Blessed assurance? - 18 May 2009 |
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The Bible teaches the doctrine of the preservation of the saints, which you could summarise like this:
All those who have been chosen in eternity by God for salvation, and who are therefore born again by the Spirit of God, will certainly be kept trusting in Jesus by God’s power, and will therefore be with Christ in glory.
Put more briefly, God preserves all his saints. See John 10:27-29, for example, where Jesus says:
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
However, the Bible also teaches that some who profess to be Christians fall away. See for example Mark 4; John 15; Hebrews 3:12.
This sometimes gets Christians in a bit of a tangle, not least because the doctrine of the preservation of the saints, which might initially have appeared to hold such promise for undergirding our assurance of salvation, appears in the light of these latter texts to be somewhat less relevant. After all, it’s all very well being absolutely certain that the train is heading to London Bridge, but this isn’t much help if your not sure whether your particular carriage is securely hooked up.
So, given that we can’t see into God’s mind (we don’t have access to his ‘list’ of those chosen for salvation) where can we legitimately and helpfully look for assurance of salvation?
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Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Minister's Blog