Assurance

The life of the Christian is a mixture of smoke and light. The seven churches in the book of Revelation are called the seven golden lampstands (Rev.1:20). The disciples of Jesus are called the light of the world (Mt.5:14). However God’s covenant people are also called a faintly burning wick (Isa.42:3). Often times Christians ask the question, “Why does not God do away with all my corrupt nature when he saves me?” The question comes because the reality of the Christian life persists in the way of the wilderness. In the Christian there is the presence of grace, but it is not the measure of grace that will be known at glorification when all corruption will be swallowed up in the presence of the glory of Christ. There is a certain measure of corruption that remains in the Christian that he must fight with until his soul is made righteous in Christ’s presence or he returns to make all things new. This reality is what causes the apostle Paul to say, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom.7:24). As the fog that rises upon the water in the cool of the morning is eventually swallowed up by the rising sun, so will the smoke of corruption be swallowed up by the glory of the Son in all his grace to make his bride a burning and shinning light for all time.

It is the mixture of the smoke and the light in the life of the Christian that often causes him to struggle with a sense of assurance. It is a joy that lifts the Christian up to heavenly glory when he has assurance of God’s everlasting love in Christ that will bring him into his presence forevermore. But it is the crushing weight of despair that pins the Christian down to the dust when his assurance of God’s grace wanes and he feels the fires of hell in his soul. It is inevitable that every Christian who shares the mixture of grace and a corrupt nature will struggle at times within these two extremes. The English Puritan Richard Sibbes said that this struggle that comes from the mixture of grace and a corrupt nature is meant for our own good. He says, “The end of it is especially to preserve us from those two dangerous rocks which our nature is prone to dash upon, security and pride, and to force us to pitch our rest upon justification, not sanctification, which, besides imperfection, has some stains.” (The Bruised Reed p.19) The Christian is meant to look to grace but so often he looks to the remaining corruption and sees not the grace. But as long as he remains in the earth the corruption will remain. Therefore his assurance does not rest in how much corruption has been dealt a death blow or how much remains. His assurance rests in the grace of God toward him in Christ Jesus. It is he who has the Son who has life (1Jn.5:12). The one who has the Son by faith is the one declared righteous and this is the Christian’s assurance and peace with God (Rom.5:1).

The Christians assurance rests not in himself, a decision he has made to accept Jesus, or even his progress against sin. Assurance for the Christian rests in the grace of being justified before God by faith in Christ alone. The great stalwart of the faith who stood against the tide of liberalism in the early 20th century J. Gresham Machen held confidence and faithfulness to the end of his life. He had traveled from Philadelphia to North Dakota in the dead of winter to preach. He was sick with pneumonia and dying when he sent by telegram his last words to friend back in Philadelphia. In was in those last words that were found an expressed assurance, “Thanks be to God for the active obedience of Christ Jesus.” His assurance as he lay dying was not in his own progress in sanctification, but in the righteousness of Jesus Christ who had lived for him, died for him, was raised for him and who had ascended into heaven to serve at God’s right hand for him with all his righteousness.

From where does your assurance come this day? Some say that our assurance ebbs and flows with our holiness. But as long as the corrupt nature is mixed with the new nature of grace in Christ Jesus our holiness will ebb and flow. At the end of everyday you can stand at the rock of security in self and pat yourself on the back for a job well done or you can stand at the rock of pride as you compare yourself to others. But it is at both these rocks our lives will be dashed to pieces and our souls will shrink in despair unless we look upon the Rock Christ Jesus who is for us righteousness and holiness and our true assurance.