Someone has said, “There is only one thing that is certain and that is that everything is uncertain.” We live in uncertain times, our jobs and livelihoods are uncertain. We live with the uncertainty of our future as a church, a community, a state or a nation. Uncertainty and a struggling sense of security are marks of our culture. What does the church have to offer in a culture of uncertainty and insecurity? The answer comes in God’s everlasting covenant.
God said to Abraham, “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.” (Genesis 17:7). This covenant is a relationship that God established with Abraham by his sovereign will and guaranteed it by himself (Genesis 15:17). He made the promise in the relationship in love and promised with an oath to keep it (Deuteronomy 7:8). Therefore God is true and his everlasting covenant is true. This everlasting covenant God makes with his people is further realized in the New Covenant in the blood of Christ (1Corinthians 11:25). God’s grace promised (Genesis 3:15) and realized throughout the covenants of the Old Testament was fully confirmed in the death of Christ on the cross. There on the cross Jesus made full atonement for sins as a righteous substitute for sinners (Romans 3:21-26) satisfying the justice of God and at the same time being the justifier of all who by faith in him come into a relationship with God by his grace through faith. Through Jesus Christ God the Father establishes his relationship with his elect sealing them to a promised life forevermore through his Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:3-14). God is true, not false and he cannot lie or go back on his promise. Therefore the covenant that he establishes with his people is an everlasting covenant that cannot be undone. And it is in the certainty of this everlasting covenant that the church is secure.
This doctrine of assurance founded in the truth of God is called by some, “The prime error of heretics”. And by the Council of Trent it was said “a believers assurance of the pardon of his sins is a vain and ungodly confidence.” Others would say this assurance is presumption. They argue that having a confident assurance in God’s everlasting covenant and salvation is not a true and spiritual humility and often leads to a passive and apathetic form of Christianity. But all who would denounce this doctrine of assurance on grounds of abuse or untruth must acknowledge the Scriptures clear statements to the contrary. And when the Scripture makes this doctrine clear to our minds and hearts this “grace with assurance is no less than heaven let down into the soul.” Here are a sampling of Scripture passages that may prove helpful in considering God’s eternal grace to all who are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus: Job 19:25-26; Ps.23:4; Isa.43:1-3; 54:10; Jer.32:40; Mt.18:12-14; Jn.3:36; 5:24; 6:35-40, 47; 10:27-30; 17:11,12,15; Rom.5:8-10; 8:1,28-30, 35-39; 1Cor.1:7-9; 10:13; 2Cor.4:14,17; Eph.1:5,13-14; 4:30; Col.3:3-4; 1Thes.5:23-24; 2Tim.4:18; Heb.9:12,15; 10:14; 12:28; 1Pe.1:3-5; 1Jn.2:19,25; 5:4,11-13,20; Jude 1, 24-25. It is the grace of assurance that allows the church to live in God’s kingdom of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and this is what the church can offer to a culture of uncertainty.
A toddler plays happily in the kitchen. He climbs under the cabinets and cleans out the pots and pans making a fort, he bangs the pots and pans in the floor, he digs unidentified objects out from under the refrigerator or from under the table missed by the broom, and unnoticed by Mom, eats them. He is secure in Mom’s kingdom as she works around him, goes back and forth to the laundry caring for the families needs. He does not fear when she disappears around the corner because he knows she’s coming back. So are all who have been brought into God’s kingdom by his grace through faith in Christ and live and rest in his everlasting covenant.
For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you." 15And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. 16For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf,
. - Hebrews 6:13—20
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