Blessed Assurance

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.
O what a foretaste of glory divine
Heir of salvation, purchase of God
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood

Perfect submission, all is at rest
I in my Savior am happy and blessed
Watching and waiting, looking above
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love

This is my story, this is my song
Praising my Savior all the day long 

Fanny Crosby

Recent debate over the concept of assurance of salvation has resulted in the creation of this Article. As with every spiritual pursuit or exploration of dogma, submission to the guidance of the Holy Spirit is required for righteous discernment. Specifically addressed in the following text is whose power to trust to sustain the promise of eternal life – God or ours?

“My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and NO ONE is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand” -Jn. 10:39.

‘NO ONE’ definitely includes EVERYONE – the devil, and even an individual presumed to be ‘saved’. Therefore, abiding in Christ is NOT by a believer’s ability to endure, but by the power of the Holy Spirit Who both seals and assures our redemption.

“Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has SEALED us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee” – 2Cor. 1:21, 22.

“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were SEALED with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory” – Eph. 1: 13, 14.

It should be readily understood that being SEALED locks in to preserve the good, while also preventing contamination and infiltration of evil. Where the Holy Spirit resides in our hearts, He does so exclusively, without compromise. Once He has entered, He promises:

“I will NEVER leave you nor forsake you” – Heb. 13:5.

The question remains, who do we trust? Are we capable of voiding the promise of God? Is our will to denounce so great a salvation, powerful enough to negate the perfect work of Christ?

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  (. . .) For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,  nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” – Ro. 8: 35, 38, 39.

While man’s free-will may indeed keep him from accepting God’s gift of salvation, ‘separation’ indicates the severing of an already established relationship. Some have supposed that the one thing NOT included in the above list of factors unable to cause such separation is the will of a human individual. But this is NOT justified when the phrase “nor any other created thing” is clearly stated.

“While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and NONE of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled” – Jn,17:12.

ALL true believers are ‘kept’ by becoming born again. As with physical birth, so is spiritual birth in the sense that there is no such thing as being ‘un-born’ once being born. An important thing to grasp, is the understanding that becoming born (physical or spiritual) requires an act of God. Only He gives life!

In spiritual birth (being born again), God does NOT take up residency in any ‘heart’ until He has established in HIS infinite wisdom and knowledge that the recipient is indeed a true member of His universal/eternal/ mystical Body. God does NOT renege on His promises.

“For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” – Ro. 11:29.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is NOT from yourselves, it is the gift of God” – Eph. 2:8.

Understanding salvation as a GIFT from God – a ONCE completed provision through Christ’s ONE TIME substitutionary sacrifice for ALL sin – begs for a proper comprehension of several important things. From what and to what have we been ‘saved’? NOTICE: both (from & to) are communicated in the PAST tense – as in., ALREADY having been accomplished as an immediate provision of becoming born again.

“… has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but HAS PASSED from death into life” – Jn. 5:24.

Since Biblical salvation is a spiritual communication, not necessarily always clearly manifest in the literal physical realm (although visible evidence abounds for true believers), the significance of any attached elements can be properly scrutinized only with genuine spiritual discernment – NOT mere human intellect. Therefore, other questions must first be rightly answered in order to lay a proper foundation upon which to build any Soteriology (doctrine of salvation). WHEN does entrance into eternal life occur and HOW is such appropriated?

The previously cited Scriptures indicate that salvation is a GIFT, it cannot be earned. It is initiated and perpetuated by God, NOT any work of man. Since the goal is to provide eternal life with God, we must also correctly identify what the term ‘eternal life’ involves.

Eternal life is NOT temporal (as is the case with natural birth). It is never ending, therefore, cannot be ended, as would be the case should ‘losing salvation’ be possible. While many false conversions to Christ result in many thinking they are saved, only to eventually abandon their faith, true conversion comes ONLY by becoming born again by the Holy Spirit, Who immediately seals and preserves the believer for eternity.

Sadly,  too many doctrines explore merely certain passages of Scripture that appear to support a particular point of view, rather than the WHOLE of Scripture that perfectly ‘dove-tails’ to explain in full each tenant of Christian Dogma.

Further reading and research guided by the Holy Spirit is highly recommended. With eternity in the balance, what you believe about it and WHY is the most important aspect of life. To be right is an assurance of eternal life. To be wrong may well cause everything to be eternally lost. One of the most wonderful components of salvation is the abiding assurance and perpetual peace of knowing you will spend eternity in a right relationship with God in Christ. THAT understanding of eternal life begins when the Holy Spirit takes up permanent residency in a true believers ‘heart’ at the moment of true conversion.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” – 2Cor. 5:17.

Some have difficulty accepting that eternity starts in the ‘here and now’. Consider this common concept of the term ‘eternal’: lasting or existing forever; without end. Many relegate this idea to a distant future, only to be entered into at the end of this present existence. Scripture however, refers to escaping eternal death and entering eternal life (for those truly born again) as having ALREADY occurred. Notice the past-tense verbiage in the following passage,

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but HAS PASSED from death into life” – Jn. 5:24.

If we think that our eternal destiny is only determined by the sum total of our temporal experiences, pronounced merely at a future judgment after death, then we can never truly know now whether we are really saved or not. Such an expectation limits the hope of eternal life to our righteousness, our faith, our good behavior. That is ‘self-righteousness’, a product of human rationale, ignoring the magnificent splendor of the mind of Christ.It relies on a solely human perspective, not embracing the much greater godly position. We must never bring God down to our inferior level of comprehension. Paul warned about such audacity,:

“Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things” – Ro. 1:22, 23.

Notice the phrase – “changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible”. Misunderstanding the eternal nature of God, results in negating the proper comprehension of eternal life. It is ‘incorruptible’ – it cannot be reversed. Becoming born again, transforms the once merely temporal into the eternal. This is a supernatural phenomenon initiated and perpetuated by the Holy Spirit as Peter reminds us.

“Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which LIVES and ABIDES FOREVER” – 1Pt. 1: 22, 23,

Once begun, eternal life ‘abides forever’. Surely, this is one of the great ‘mysteries of God’ transcending mere human reason. It is however, patently made known to those who have purified their souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love, having been born again.

Jesus said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand” – Lk. 8:10.

 From God’s eternal perspective, those who will remain with Him throughout eternity are ALREADY determined. In His infinite knowledge, they are written in the ‘Book of Life’ since the foundation of the world. Before Christ died for their sins, they were predestined to eternal life. Although much debated, predestination is a Scriptural reality augmenting the vast difference between man’s inferior knowledge and the infinite knowledge of God. Only He controls eternity; only He sees past. present, and future, enabling Him to predestine.

“We have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will” – Eph. 1:11.

Further, deeper research into the full nature of an assurance of eternal security may be necessary.  I have written several other related Articles to assist in this endeavor. They can be accessed by theses LINKS:

Biblical Salvation – https://wp.me/p4H39f-b

True Conversion – https://wp.me/p4H39f-xD

Born Again – https://wp.me/P4H39f-3W

Eternal Security – https://wp.me/p4H39f-t

Predestination – https://wp.me/p4H39f-1J

Regarding the Soul – https://wp.me/p4H39f-32