ASSURANCE OF SALVATION

‘I KNOW …’

For several weeks we have been looking at Paul’s teaching. We have seen the assurance that he had regarding the salvation the God has given to all who believe in his Son.

In 2Timothy 1:12 Paul makes a strong statement about his own confidence:

‘…I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.’

As Paul understands it, salvation is something that is secure because it is not, never has been, and never will be, based on human effort and human qualifications. It is based wholly and solely on Jesus Christ and his sin-bearing death.

When Christians lose sight of that, and start adding anything of their own to the work of Christ as necessary to either gain or maintain salvation, it is then that assurance of salvation falls to pieces.

This lack of assurance generated by man-centred, guilt-producing corruptions and reductions of the gospel, does not mean that these people have lost their salvation; but it does mean that they have lost the joy of their salvation and their confidence in their salvation. They are living as though grace was no longer the operating principle of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, as though they were not saved. Christ and his sin-bearing death have been robbed of their power by a dependence on and focus on human obedience, spirituality and religious endeavours.

For this reason, Paul’s letters contain strong warnings against thinking that our own actions are a contributing cause of our salvation. He says:

‘As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain’ - 2 Corinthians 6:1.

‘I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!’ - Galatians 2:21.

‘I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all…. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace’ - Galatians 5:3,4.

‘See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ’ – Colossians 2:8.

By the phrase ‘the basic principles of this world’, Paul refers to our automatic human mindset, a mindset that is evident in all cultures and all human religions: that we get what we deserve, merit or earn. That by our personal merit we gain something good, and that by our personal demerit we miss out on the good and receive something bad. Its over-riding thought is ‘I’ve got to be good enough.’

Paul used to think that way. He wrote about that in Philippians 3. But he cast that mindset aside when he came to really know Jesus Christ. Prior to his encounter with the risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ, Paul had previously assessed not only himself, but also Jesus, on the basis of human merit, but he did so no longer. He stopped assessing, not only Christ, but himself and others on the basis of human merit. If anyone is ‘in Christ’, it’s a whole new world – a whole new mindset, a radically new paradigm or way of thinking. The ‘old ‘way of relating to God on the basis of merit has gone. (It never worked, in any case, because we are sinners who sin - read Romans 3:19-24; 8:1-4.) The ‘new’ way of relating to God only in and through Christ has come (2Corinthians 5:16,17).

So Paul says ‘I know …’ What does he know?

He knows who it is that he has believed: he does not believe in himself, he does not trust in himself. He believes in the Lord Jesus Christ.

He knows that Jesus Christ is able to keep his eternal destiny secure – to keep him safe right up to and including, the day of judgement.

This is his confidence. This is his assurance. This is his security. May it also be ours.

The only alternative is to trust in ourself, in our personal ability to be good enough at any and every moment - and to ignore and deny the multiple texts that expose our utter inability to do so.