Today we’ll be wrapping up this study on salvation :(. I’m not sure where we’ll go next, but I pray we’ll figure it out and get into a groove eventually. All Scripture is from the ESV Bible unless indicated. All italics within Scripture is mine.
F. Assurance of the believer
With the promise of assurance/security throughout the Bible are also warnings for believers to live lives consistent to Christian living. The ideal example of the biblical view of assurance is probably the doctrine of perseverance. The Christian is expected to—and will—persevere to the end. That is why I like this doctrine of assurance termed by yet another one of its names…the “perseverance of the saints.” This is a more accurate name for it. “The perseverance of the saints means that all those who are truly born again will be kept by God’s power and will persevere as Christians until the end of their lives, and that only those who persevere until the end have been truly born again” (source?). This definition tells us two things: First, to recap what we just discussed, assurance is given to those truly born again because they are reminded that God will protect them and they will go to heaven when they die. Second, it is clear that continuing in the Christian life is one evidence of new birth.
Jesus said, “If you abide |remain| in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn. 8:31,32a). If you continue in His Word, His teaching, if you believe what He says and live a life of obedience to His commands and persevere, that is evidence of genuine faith. “But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mk. 13:13b).
Those who eventually “fall away” (I use this saying for lack of a better one) may have given many external signs of conversion and salvation (I’ve done it myself!), but they were never truly saved, they never possessed a saving faith. Let’s take Judas Iscariot as a prime example. Here was a man that Jesus calls a devil (Jn. 6:70), and that Jesus knew had absolutely no saving faith and would betray Him (John 6:64). But the disciples did not know. Judas, for three years, was with Jesus; he must have acted like the other 11 apostles. In fact, his act was so convincing that when Jesus declared to the disciples that one of them would betray Him, the disciples didn’t all turn to Judas pointing their fingers and yelling, “How could you do this, you monster?!” No, they all asked, “Is it I?” They didn’t have a clue.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’ ” (Mt. 7:21-23). There are many people who work for Jesus—maybe they put in long hours or even years of work at church, go on missions, profess His name, or even share the gospel with others—but they really aren’t walking with Christ, just like Judas. Living in a cookie jar doesn’t make a mouse a cookie. If these people continue on without putting their trust in Jesus, Jesus will tell them, “I never knew you.” He doesn’t say, “I knew you once, but not anymore,” or “I knew you until you fell away, strayed, or backslid.” No, He says never, “I never knew you.” They were never genuine believers. As these verses show, there is more to salvation than just believing the facts about Jesus; we must trust Him, obey Him and persevere.
“When we are born from above, the dominating spirit in us is the Spirit of God; the mind of the flesh or self realization is the other. The first thing that happens in a believer’s conscious, spiritual life is a divorce between the two” (source?). Truly being born again results in a co-crucifixion as in Romans 6:6, “old self crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with” (NIV). The initial experience is a conflict on the inside, but God wins. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. …” (Gal. 2:20). “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God” (1 Jn. 3:9). You have God’s seed in you when you’re born again! You cannot be unborn. You will be changed if you’re born again, and your life will reflect that change.
If people are taught a watered down version of the truth of assurance, they are being cruelly deceived into thinking they would go to heaven if they died right now, when in fact they would be eternally separated from God and tormented by God’s wrath in hell because they never experienced regeneration. This doctrine, perseverance of the saints/assurance of salvation, should cause worry in those living sinful lives, who are “backsliding,” because the Bible shows that only those who persevere and do God’s will to the end have been truly born
again. But for those who have received the Holy Spirit, who walk holy and godly lives that God requires, for us who are truly saved, be joyful. I have the assurance that I am saved and that God can and will protect me, so I can serve Christ freely, in anything He wants me to do, without fear. That’s salvation.
There is so much more, but I will end it here for it’s getting long…again. Thanks for joining me on this study. Feel free to comment or question. I pray you have a wonderfully blessed day!
Niki Ƹ>Ï<Ʒ
No comments:
Post a Comment