now think about some of the definitions of grace. Unmerited favor is okay but I like, “Getting the opposite of what we deserve.” Another way of saying it, “Favor bestowed when wrath is owed.” Going from God’s enemies to God’s friends is quite a leap. It sounds impossible but the love of God found a way to make it happen! How can we doubt, then, that His love will take us through the next transition, which is much less radical by comparison?
Through faith
1 Peter 1:5 says we are protected by God’s power “through faith.” 2 things about assurance:
1. Assurance is not absolute but conditional. Certainly God’s love is unconditional, but whether we allow ourselves to continue receiving the saving power of His love is conditioned upon our continuing trust in Jesus Christ. This means that as free will creatures we have a part in maintaining our saving relationship with Christ. As long as we continue to keep our faith alive, God will keep us in His grace. If we reject God, we cut ourselves off from Him.
2. Assurance of salvation is not conditioned upon works. Faith is what keeps us safety in God’s grace, that holds us under the justifying blood of Jesus Christ. We do not have to ask ourselves whether we have “done enough” or are “good enough” to be saved. It is Christ alone who has done enough to save us; we are simply asked to believe that this is so. When we were baptized into Christ, we were baptized not just for the forgiveness of sins past, but for the forgiveness of sins period. This means that we were baptized into a continuing relationship with Jesus Christ, and we stay in this relationship- and in the state of forgiveness (justification)- as long as we continue to trust in the forgiving power of His blood.
So what?
The bottom line is this: knowing that we are justified by faith is the real key to assurance. To be justified means to be at peace with God (Romans 5:1), to be free from condemnation (Romans 8:1). To be justified by faith means that this peace and freedom are not conditioned on how good we are (works), but on our continuing trust in the all sufficient blood of Christ. Returning for a moment to Paul’s discussion of the two transitions in Romans 5:1-11, we see that our part in the first transition is summed up in the word faith. We have been justified and have crossed the canyon from wrath to grace by faith, not by works (Romans 5:1-2). Just as surely as we did not span this first gulf by any works of our own, neither will the second chasm be spanned by our works. God spans them both by his grace, and we cling to His grace by our faith.
Our assurance derives from knowing we are justified by the blood of Christ, not from our having achieved a certain level of sanctification. The question is not, “How good am I?” but “How forgiven am I?” We are 100% forgiven through our faith in the blood of Jesus Christ.
“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” Galatians 3:26, 27, NIV. Think of it this way: I have 4 sons, I love my sons and my sons love me. Do my sons disappoint me? Yes, but they are still my sons. When I die, my sons will receive an inheritance from me? (Not much so need to be thankful for God the Father’s inheritance through Jesus Christ) When we became a part of the family of God, we are a son or daughter of God. God loves us through Jesus Christ and we love God (faith). Do we disappoint God? Yes, but we are still a child of God. When we die, we will receive an inheritance from God, the inheritance of heaven. Let’s say that one of my sons no longer wants to be a part of the family. I love him but he no longer loves me. In his actions and words he disowns being a part of the family. He refuses to see his father even when his father dies. He refuses to come to the funeral and refuses any part of the inheritance of his father. Say that we are stuck with our family but we do have a choice. We can choose to forsake our family. Even though we are adopted into the family of God, we can deny the family and our Father. We can choose to forfeit our inheritance. That is quite drastic but it is possible. This is not the emphasis of this sermon, we are talking about children of God who feel like they have to earn their way, never do enough to earn God’s favor, never sure of their salvation.
Go to the prodigal son in Luke 15. In the Father’s watchful waiting for his wayward son, ready to embrace and urgent to celebrate his return, we should recognize how God looks at us. He longs for our return, not just from sin, but from the much more common thought process through which we see ourselves as needing to earn His ongoing favor and consider ourselves unworthy of being his child when we sin, when we fall short. The truth is, we were never worthy of being God’s child, and in ourselves never will be. But in Christ He has made us worthy, and sees the very righteousness of Jesus when He looks at us. So if we are looking for our worth in our obedience, we will never find it, because it isn’t there! God never intended we work to attain our worth in his eyes, but instead to work from the position of worth we have already been granted, by His grace. The oldest brother in that story completely missed the blessings and privileges of being a son, because in his thinking he always needed to work harder to be worthy of that position. How much are we like this older brother? Looking down our noses at others who have not earned their position. Have we really earned it? Much better to welcome others to the family with open arms than clenched fists
