Assurance of Being God’s child

The first thing I read after opening my online Bible was, ‘How can I know I’m a Christian?” My first thought was, “If you don’t know, you likely aren’t.”

Most people know what they believe. Yes, there are worry warts, and Satan lies to us with whispered thoughts such as, “Look what you did. How can you be a Christian?” And others will point to our weaknesses with the same question, but God says this:

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:13)
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, (John 1:12)

The Word of God says it. Those who know what it says either believe it or not. However, if a Christian is not reading the Word, assurance will likely go missing. This indicates a better question could be, “If I am a Christian, why am I not reading this book from God?”

He does tell His people to “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” (Hebrews 10:22) This indicates another question: Am I convinced of sin and confessing those things that bother my conscience? If not, then true faith could be missing.

Being a Christian involves putting my faith in Jesus Christ. What then is faith? God says:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

Faith is that inner ‘I just know’ that this Word of God is true. I was not at Calvary, but I know that Jesus died. I did not see the empty tomb, but I just know that it is empty and that Jesus is alive. I also have assurance, based on the promises of God, that Jesus died for my sin and all are forgiven. It is an inner thing, not based on present performance or the swarm of doubts that come when the God who is good allows me to suffer. It is based on what Jesus did, not what I do.

Perhaps that is the biggest test: what do I base ‘being a Christian’ on? What I do, or what God has done?

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)

Am I His workmanship (verse 10) or am I looking at my lack of works and thinking I am not good enough? No one is ‘good enough’ otherwise Jesus would not have needed to die.

One more question: “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” (Hebrews 2:14–15) If that fear of death is overwhelming, it may be that way because there is no assurance that Jesus conquered it.

And that assurance is not an outward thing but comes from the Holy Spirit. If He lives in me, He tells me who I am:

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:15–17)

Personal sin, Satan’s lies, and suffering can take eyes and hearts off what God has done and rob His children of their assurance of being His children, but the salvation of God is more powerful than all three of those negative S’s. If the human  heart is not responding to His Spirit, then it is vital to get down on those knees and talk to the Lord.

PRAY: Jesus, I’ve no idea how many are duped into thinking they are believers but are not, or how many are believers but without assurance. You know how to right all errors and bring doubters to the truth. Today I pray for those whose assurance or lack of it is messing with their minds. May they hear and know truth and be set free from crippling doubts.

Update: Our granddaughter is home. She is cheerful and clear-headed, but looks like a train hit her. Black eyes, bruises all over, a smashed foot, broken arm and broken kneecap that looks terrible, but she is joyful and thankful to be alive, spared, and in many prayers.

Keep Praying

 

One way to understand prayer is the man who loved hearing a symphony orchestra on the radio so much that he bought a violin to play along with it. His first attempts were dismal, yet he kept going. Eventually, his notes matched the music of the masters. In the same way, my prayers are off compared to the wonder of what God is doing, yet as I continue to pray, I find myself more in tune with what God shows me of His will and His activities.

Yet there remains this mystery of Him choosing some for faith and eternal life, but not everyone. If His choice was based on His knowledge that they would believe, or not chosen until they had faith, this would reverse what the Bible says that God elects people and people do not elect God. People are not chosen because they believe, but they believe because they are chosen. There is no way to lay His action of election on anything but the absolute sovereignty of God.

For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. (Romans 9:15–16)

The secrets of his counsels are too deep for my feeble mind. If I try to know the reason of why He picks some and not others, I fall into a bottomless pit. Yet at the same time, I cast myself down at His feet, with a full and willing submission to His sovereign choices. In other words, I not only listen to the music but desire that my prayers and thoughts are aligned with it. 

The NT tells me how to play my violin. I must listen and agree with what He is doing. He tells me to work at what I want (to be in harmony with Him) yet “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13) My understanding of the notes determine how my life sounds, but it is God who does the work — for His good pleasure!

Another way to understand His “music” is to understand it as His “covenant of grace” which is music of joyful and precious hope. Charnock says it refers to the free decision and oath of God to employ all His omnipotence, wisdom, and love to rescue His people from sin and misery. It is wholly initiated and carried through by God. It cannot fail. 

I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. (Jeremiah 32:40)

This is God's music and was sealed in His heart before I even existed:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:4–10)
(He) saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began. (2 Timothy 1:9)

PRAY: Oh Lord, what a foundation for eternal security! You do it all and You never fail in Your purposes and will. I miss my notes and yet Your delightful music plays on without error or ceasing, carrying me with it to my promised destiny. I do not understand why me, but I do love  to listen to all the notes that You sound out and often allow me to hear and enjoy.

How to be sure?

Nearly every Sunday, the message from the pulpit includes what it means to be a Christian. Our pastors do this because they know the abundance of false ideas about our identity. Despite hearing the gospel most of their lives, some still think they must be worthy, must do good works, must be in church, and other self-describing definitions.

If a description of myself is necessary, it always comes after the entrance of Christ into my life, and the changes that come because of faith in Him. Those descriptions do not tell me how to become a Christian but describe what I ought to be like because I am a Christian.

To illustrate, I could say of someone, “She acts just like a married woman” but if she is unmarried, the actions mean nothing, maybe pretense, or even delusion. She can go through the motions, but not be married at all.

It is the same with faith. It is about a genuine relationship with Jesus. A great many people are only playing church and not part of the body of Christ. After listening and studying what the Bible says about this, it seems that this happens because some people confuse the words written to those in the kingdom with the words written to those not yet genuine believers. The latter thinks that they must do what Christians do to get into the family of God, so try to live that way.

A few weeks ago, one of friends said, “Sin is not only what we do, but what motivates what we do. If it is self-effort, that is the root of sin.” His words came from this verse:

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)

To many, their own way seems fine and not sin at all as they are doing ‘good’ things, but that is not the point. The point is that self-effort is turning from God’s way — which is about faith in Him and living in forgiveness, new life, and the power He supplies through His Holy Spirit.

The only way to have that is to be given it by God. We cannot claim any of God’s forgiveness and power without faith in Christ in a love-faith relationship with Him where He changes us.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

And with that new life, He make a huge difference…

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. (2 Corinthians 5:14–15)

No one can be a Christian until they admit they cannot do it. The way is down not up, humility not effort, trusting Jesus and not myself, and realizing sin is just that, trusting me instead of what God says about all of humanity — we all fall short and cannot change by our own efforts.

Faith draws us to the Word of God and as we read it, faith comes and increases by hearing about Christ. As a seeker, or as a Christian, it is vital to remember that the good God tells us to do is impossible without trusting Jesus. The NT says “… For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23) No matter how good our actions look, they fall short because without Christ, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” (Isaiah 64:6)

For both non-Christians and believers, trusting the flesh is sin. Self-effort and selfish motives oppose faith. For believers, our lapses into ‘me, myself, and I’ are forgiven, but useless. True righteousness is about being constrained by the Spirit no matter how good my I-wants might seem.

PRAY: Jesus, life in the Spirit is hard to define because as soon as I start examining myself to make sure I’m doing Your will, I slide into fleshy, old nature thinking. Faith brings me back to trusting what I cannot see (yet others will see it in me) and a life of freedom with love, peace, joy, and the other fruit of the Spirit that You pour in and through me. I cannot take credit for any of that. Wow, may You be glorified.

Life without end. . . .

Today is my 83rd birthday. People say I don’t look my age. Sometimes I feel it, but today am more concerned with being productive — but it is -30C outside, so hibernating is appealing!

However, there are days when the quickly passing years are reluctantly on my mind. It is good to read about the reality of eternal life and know that this life is not all there is. God does not always reveal to me that I’ve been a blessing by doing something He planned for me to do here, but since He says He saved me for His purposes, I am trusting Him and rejoicing that He keeps His promises. Many are listed here:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:1–10)

Not only do I rejoice in having a blessed life, the fact that it is eternal is also precious. Eternal means forever, never ending. Both Old and New Testaments declare it. For example:

I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. (Ecclesiastes 3:14)
“For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. (Isaiah 54:10)
For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. (Romans 11:29)

Many of my friends, even Christian friends, look at death as a huge enemy. Young ones don’t think of it much, but the older most get, the more they want to stay healthy and keep on living here rather than stepping from this life into the next. How important to realize that that ‘next’ life is already ours. We have Christ and with Christ, we have eternal life. It is not something that we enter into when we die, but is already ours, and something to enjoy and rejoice in right now. This is because that life is the very life of Christ, in us and given to us the moment of our salvation.

PRAY: Jesus, I’m glad today that instead of marking the years, I can mark that from the day You walked into my life, You gave me Your life, Your forever life. If You died, I would die, but because You live forever, so do I live forever. It is a done deal, not a future promise. In You, I am eternally secure. Such an amazing and wonderful gift from an amazing and incredible Lord and Savior. You fill me with joy even as You reassure me that I am Yours forever!

 

How can I be certain?

 
The only people who have ever asked me how I know I am a Christian were those without faith. Even Christians who have slipped away from their walk (we call them prodigals or backsliders) have this knowledge. It is not based on anything but faith and that is a gift from God. Since we are saved by faith and not by our performance, that makes sense.

However, today’s reading suggests otherwise. It points to the test Christ gave by which the reality of His oneness with the Father was to be known — He did the works of the Father. However, the author says there is no other test for us. This puts our assurance dangerously close to being saved by works rather than faith. 

In the NT, one passage suggests the Apostles refused to point to themselves as the reason for their changed life. Just after healing a man, they said:

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 4:9–12)

They did not say they were saved because they could heal this man. Only Jesus made the claim that He was who He claimed to be because of the works He did.

Another passage about assurance rather than self-examination says this:

Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. (1 John 5:10–14)

The assurance here is not about works but about faith in Jesus Christ, a faith that is verified by knowing Christ, not by my works. I know that James says faith without works is dead. Dead means separation from God so the safe conclusion is that faith produces a changed life, yet the ‘goodness’ seen in a person’s life is not proof that they are believers. The outward appearance of being a good person can have other motivations than the power of the Holy Spirit. 

There is only one passage that tells us to examine ourselves. It links self-examination to faith in the death of Christ for our sins, not to our performance. (See 1 Corinthians 11:26–32)

Again, faith and eternal life is about knowing Jesus. Faith produces a changed life, but the root issue is faith because the results will not always be perfect obedience. Even so, obeying God’s will as Jesus obeys can lead to self-righteousness and basing assurance on my works rather than what Jesus says. I cannot put the cart before the horse. My union with Christ is based on what He has done rather than on my performance.

PRAY: Jesus, You give me assurance that I belong to You, even when my life gets messy. I cannot  base it on a list of actions or perfections in myself. If they could give me assurance of salvation, I would not need You. I’m not denying the importance of obedience, but saying my union with Christ is grounded in what You have done, not on what I do or do not do.  

Faith always wins . . .

 

People generally act on what they believe. If I think my house is on fire, I will get out. If I think the airplane is reliable, I will get on it. If the deed says the property belongs to me, I will take possession of it.

Faith is defined by a word that means a legal document to effect a transfer of property and to show the legal right to possess it. That is, I possess eternal life and know it is mine because of faith. This explains why faith is a gift — I could not possibly write out that deed for myself; only God can do it for only God can give that kind of life.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

MacArthur says that these two phrases are almost identical in that faith is both the evidence of what I possess, but this evidence is a deep conviction, evidence that makes a person fully agree, understand, and realize the truth or validity of something. Whether in an argument or discussion, the assurance that faith gives is so strong that it cannot be overturned by challenges to it.

How then does doubt get in? When I take my eyes and mind off what God says and begin to look at what I can see, and the devil comes along with his lies, and my faith is attacked. What then will rescue me or save me from such attacks? First, confession of doubt, like the father said to Jesus regarding deliverance for his son: “I believe; help my unbelief” but the next necessary remedy is going to the source:

Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17)

Get back into the Word of God. Get out to church. Get hold of a Spirit-filled Christian. Call for help. Damaged faith refuses to stay that way for long. Joy is gone. Peace with God is gone. The desire to pray is gone. But the assurance of true faith refuses to fully leave. Instead, it runs to the Word, and to other Christians to hear truth, and to Abba and climbs into His lap until faith is hugged back into the heart and mind. “Yield to God, resist the devil, and he will flee.” (James 4:7)

This is why James could affirm that “As the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” (James 2:26) He knew that true faith goes beyond assurance to action. Even under attack and even if doubt is overwhelming, true faith fights back. It knows that what can be seen cannot be trusted because the unseen God is involved in it and faith deeply knows that. Even though we cannot see Him, God is busy and we know it, even when what we can see temporarily distracts us. In contrast, a non-responsive faith is no faith at all.

By faith (Moses) left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. (Hebrews 11:27)

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:8–9)

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)

Noah had a responsive faith. He had never seen rain and knew nothing about building a ship. Still, he followed God’s instructions and endured 120 years of hard work and ridicule because he believed God was telling the truth.

Daniel faced a life-threatening situation yet trusted his God who he could not see rather than bow to a king he could see. Being eaten by lions was a better choice than compromising his trust in God. And God honored his faith by shutting the mouth of those hungry lions.

PRAY: Jesus, I’m thankful that You restore us when we begin to doubt, and I say begin because You will not let doubt finish its work. When I sing “Amazing grace” I should also sing “Amazing Faith” for both are marvelous gifts of love from You — not at all earned or deserved, yet wonderfully life-changing.

PONDER: Think about the choices I must make today and how I can respond to them with faith in the God I cannot see but can trust with all my heart.