Salvation by Faith, Assurance by Works II

We could, I believe summarize the two scenarios in last day's post by calling the first case, case A, the case of the presumptuous brother, and case B, the case of the weaker brother. Lets not get judgmental here,  in many things we all fail, in may ways we are all weak!  If we have to be perfect to keep our salvation, we are all in trouble.  The first thing I would want to say to Buddy B would be “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleans us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9).  One of the first things I would want to say to Buddy B is that the Scriptures give us no grounds to be presumptuous.  We may need to point him to the verse which tells us “Examine yourself to see if you be in the  Faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5). You can live in a garage and call yourself a car, but that would not make you one. Not everyone who calls himself a Christian is a Christian (see Matthew 7:21).

So there are two sides to the "assurance" equation. In a nutshell they are on the one hand  'By Grace we are save through faith, it is the gift of God, not of works (Ephesians 2:8,9)”, and on the other hand assurance (feeling saved) actually does come by works. We need more than a single verse to see this. Consider the contrasting Scriptures “The Spirit bears witness that we are the children of God”, but “To be carnally minded is death” (Romans 8:6).  Or that  “We are sealed by the Spirit”, but that we should “Be being filled with the Spirit” and  “not to quench Him” (Ephesians 1:13; 5:18, I Thess 5:19).  We are not likely to feel saved if we are grieving and quenching His leading in our lives, if we are not walking the walk.

In the two scenarios left hanging last day, I would say that Buddy B likely has lost his assurance, but not his salvation.  He does need to get right with God. If you are Buddy B, or someone like him, I need you to know that “He knows our frame, He knows we are but dust (Psalm 103:14)”.  One clue I often find  that we really do belong to Him, is that we feel guilty now for what never bothered us  at all before. This is a strong indication that  He is at work in our lives.  You are a child of God,  loving and patient fathers do not disinherit their sons or daughters  at the drop of a hat.  He who tells us, to forgive over and over, is more than willing to do that with us too.

For the other scenario for Buddy A, we need to be more careful. It is easy to judge someone who is not living up to our standards. God's priorities with our brother may not be our priorities. Remember you and I will be judged with the same measure that we judge. Paul tells us that a servant of the Lord must be gentle to all apt to teach.  It is important to distinguish between, weakness as in out of control addictions, and willful presumption.  We do not know the other one's heart.  Is is not always as clear as I presented it last day. However if it is, if for example the attitude is “God will forgive me that is His job”, I would be inclined to say something like “I fear for you my friend. I fear you are deceived. Jesus is not a ticket to sin.  His sacrifice is not a license to do whatever I want to do” (see also “Jesus our wiping boy").

Consider again the Scriptures from I John 5:13 “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.” These verses from the end of the epistle tell us very clearly that we are intended to have assurance.  The grounds for that assurance punctuate the whole letter.   We find for example phrases like  “By this we know that we are in Him, ...” or “He who says, 'I know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar”, or  “This is how we know that we know Him ….”.

So what is the “this” of the last sentence referring to? In 2:3 is it “if we keep His commandments”,  in 3:6 it is because “we do not (habitually) sin” (parenthetical comment mine). In 3:14 is it “because we love the brethren”. In 3:18 it is because we “love (not) in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth,”  in 5:3 because “we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome”.   In 3:19 John explicitly links assurance with loving in deed and in truth, for he says (connecting with 3:18)  “And by this we  know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him”.

So then the assurance, how we know that we know, the feeling that are intended to accompany salvation,  these things come as we walk His paths, live in the light, obey His commandments, and love the brethren. Yes salvation is a gift received by faith, but assurance is by works.