ASSURANCE OF SALVATION

‘IN CHRIST’

There is an immense and life-changing difference between relating to God on the basis of our own actions and relating to God ‘in Christ’: the first is variable and uncertain; the second is constant and secure.

And this is perhaps the central concept that determines whether or not we have assurance of salvation: where do you see yourself?

Do you see yourself as an isolated, stand-alone individual, with God assessing your various merits and demerits?

Or, do you see yourself ‘in Christ’ – Christ who has borne in full the punishment for all your sins, and credited you with his perfect righteousness?

In 2Corinthians 5 Paul mentions several truths connected with this concept of being ‘in Christ’:

‘… one died for all, and therefore all died’ – verse 14. In his death Christ bore our sins, our guilt and our condemnation. Our sin is paid for, punished, in his death. Therefore, in terms of God’s justice, we have died (paid the penalty for our sins) in the death of Christ who died in our place under the judgement of God.

‘So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view’ – verse 16, that is, we no longer assess anyone who is ‘in Christ’ on the basis of their own actions. (The Greek text has ‘according to flesh’.)

‘…if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here!’ - verse 17, 2011 NIV. For all who are ‘in Christ’, that is for all who have received him as Lord, it’s a whole new world, a whole new ball-game, a whole new way of relating to God. No longer does God relate to us on the basis of our personal sins, but always, ever and only ‘in Christ’.

‘All this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself’ – verse 18. Instead of our sins separating us from God (see Isaiah 59:2, Colossians 1:21), God, in and through the death of Christ, has undone that separation, restoring us into an uninhibited, unimpeded relationship with himself, in which there is no more alienation, no more rejection. In Christ we have permanent access to God the Father (Ephesians 2:18).

‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them’ – verse 19. Note the core truth that Paul states about this reconciling action of God – that when God reconciles us to himself, in Christ, he no longer counts our sins against us. Paul mentions this same truth in Romans 4:8, where he quotes David (Psalm 32:2).

‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God’ – verse 21. Here Paul speaks of a powerful and amazing exchange: Christ, the righteous one, took our sins. We, the sinners, are granted his righteousness. Peter spoke of this same exchange: ‘Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God’ – 1Peter 3:18.

At the end of Paul’s explanation of this reconciliation with God on the basis of the sin-bearing death of Christ, he gives those who are ‘in Christ’ two urgent commands:

‘We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God …’ – verse 20. Paul wrote this to the believers in Corinth. They already were ‘in Christ’; they already were, from God’s perspective, reconciled to him by the death of his Son. But they were not living in the joy and the peace and the freedom of that assurance. They saw their relationship with God as still dependent on their own actions. So Paul implored them ‘Be reconciled …’ Live in the grand reality of the reconciliation with God that you already have in Christ.

‘…we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain’ – 6:1. God has already given you this amazing gift of reconciliation with himself, a grace in which he no longer holds your sin against you, a gift in which the perfect righteousness of Christ is credited to you: don’t receive it ‘in vain’ – that is, in an empty, meaningless, powerless manner that, as you see it, hasn’t altered your relationship with God at all. Rather, live every moment in the reality of this ‘new creation’, this totally new set up, in which grace reigns (Romans 5:21), in which the ‘law of sin and death’ has been forever disempowered and no longer threatens us (Romans 8:2).

To those who fear that their salvation can be lost – let Paul’s urgent command encourage you to live as one who knows they are reconciled to God – to see yourself standing in God’s presence always, ever and only in Christ. And take heed of his urgent plea not to receive God’s grace ‘in vain’.