ASSURANCE OF SALVATION

ROMANS #8

This statement includes three contrasts:

The present and final result – death, or eternal life.
The person responsible for that result – us (our sin), or God.
The active reason for that result – we earned it, or God gave it.

And these three contrasts define two alternative ways of relating to God:

Are we relating to God on the basis of what we deserve?
Or, are we relating to God always and only in (or through) our Lord Jesus Christ?

The gospels report how at least two different people, asked Jesus ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ One was an expert in the law (Luke 10:25); another was a ruler (Luke 18:18). Both came to Jesus locked into the common mindset that they had to do something. And Jesus gave them answers – lists of things to do – that they could not possibly do, and they balked at the impossibility of it. His answers only intensified their dilemma. He made them realise that ‘eternal life’ was even more beyond their reach than they had perceived.

They did not know that they were standing in the presence of the One who could give them, freely, the eternal life they thought they had to earn. They did not know that they were in the presence of the One who is eternal life (1John 5:20).

But is it really impossible for a human being to earn, to deserve, to merit, eternal life?

Paul has already explained in Romans that -

There is no one righteous, not even one – 3:10.
All have turned away and become worthless – 3:12.
There is no one who does good, not even one – 3:12.
Every mouth is silenced and the whole world accountable to God – 3:19.
No one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by keeping the law – 3:20.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God – 3:23.

And he explains in Galatians 3:10 that, if we relate to God on the basis of our keeping the law, then we have to keep it totally – 100% of the law, 100% of the time: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law’.

Relating to God on the basis of what is due to us gains us nothing but death, nothing but eternal separation from God – ‘the wages of sin is death’. On that basis, eternal life, life with God, is an impossibility. The apostle Peter pointed this out when he argued against binding Gentile Christians to the law: ‘…why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?’ – Acts 15:10.

And then he added – ‘No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.’ – verse 11.

Yes. The wages, the just payment, for sin, is death. But that is not the only thing that is true. There is a bigger, more powerful truth than that. A truth that has the last word – ‘the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.’ ‘He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life’ – 1John 5:12. That ‘God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life’ – John 3:16.

If you lack assurance of salvation, this question confronts you: are you trusting solely in ‘Jesus Christ our Lord’ for your acceptance with God today, and tomorrow, and the next day? Or, do you believe God’s continuing acceptance of you depends on your somehow earning, meriting or deserving it? You will never merit his love. You will never deserve what Jesus did for you on the cross. You will never earn eternal life. All you will earn is ‘death’ – the wages of sin.

But as Paul, fully aware of this impossibility, cries out first despairingly, then exultantly – ‘What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!’ – Romans 7:24, 25.

In full assurance let us all trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in him alone. For he is the one who says to us

‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light’ – Matthew 11:28 – 30.