Category Archives: Scripture

Lessons on Prayer from 1 Samuel 1

Posted by on August 28, 2011 No comments

1 Samuel 1

1There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephrathite. 2He had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

3Now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the LORD. 4On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters. 5But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the LORD had closed her womb. 6And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her womb. 7So it went on year by year. As often as she went up to the house of the LORD, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. 8And Elkanah, her husband, said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?”

9After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the LORD. 10She was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly. 11And she vowed a vow and said, “O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”

12As she continued praying before the LORD, Eli observed her mouth. 13Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman. 14And Eli said to her, “How long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you.” 15But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the LORD. 16Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.” 17Then Eli answered, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.” 18And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.

19They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the LORD; then they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the LORD remembered her. 20And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, “I have asked for him from the LORD.”

Recently reading this, I was struck by the way Hannah prayed…

I read the first two paragraphs (v1-8) as a backdrop of the following couple of paragraphs. Even at the very beginning of the book in the second verse, we find a pretty blunt description of what’s going on: “Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.”

In the verses that follow, we find more on Hannah’s circumstances: Elkanah loved Hannah, and gave her a double portion on the day of the sacrifice (v5). On the other hand, Hannah experienced some emotional trauma when “her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her womb” (v6). This was an annual thing–Hannah endured year after year of provocation, which led her to such sadness that she “wept and would not eat” (v7).

Imagine being continuously tormented like Hannah was. She was (at this time) barren, and was provoked because of it. The interesting thing is that her physical condition was not something she had any particular control over–”the LORD had closed her womb.” This must have been pretty emotionally traumatic for Hannah. But how did she respond?

We find in verse 10 that “[s]he was deeply distressed and prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly.” Read her prayer:

11 And she vowed a vow and said, “O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.

It was curious to me that she would say “if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant…” And she eventually confesses that “[she had] been speaking out of [her] great anxiety and vexation” (v16).

Matt Chandler commented once that it is in God’s mercy that he would allow us a “thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor. 12:6-8) for the sake of our humility. And this is certainly the case in Hannah’s situation. She was barren and emotionally traumatized, but she brought her trouble humbly before the Lord, petitioning for a child according to his will, while promising to be faithful. Eventually she left convinced of God’s faithfulness, and “went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad” (v18).

When we have requests, let us bring it humbly to the Lord, asking them according to his will, promising to be faithful no matter the circumstance. And let us be convinced of God’s faithfulness–we can be assured that “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

It seems that rather soon, God provides Hannah with a child. How does she respond? She commends it to the Lord. She says, “I have asked for him from the LORD” (v20).

When God responds to our requests, let us commend it to the Lord, again remembering that “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday

Posted by on April 16, 2011 No comments

The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”

John 12:12-19

Sometimes they strew His way,
And His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King:
Then “Crucify!” is all their breath,
And for His death they thirst and cry.

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, marking Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem and to his betrayal. How do you imagine this picture of Christ’s humility? That he our King would ride to his suffering and his death upon the back of a donkey, all while being lauded by the same people who would later demand his crucifixion.

Q. 27. Wherein did Christ’s humiliation consist?
A. Christ’s humiliation consisted in his being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross; in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time.

Holiness and the Knowledge of God

Posted by on March 1, 2011 1 comment

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Genesis 3:4-6

At the root of the first sin was a lack of faith in the faithfulness of God: Eve, on Satan’s urging, disbelieved what God has said about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And even beyond that, she betrayed a lack of trust in God’s very goodness, for she believed Satan’s lie that God had intentionally misled Adam and Eve, withholding from them a good gift out of jealousy, or fear. If Eve had really known God’s character and nature, believing Him to be the good, true God–and the all-powerful, all-sufficient God–that he really is, she would not have sinned against Him by eating the fruit.

And the same applies to us: the surest safeguard against sin is to believe by faith as a matter of first importance that God is who He has revealed Himself to be (in His Word). If you want to be more holy, learn to know God better.

Don’t Waste Your Christmas, pt.2

Posted by on December 25, 2010 3 comments

These are some meditations on the significance of the Incarnation from John 1:1-18 (full text posted here). For a semi-introduction to why I picked John for my Christmas meditation, see this post.

(4) In him was life, and the life was the light of men. (5) The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it….(9)The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

“in him was life”: It’s easy, at least for me, to just brush over phrases like these assuming I know what they mean, but never really stopping to consider exactly how they work out. What does it mean for life–an abstract concept and yet our most concrete reality–to be in something or someone? It sounds sort of like Life is contained inside of the Word, like when we say that there is water in a container. But then, we also say that there is water in the ocean, and what do we mean by that other than that the ocean is composed of water, that the substance of the ocean is water. And so in that sense, the Word not only contains life, but he is Life. And thus from him also flows Life.
“the light of men”: The metaphor John introduces here seems a little strange at first, but let’s think together for a second about what could be the significance of the Life of the Word being the light of men. First of all, without light, everything dies. If the sun ceased to shine, the world would cease to function. And if the light of men did not come into the world, so would the world cease to function. Secondly, without light we can perceive nothing, and thus we are totally blind. And when we can see nothing, we can know nothing. If the light of men did not come into the world, we would be spiritually floating around in a pitch-black vacuum, with no reality to cling to. And so we see that darkness–the absence of light–is presented here as a metaphor for death.
“the light shines in the darkness”: But the opposite of darkness is light, and the beautiful thing about this contrast is that dark and light are not equal powers vying for control. In fact, dark is no substance at all, but wherever the light shines, there is darkness totally defeated.
“the true light…was coming into the world”: When the Word, whose life is the light of men, came into the world, darkness was crushed in a single blow. Perhaps we have not yet seen all the effects of this victory yet; perhaps there are still shadows and unlit corners of our world; perhaps our vision is still dull and dim, as the clouds of our fallen world hide the direct light of the sun. And yet–and yet–Light has won, and one day very soon the triumph will be complete. But even now, the coming of the kingdom of light has been inaugurated. With light, there IS life. With life, we CAN see. The presence of light is the absence of death.

(16) And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

This is one of the greatest, if not the single greatest mystery of the Incarnation: that we–rebels, enemies, God-haters; homeless, helpless, hopeless–that we “should gain from his reward”. Just take a minute to let this soak into your heart and mind. The Word became flesh for us. Now that is incredible.

(14) And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have see his glory, glory as of the Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

“the Word became flesh”: Oh, may this never cease to blow our minds every time we read or hear or think about this! May we never lose the wonder of Immanuel–God with us!
“and we have seen his glory”: But the mystery does not end there. For God did not come to us in some ethereal, only spiritual way. He was not just “in the midst of us” as he was with Israel in the cloud and fire, or in the ark, or through the prophets. He was here with us AS ONE OF US! But more than that, he was not just here in the physical sense. Christ did not give up his Godhood when he came to earth, nor was his glory somehow lessened when he put on flesh. But think about what this verse means when it says “we have seen his glory”. In the Word become flesh, the Glory of God was clothed in flesh not to hide it, but to reveal it!

(18) No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

In the Word become flesh, man can literally see God. We can finally truly know God. In the Incarnation, God is no longer to us merely the Force that created and sustains the universe, but a Person. A Person that the disciples could see and touch and hear, and a Person that even now we can interact with and love and be loved by and communicate with–that we can really know. Had God not become a Man, we would never have been able to know him; but not only that, we would never have been able to know Reality. In the Incarnation, God bridged the uncrossable chasm between the physical world we breath in and the spiritual world our souls inhabit. When the Word became flesh, he restored the marriage between soul and body which was broken by the Fall–something we could never have done on our own.

Without the Incarnation, we are not only doomed to eternal Hell because of our sins, but all of creation would have remained under the dominion of darkness, which is death. Without the Incarnation, even the sun would not rise. But praise be to God that the Sun has risen indeed, and he has come with healing in his wings.

Merry Christmas and glory in the highest to Emmanuel!

John 1:1-18

Posted by on December 24, 2010 1 comment

As I thought a little bit more about the first chapter of John, I realized that perhaps it would be better to just post the first 18 verses, and let you meditate on them yourself, and let them sink into your mind and heart, before I try to share my limited view of them. So I’ll post some aids for meditation tomorrow (Christmas morning), but for now I strongly encourage you to take some time to read through and think about this introduction to John’s history of Jesus life and ministry. I think you will find it rewarding, as I have.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Don’t Waste Your Christmas

Posted by on December 23, 2010 1 comment

I’m going to suggest something that most people would probably consider somewhat outlandish. I’m going to suggest that this Christmas we not focus on trying to retell all the details of the Christmas stories–angels and shepherds and wise men and all that. And in fact, I’m going to go so far as to suggest that we not give our attention in any serious degree to any of the narrative surrounding the birth, or the even the life, of Jesus.

Instead, here’s what I recommend for us to do this Christmas as we celebrate what this year is all about: let’s read John’s introduction to his gospel (chapter one, verses one through eighteen), taking it in phrase by phrase, and stew on the profound truth of the Incarnation that John expounds so brilliantly and elegantly, yet so simply.

Thinking about the Incarnation from the narrative perspective can be very helpful, because the story reveals many facets of God’s character and His love for us. We see in the virgin birth God’s sovereign and omnipotent hand; we see in the dirty manger God’s utter disregard for the world’s value system; we see in the helpless infant Jesus the unfathomable paradox of the Vulnerable Almighty. And there is so much more. But if you grew up in church like most of us here at Mere, the Christmas story, and even its more profound applications, can easily fade into tradition and rote regurgitation of something we think we already understand. And the minute we begin to think, even subconsciously, that we understand Emmanuel–the minute we lose our awe at the concept of the God Man–we have at that moment lost the significance of Christmas. And when our Christmas celebrations get reduced to tradition and unthinking liturgy, we have totally wasted the immeasurable riches implicit in the Christmas holiday. The whole purpose of Christmas is to help us to meditate on the wonder of the Incarnation, and if we get so lost in the Christmas story (not to mention gifts and parties and “holiday cheer”) that we forget to meditate on God-with-us, we have wasted Christmas.

For that reason, I suggest that we try to think about the Incarnation a different way this year, and really devote ourselves to meditate on its mystery, and what it means for us, for the world, for the church, and even for the whole universe. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I’ll post some of my thoughts on a few different parts of John chapter one which I hope might help us to consider anew some aspects of the Incarnation that are often overlooked. And ultimately, my prayer is like Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians (found in Ephesians 3:14-21), that we might better comprehend the love of God.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

…and the Word became flesh…

Posted by on December 21, 2010 1 comment

In the beginning was the Word…

Have you ever stopped to consider this opening sentence of John’s Gospel, not from a literary or historical or philosophical or doctrinal or hermeneutical perspective, but simply thinking of John as a real person, a regular fisherman from Galilee, when he first sat down to write his gospel? I can just imagine him pacing distractedly across a room, a younger disciple sitting by attentively, waiting to take down John’s dictation. The words are swirling through his head, on the tip of his tongue but ever so elusive–like minnows scatter when your hand touches the water, and just when you think you’ve got one in your grasp it slips away…–and then finally. He spins around on his heel and begins, quickly: “in the beginning” (a quite unoriginal phrase, perhaps, but a fitting echo of Genesis 1) then pauses for a moment, as if to let the importance of what he is about to dictate sink into his own mind. Then slowly but confidently he exhales: “was the Word”. And after that first monumental sentence he resumes his pacing and his dictating, but this time more slowly–and more deliberate–as the thoughts begin to coalesce in his mind, stilling–like ripples in calm water quickly fade into peace: “…and the Word was with God, and God was the Word…*”.

Or maybe that’s not how it happened. Maybe there was no scribe after all, and John was sitting at a table, parchment spread out, writing utensil in hand, carefully choosing his words. Or maybe the thinking was all already done–it had been stewing in his mind for years and years–so that one day he sat down and without hesitation penned the whole book at once. I don’t know how it happened. And most likely I never will. But as we approach Christmas–the day we set aside to celebrate and remember the beauty of the Incarnation–Emmanuel–I can think of nothing more fitting than to consider the wonder and reverence and ecstasy that the disciples must have had when they thought back on that great mystery which they were blessed to behold, and to live with, and walk beside, and listen to, and love.

Let us not waste this Christmas by leaning on old platitudes about “Jesus birthday” and “silent nights” and all such unhelpful, if not totally untrue sayings. Rather, let us steep ourselves in meditation on the dirty, sublime, incomprehensible, certain, bloody, divine mystery of GOD WITH US. And may we ever kneel in awe-struck worship before the newborn King–Son of God, Son of Man: Emmanuel.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Assurance of Salvation (Part 3)

Posted by on May 26, 2010 2 comments

[If you haven't yet read Part 1 and Part 2, please do.  For your sake and mine.]

Recently I’ve been reading through the book of Hebrews, a book often used by those who believe you can “lose your salvation” as scriptural support, because it contains several exhortations for those in the visible church (in Rome) to make sure not to fall away, with the surface implication that it is possible for those who are truly regenerate to not be saved in the end. Understandably, this book can present somewhat of a challenge to those who believe in the doctrine of assurance. However, I’ve been studying the book with Dr. George Guthrie’s commentary on Hebrews (NIVAC series), and he does a very good job of illuminating the true meaning of the text and it’s implications to the doctrine of assurance without bending over backward to accommodate crooked theology or blindly taking these passages out of context of the teachings of the rest of scripture (a concept I talked about in Part 1). So I want to share the perspective he presents (though if I say something totally wrong, don’t hold him accountable–it’s probably me not understanding him).

I think the first thing to note from the many exhortations in Hebrews (i.e 2:1, 3:12-13, 4:1, 6:4-6, 6:11-12), is that it is both fitting and beneficial to encourage Christians to beware lest they fall away. This may seem obvious, since the author of Hebrews himself does it so many times (I just named a few), but I think it is easy for us to get so caught up in the doctrine of assurance that whenever we see/hear of those who claim to be Christians wavering in their faith we jump straight to giving assurance of salvation. But the author of Hebrews clearly does not do that; rather, he boldly and confrontationally commands the Christians in Rome to examine their hearts to see if indeed they are in Christ (3:13-14) and to hold firmly to the faith, thus proving their salvation. So if we want to be biblical in our teaching, we ought to encourage those who are doubting and wavering to hold on–an act of the will.

However, we must be careful in what way we encourage and what motivation we give for holding firm. So let’s look at what the author of Hebrews does.

  • His first exhortation, in 2:1, is to “pay careful attention…lest we drift away from [the Gospel]“, which he follows up by saying that since the new message–that of salvation in Christ–is so superior to the old message–that of partial knowledge of God through the Law–how could we not listen? I think this is often misinterpreted, where he says “how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation” (v.3): he is not saying that we should be fearful if we ignore God now (he does imply that later on), but rather, something more like “this is our last hope, our only chance at salvation–there is no longer something greater to look forward to”. So the motivation he gives for holding fast is simply that Christ is our only hope.
  • His second exhortation, in 3:12, is “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God”. Notice what he says: “Take care lest you have (present tense) an evil heart, which will lead you (future tense) away from God”. So here he establishes that the reason why “Christians” fall away is that their heart is evil and unbelieving–and was all along– like those in the desert who disobeyed God and could not enter His rest. So here the author of Hebrews encourages those in the church to examine their hearts to see if they are really regenerate, in case they aren’t really “saved” after all, because unbelief is what prohibits people from “entering God’s rest”. And this is emphasized in 4:1, where he says “let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it”. Or to say it another way, let us fear lest we get to the end of our lives and realize that we were fakes after all, and though we heard the good news, the message did not benefit us because we did not combine it with faith (v.2). So the outward manifestation of unbelief is eventually leaving the visible church and failing to persevere to the end under persecution or doubt (cf. I John 2:19).
  • Next, the author of Hebrews in 6:4-6 appeals to the goodness and beauty of Christ, and reveals how offensive falling away is in God’s sight, and how bad of a sin it is. He writes that “it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened…and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God…and holding Him up to contempt”.* Notice what the author of Hebrews is doing here. He reminds the church at Rome of the precious value of the blood of Jesus, and “how much it cost/to see our sin upon the cross”. He causes his audience to bring to mind how gracious and merciful God was in sending His Son to be crucified, and how undeserving and ungrateful and disrespectful we were/are with that gift, and thus how much we owe and how much we ought to love and cling to Him. So the motivation presented here is gratitude for God’s mercy and the fear of further offending our gracious Savior.
  • Finally, in verses seven and eight of chapter six, the author brings in the fear of judgment due to a lack of fruitfulness. He reminds the church that “you can tell a tree by it’s fruit” (Mat 7:15-20), and that “every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Mat 3:10), urging them to “bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Mat 3:8). But notice that while this final exhortation before he begins his exposition on the high priesthood of Jesus and the superiority of the New Covenant is very harsh, it is not damning. Because he follows up the confrontation with affirmation, stating that “in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation”. So while the author warns and admonishes and exhorts the struggling church in Rome to examine themselves to be sure that they are truly saved, he encourages them with assurance that they are! It is a very strange paradox indeed, but one which we must believe, and preach, if we want to be biblical.

So here are my conclusions for how to treat doubt either in our own lives or in others. (1) We must examine ourselves–hearts and lives–to see if we are truly saved. (2) We must encourage ourselves to hold fast and persevere through both suffering and doubt. (3) Christ is our only hope; if we cling to anything or anyone else for assurance, we will be standing on shifting sand, and in the end our lack of faith in Christ will become painfully obvious.

Brothers and sisters, as we look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, throwing off the sin which clings so closely and all else that would hinder us from holding fast our confession.

*I’m quite aware that this is perhaps one of the more controversial passages in the New Testament, especially as it relates to the doctrine of assurance, and that I don’t actually tackle any interpretation here. But that’s because I don’t quite feel studied up on it enough to do it any semblance of justice. So give me a couple weeks, and then I’ll post an addendum or something with my take on how to make sense of the passage (though don’t expect anything original–I’ll probably just regurgitate Guthrie or Dr. Howell or something).

Assurance of Salvation (Part 2)

Posted by on May 22, 2010 No comments

[Please read Part 1, if you have not yet, so that you don't take me out of context.  I think it will serve us both.  Thanks.]

Though I may try to act strong on the outside much of the time, I am very familiar with doubt and can very much relate to the Caedmon’s Call song that says “My faith is like shifting sand, so I stand on grace”. And most often I question not necessarily whether God is real or not, but whether I am real or not–that is, if I am really regenerate after all, or if I’ve been just playing the game the whole time. And so the doctrine of assurance is important to me, because often it is all I have to cling to, that “He who began a good work in me will bring it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus” (Phi 1:6). But there is something I’ve learned: asking the question “Am I a Christian?” is not a simple, quick exercise that has an easy answer, but rather, must involve intense self-examination and self-scrutiny, to see if your heart has truly been changed. There are several things on which you should absolutely not base your assurance: whether you feel God’s presence or not, whether you are a good person or not, and especially whether you prayed a prayer one time or not. All of those things are superficial, subjective, and very unreliable measures of one’s Christian-ness, and also quite unbiblical. So what should you base your assurance on? First let’s define what exactly it means to be a Christian.

When I say “Christian”, or “saved”, what I really mean is one who has been delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred into the Kingdom of His beloved Son (Col 1:13), who has been regenerated and renewed by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5), who shares in the heavenly calling (Heb 3:1), and who will one day be presented blameless before the glorious presence of God (Jude v24). But perhaps the main characteristic of a Christian is that he/she has “seen the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (II Cor 4:3), and has to come to see Christ as beautiful. Or as the late Keith Green so aptly said it, “a Christian is someone who is bananas for Jesus”. A Christian has tasted and seen (Ps 34:8) that all things are loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord (Phi 3:8).

Thus, the way to know if you are a Christian is to examine your heart and see what exactly it is you treasure (Mat. 6:21). Now don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying to test your emotions to see if you feel love for God; I mean you must look deep within yourself and test your heart of hearts. Ask yourself if you truly hate sin(Rom 7:15), or if you just feel guilt based on social pressure. Ask yourself if you really find rest and strength from God’s Word (Ps 1:1-2), or if you just want knowledge to impress people. Ask yourself if you actually care about people (Mat 22:39), or if you just serve and pretend so that you’ll feel better on the inside. And if you want a basis for this type of self-examination, look to Paul’s example in Romans 7, where he talks of his conflicting desires–his longing to do good but his flesh’s tendency to do evil–but then concludes “Who will save me from this body of death? Praise be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!”. So if you can relate to Romans 7–if you find yourself in sin, but hate it in your heart–hope in Christ, for He will save you from your body of death. Your soul has already been redeemed, and your heart is currently being changed, and one day your flesh also will be restored to perfection.

But such a test, when we are in the midst of spiritual dryness, can also be misleading. And so there is another way in which we can have assurance that we are Jesus sheep (John 10), and it’s founded in Philippians 1:6, which I’ve already quoted/referenced several times, that “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus”. If we want to know if God will bring us to completion, we can look back and see whether or not He has begun a good work–if we are no longer who we were. There are some outer behaviors which man can change on his own power, but only God can change a heart, and so if we want tangible evidence of our own regeneration, we can look to where we came from and where we are now. This has sustained me in many a dry season, when deadened by my hardness of heart and desensitized to sin in my life I nearly convinced myself that I did not even love God in my heart of hearts. But looking back on the arrogance and lack of self-control and abundance of self-centeredness that used to fill my heart an mind, and seeing the progress that God has made (though there’s still much further to go) gives me hope the He’s not finished with me yet, and more significantly that He is indeed working on me. And so I trust not in my own works, nor in my own goodness, nor even in my own faith, but only in Christ’s blood, poured out for me on the cross. And the blood of Christ is good enough assurance for me.

Next we’ll deal with how to stay true to the Bible while talking about the doctrine of assurance.

Assurance of Salvation (Part 1)

Posted by on May 21, 2010 4 comments

[For your convenience I've linked all my Scripture references to the appropriate passages on esv.org, so do yourself the favor and take the time to check them out, and be like the noble Bereans who made sure that what they were taught matched up with God's Word.]

So I’ve tried several different ways to intro this, but I can’t find anything that works, so we’ll just dive in. I want to talk about three different aspects of the doctrine of the assurance of salvation: (1)the biblical basis for the doctrine of assurance, (2) who can have assurance, and (3) the practical application of the doctrine.

So let’s tackle the biblical basis. I want to start with a slight caveat. I very much dislike the phrasing “once saved, always saved”. I think the language of this phrase is very unbiblical, because rarely do the apostles refer to being “saved” as something that happens on earth. Most of the times that word is used, it is within the phrase “you will be saved”, not “you are saved”. When the New Testament authors refer to the state of a person’s heart in the here and now, they use words and phrases like “in Christ”, “saints”, “those who are called”, “regeneration”, etc. Salvation most often refers to salvation from the future wrath to come (at death); so when you ask “can I lose my salvation”, well of course not, because you don’t have it now–but it’s very possible that you may not get it. So anways, back to the topic at hand. Kind of.

There are two ways to approach any issue: the doctrinal basis and the strictly Scriptural basis. In other words, you can develop a general, comprehensive belief system and argue from there, or you can open to specific texts and argue from there. But I would submit that you absolutely must do both. For to only argue from doctrine is to stand on the authority of men’s logic, but to argue only from isolated texts is to miss the broader context of the rest of the Bible. And also, if you only do one but not the other, you can’t really argue with the other side, because both sides have their own doctrines to argue from which are equally logical, and both sides have their own texts that they work from to prove a point which are equally inspired. If you want to really be able to hold a good discussion with the opposition, you have to be able to show that your doctrine makes better sense of the Bible both as a whole and in specific texts. And if you really want to interpret and apply Scripture well, you must be able to understand the specific meaning in the larger context.

So here’s how all that applies to the doctrine of assurance (finally). Those who believe that there is no assurance of salvation offered to Christians very often point to texts such as Hebrews 3 and 6, Rom 2:6-7, Rev 2:10,3:5, and others which emphasize human responsibility and seem to imply conditions upon the surety of our salvation. Or sometimes, those who reject assurance will also argue from the more abstract/logic level, saying that if “once saved, always saved” is true, then it takes away all incentive for holy living and gives license for sin (which, I might point out, Paul addresses in Romans 6, but that’s beside the point). Conversely, those who support the doctrine of assurance bring up passages like Rom 8:31-39, John 10:28-29, 1 John 2:19, Phi 1:6 and other verses that emphasize the inexorable love of God and his promise to save us completely. Likewise, those who preach assurance also tend to debate from the abstract/logic side, saying things like “if we couldn’t do anything to save ourselves in the first place, then how can we do anything to lose it?”. So on both sides you have good logic and plenty of textual support, but obviously one of them has to be right and the other has to be wrong. Either you can or you cannot “lose your salvation”–there is no middle ground.

But the answer, I believe, can only be found by looking at what Scripture says at a whole, and what each passage is really about in context, of itself and of the rest of the Bible. And at this point it would take WAY too long for me to try to walk through all of Scripture and try to show you why I have become convinced that God is sovereign over all things, including salvation (Rom 9:15-16), and that He is the active agent even in the hearts of men (Phi 2:13), so while those in the visible church may not really be regenerate(1 John 2:19), those who truly are in Christ by faith(Rom 3:21-22) will one day enter His rest (Heb 4). But I would love to sit down and talk through it, and/or recommend books and sermons. It’s not just enough to know the right things–you have to be able to understand why, and be able to interpret Scripture for yourself, or else at the first surface challenge you might be misled or shaken in your faith. So I challenge you, if you’ve just always believed in the doctrine of assurance, but could not defend it from both a doctrinal and scriptural angle, dig in. It’s well worth the effort, and along the way you will learn a lot about who God is and what it means to be a Christian.

Next we’ll look at the question “How can I be sure that I will be saved?”