Quote of the Day (49)

Assurance of salvation and eternal security are not identical concepts. The former describes my level of confidence in my relationship with God, while the latter refers to what God has actually done, whether I fully understand it and benefit from that knowledge or whether I quiver in terror of eternal damnation every time I catch myself sinning yet again.

Which I will, and so will you. One may feel confidence with no scriptural basis. One may also feel fear for which there is no biblical reason.

The Bible teaches that because of what the Son accomplished at the cross we are secure in our eternal relationship with the Father. It’s not my intention to try to prove this in today’s post as we’ve examined various aspects of the doctrine in nine different posts over the last decade, and any reader who doubts it is welcome to consider the cases made in those.

Jonathan Edwards also took the security of the man who puts his faith in the Lord Jesus as a given. In Religious Affections, he jumps straight from what God has done in Christ to how the believer should feel about it. In doing so, he makes an interesting point concerning the gathering in the upper room and the assurance of salvation:

“In Jesus Christ’s final discourse with his eleven disciples as recorded in John chapters 14, 15 and 16, He repeatedly declares His special and everlasting love for them and promises their future participation in His glory. He does this so that their joy might be complete (John 15:11). Christ does not hesitate to speak plainly and positively to them, nor does He wish to keep them in suspense. He concludes his discourse with a prayer, speaking confidently to His Father about the disciples’ faith, their separation from the world, and His desire for them to be with Him in glory. From these examples, it is clear that Christ intended His followers to have full assurance of their future glory. It is in line with His plans and the way He has arranged things in His church for there to be ample provision for His saints to have complete confidence in their salvation.”

If our Lord intended that following him involve endless self-scrutiny, sleepless nights and fretting about whether we had done enough to make our calling and election sure, he certainly did not speak or behave that way to his disciples, and he undermined his own interests severely in that upper room discourse. Perhaps the terror of eternal fire might have inspired one or two to stand their ground with him in Gethsemane a few hours later.

If, on the other hand, he meant what he said when he promised his sheep, “no one will snatch them out of my hand”, then his words and behavior were entirely consistent with that certainty.

The most powerful evidence for the truth of a doctrine is not that a man repeats it endlessly. It’s that he behaves himself as if putting our confidence in that truth were the most natural thing in the world.