Mere Reflections

[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).

[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.

[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?”

Psalm 13:1-2
How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Isaiah 1: 4-6
Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.
Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil.

It’s easy to ask the question “How long, O Lord?!”. It’s easy to cry out in desperation to God because we just don’t feel His presence, or just can’t defeat a certain sin, or just don’t see any change in a friend’s life. It’s easy to question and wonder and accuse God when the season is dry, or the times are stormy, or the road is hard. It comes naturally to us–just ask the nation of Israel.

But I think if we could stop our questions, or really more like complaints, I think we would hear God saying in reply: “How long? How long will you continue to live in rebellion? How long will you continue to try to hide your injuries from me? Come to me and be restored! Come to me and be healed!”. Oh, if only we would stop and listen to God’s voice, revealed in His Word and spoken within in by His Spirit. Jesus cries out to His Church “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” (Mat. 23), and yet we continue despising the messengers He sends and disregarding the His voice. He cries out to us, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Mat. 11). He graciously offers, “whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4). He promises “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15). And He confidently assures us, ” Go and make disciples… [for] behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mat. 28).

And yet most of the time we refuse to rest in Him. We long for His comfort, but refuse to run into His arms. We beg for Him to speak, but never listen for His voice or read His words. We pray for Him to move, but are unwilling to be His hands and feet. We yearn to feel a passion for His name, and yet go whoring after temporary pleasure instead.

Perhaps when we pray “God, hallowed be your Name in my heart–set your holy Name apart within me so that I glory only in You”, perhaps then God is saying to us “Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel?”.
Maybe the reason we don’t have joy in our lives is because we are neglecting to fight the sin in our lives. Sin steals our joy, and unrepentant sin steals our faith. Let us run to our God, for He can and will supply all our needs according His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. And et us put on our armor, and stand in the strength of Christ, and fight for our joy.

I highly, highly recommend John Piper’s sermon called “The Fight For Joy”. Other than Don’t Waste Your Life, this is the most life-altering thing I’ve ever gleaned from Piper. I listen to this sermon probably once every three or four months to remind myself of the things he teaches in that sermon. If we could follow the principles and suggestions he gives in the sermon, we would be so much stronger, so much more mature, so much closer to Christ than we can even imagine. I don’t know where it is online, but I’ll talk to Riley and try to find a way to make the mp3 available. I’ll let you know when I get it.

This is the song I wrote based on Nehemiah 9 (obviously). Lyrics below.

God of our fathers and all of creation
Perfect in all of Your ways
Blessing and honor and glory and power
Belong to Your glorious Name

Through all our history You have been faithful to
Guide us and save us from harm
You have proved stronger than all our oppressors
(by) The pow’r of Your mighty right arm

As it once was, now let it be (we cry…)

Oh, let it be known: that you are the Lord of all of creation
Oh, let it be seen: that you have the strength to make everything whole
Oh, let it be plain: that you are the author of every salvation
Oh, let it be known: that you have the power to melt away, to melt this cold heart of stone

Lord, You continued in covenant love for us
Though we despised your commands
O’er and again we rebelled in our arrogance
Spurning the gifts from Your hands

Free from chains but bound by sin
So You broke us to heal us again (so we cried)

Oh, let it be known: that you are the Lord of all of creation
Oh, let it be seen: that you have the strength to make everything whole
Oh, let it be plain: that you are the author of every salvation
Oh, let it be known: that you have the power to melt away, to melt this cold heart of stone

Here we are now once again crying out to You:
“God, don’t You see our distress?”
Enslaved by a foreign king, taunted by enemies
Here where You promised us rest

(But) Lord, we believe that there is no disease
That the touch of Your hand cannot heal
Lord we declare that no demon can dare
Show his face before the Throne’s rightful Heir
Lord we proclaim that no shackles or chains
Are too strong for Your power to break
Jesus we trust in the power of Your blood
To bring healing to all of our pain

Oh, let it be known: that you are the Lord of all of creation
Oh, let it be seen: that you have the strength to make everything whole
Oh, let it be plain: that you are the author of every salvation
Oh, let it be known: that you have the power to melt away, to melt our cold hearts of stone

Let me say first of all that this is a topic that has been floating around in the back of my mind lately. It surfaces when I’m not doing much or when I’m working on a graphic design project that doesn’t take much thought. Some of my best thinking comes that way…ha. But anyway, here’s the question: What do I think about the doctrine of election? I mean, (as Trey so eloquently said of me) I’m a universalist in that I want everybody to go to heaven, but not in that I believe everybody will go to heaven. More recently I’ve been of the thinking along the lines of this quote from the end of an article written by Shane Claiborne to non-Christians:

In closing, to those who have closed the door on religion — I was recently asked by a non-Christian friend if I thought he was going to hell. I said, “I hope not. It will be hard to enjoy heaven without you.” If those of us who believe in God do not believe God’s grace is big enough to save the whole world… well, we should at least pray that it is.

(Read the rest of this article here for an interesting point of view to consider from a very legit, if a little extreme, Christian.*) Not so much of the “It will be hard to enjoy heaven without you,” part, though it definitely pains me thinking about friends I have and other people who won’t be in heaven (all the better reason to live out Christ’s love and forgiveness), I’m guessing I won’t be concerned with much else than God. I’m more talking about the last sentence. I’m of the mindset that I should believe that God’s grace is big enough to save the whole world and pray that God will use me and every other Christian to help that be accomplished.

I was fairly conflicted with my line of thinking I’d been following in my mind and the doctrine of election that is so prevalent in the Christians that I know personally until I read a post the other day that made perfect sense to me. This is what John Piper posted about election, and it’s the best way I’ve heard it explained so far:

Is it a sin to dislike the doctrine of election?

It’s sin not to like the true doctrine of election. It’s sin not to like what God likes.

I want to say it like that because many people have conceptions of doctrines—all kinds of doctrines—that are inaccurate. And therefore their good hearts dislike them.

So you could say, “I dislike election,” and be a good person, because you don’t see election clearly. And what you’re disliking should be disliked. Or you may be a person who is starting to see it clearly and your old self, which is bad, is rising up and not liking what ought to be liked.

So I don’t know whether this person should be chastised or not. The principle would be, “To the degree that you see biblical truth clearly, you should like it.”

Hell is a biblical truth. So when I say, “You should like hell,” what I mean is that you should like it the way God does.

God, it says, “is not willing that any should perish.” God “does not delight in the death of the wicked.” God “afflicts us, but not from his heart” (Lamentations 3). So there is in God himself a willing that hell be and a liking that it exists in that big picture. And yet he grieves over sending anybody there.

So the word “like” is just a little bit difficult here, because you’re going to have to do double perspectives again.

If God ordains that Jerusalem be destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, should we like that? My answer is both yes and no. We should not like women boiling their children, but we should approve of God’s decision that it happen.

And so there’s a double perspective in which the things that you see in the small lens should be disliked, whereas what you see in the bigger lens of how God runs the world should be liked.

So there you have it! While I may not appreciate that people go to hell, I should appreciate the place hell has in God’s plan. Though I’m definitely still not saying I’m a Calvinist in regards to this debate as a whole. I feel like that’s too simple of putting it. I believe there is a tension between the two sides and I believe that John Piper pegged that tension very well in that post.

(I feel like I didn’t write this post as well as I could have, so please feel free to call me out on anything that is unclear.)

__________________________________________

*Though from what I’ve read of his work, he would greatly appreciate me saying I thought he is a little extreme, because he believes that if everyone agrees with him he’s doing something wrong, but that’s another subject I can post later. If you are looking for a book that is challenging/a different perspective, try Claiborne’s book The Irresistible Revolution. Though I don’t agree with everything he says, he poses very interesting points.

On the next day the rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priest family. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead – by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Acts 4:5-12

Dude, I don’t even know. The Holy Spirit through Peter does ownage stuff like this often in Scripture. This made me want to dance. I did.

-Riley