Tag: certainty

The Struggles of the Believer (Part Six)

1 John 5:13

I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life (CSB).

Our current study is about the struggles that a real follower of the Lord Jesus can face. First, we established this fact and discussed the struggle with fear. In our previous two posts, we began to answer the question, “What should you do if you are not sure that you are saved?” Time only permitted us to give two answers. The first was to examine yourself to see if you are really a follower of Christ. We saw that the God requires a true repentance toward him and a true belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. The second was to realize that true believers might struggle about their assurance. So we presented three proofs that true believers do struggle about assurance, and then four selected causes that contribute to this struggle. The fourth cause was “cracks” in the pillars or bases of assurance. What they are, and what we must tend to is the subject of this and the next posts.

Learn the Biblical teaching about assurance. There are three bases or pillars on which your assurance (not your salvation!) rests. Suppose you asked me to prove that I am married to Sharon Ann Frampton. I could find a copy of the signed marriage license, or I could produce her to testify that I am married to her, or I could just smile and say, “I said vows of marital love to her and I heard her say vows of marital love to me.” That is what these three pillars or supports of assurance are like.

First is the support of the promises of God. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him (1 John 5:1 ESV). God’s promises call us to rest on his truthfulness (Titus 1:2) and his faithfulness (Lamentations 3:23). Being convinced by the Spirit, we trust in the Lord. Jesus said, “Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37 CSB; cf. John 3:16; 5:24). John is saying in 1 John 5:1 that we can know that we have been born of God because we believe that Jesus is the Christ.

  • In the inner person of every believer God the Holy Spirit has planted a deep conviction about God and his truth. There is something that happens inside the heart that provides a certain amount of certainty that there is a God and that his word is final authority. I think that this is what the Reformers meant when they talked about the assurance of true faith.
  • Though I doubt that any true believer can lose that certainty, it is obvious that most or perhaps all believers struggle with doubts and questions at some time, not so much about God’s promises, but about whether or not they trust the Lord. Since we are not perfect in understanding and our minds sometimes drift, sin can take advantage of our limitations and weaknesses to produce doubts about God and his word. At that point, we must ask for the Spirit’s help, pick up his sword (the word of God), and put those doubts to death.

Many new believers struggle when someone asks them, “How do you know that the Bible is God’s Word?” And when they cannot convince the skeptic, they begin to question their own faith. The apostle is advising us, “Take a look at the marriage license! Go back to whom you believe in—Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Exercise a fresh faith in him.”

As we grow in faith and understanding, we come to know a number of truths that contribute to our assurance. Let’s think of a few.

  • God’s power preserves his people. And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns (Philippians 1:6 NLT; cf. 1 Peter 1:5; Jude 1:24).
  • Christ’s blood has purchased our eternal salvation. The Lord Jesus entered the most holy place once for all time, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12 CSB).
  • We are in the risen and ascended Christ. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:4-7 ESV).
  • We are sealed by the Spirit to the day of redemption. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30 NIV).

In this way, the truths that we nickname “the doctrines of grace” contribute to a full assurance. As we spiritually comprehend all that we have by the free grace of the gospel, we rejoice! Joy in the Lord leads us through struggles into peace and confident expectation.

Grace and peace, David

The result of the mission of the Servant of the Lord

DSCN0110Isaiah 42:3c, 4b

The Servant established justice. Jesus the Messiah acts in a big theater of operations: “on earth”. For nearly 1800 years, it looked like Jesus was only at work in western Asia, Europe, North America, and northern Africa for a time. Then suddenly, he started to shine his light in other places for about the next 200 years. Now, all around the world people from every tribe and language are coming to the Lord and Savior, Jesus. We live in great days of the progress of the mission. We need to abandon our local, provincial interests and praise the Lord for what he is doing in the world today. Certainly, the darkness is dark, but the true Light is shining and more and more people have received the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:6). We should shake off the gloom and get involved in Jesus’ mission, as the early apostles did (Acts 5:41-42; 13:46-52).

Christ told Peter that he would build his church (Mt 16:18). This prophecy expresses that same certainty. His justice will be brought to earth, because God’s appointed goal is to make a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1-2; 22:1-5) to share with his new creation people.

The Servant of the Lord established hope. The idea of the Hebrew word is “to wait” or “to hope”. The word can mean either. Here I think the second is better because of Matthew’s use of hope in his use of the Septuagint (LXX) translation of Isaiah (Matthew 12:21). The islands, the most remote places of the earth, will have hope or confident expectation. The eternal inheritance his people share in him provides them with a certain basis to expect much more than they could have in this world that is destined to pass away. Let us live as people with an eternal destiny ought to live. To be specific, this means that we will need to invest time in setting our thoughts on things above. Reread and meditate on Colossians 3:1-4. This requires us to meditate on what we have in Christ, including what we will surely have in heaven. We must strengthen your heart with these things!

The basis of this is the Servant’s instruction (torah). One of the great truths of the Gospels is that Jesus is the great Prophet or Teacher. His instruction becomes a crucial part of our hope, which restructures our world and life view. We now are to think of ourselves, our lives, and our share eternity with the living God in conformity with Christ’s instruction. Since he is the fulfillment of the old torah, his new torah, given through him and his apostles and prophets by the Holy Spirit becomes our torah. He is God’s final revelation (Hebrews 1:1-2); he is the Word or Message. His instruction about God’s saving reign becomes the basis for our hope. He has revealed the Father (John 17:6-8). Believing his message is the way to life (John 5:24). To believe his instruction means the difference between eternal wisdom and eternal foolishness (Matthew 7:24-27). Don’t be foolish! Let’s build our lives on Christ and his instruction!

Grace and peace, David