Assurance in His Grip

"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 my Father's hand.

John 10:27-29

Where does your assurance come from? Is it from the strength of your own grip, or is your confidence completely in the strength of the grip of the one to whom you cling? Religion says your assurance comes from the strength of your own grip. In other words, your confidence is based on your performance. If you are standing upon solid ground, it is because you picked yourself up by your own boot straps. I often fall into this trap of basing my relationship with God on how strongly I am holding onto him, or how I am performing spiritual. 

But, the Gospel tells us quite the contrary. Jesus says his sheep know him, not because of how smart they are, or how strongly they cling to him. Rather, they know him and follow him because 1) they were given to him by his Father and 2) because his Father is greater than all, and no one can snatch his sheep out of his strong grip. Therefore, our trust should not be in our ability to hold on to God, but it should be in the strength of the one who holds onto us. 

This idea of God eternally choosing sheep to be his own, and sovereignly gripping them unto the end should cause great wonder and adoration. This is because, when we think about it, in our sinfulness, we were never able to hold onto God unto salvation. We are weak and broken, we had gone astray. Yet, God is so loving, that he died on the cross, as the lamb of God, innocently slaughtered for his people, for his sheep. The only way we could know God and follow him is if he sovereignly chose us, and maintained his eternal grip on us until the end. This should cause praise, adoration, humble service, self-sacrifice, and thanksgiving. 

Though we are weak, he is strong. Christians have the ultimate hope; not they will themselves will be strong enough to grip onto God and follow him, but that they have been chosen and loved by a God who has snatched them from death, given them life, and says he will never let go. 

He Will Deliver Us

"For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessings granted us through the prayers of many."

2 Corinthians 1: 8-11

He delivered us...

He will deliver us...

He will deliver us again...

This is the ultimate assurance and hope of a Christian. God has delivered in the past, he is delivering us now, and he will surely deliver us again. That's my only hope. Thanks be to God!

Assurance: Objectivity, Promise and Holy Spirit

The following texts are from Christopher J.H. Wright's Salvation Belongs to Our God. It is a short and clear outline of redemptive history, and the story of God's covenant with His people. His section on the assurance of salvation really gripped me, and taught me a lot. He outlines this section as follows.

Assurance comes from...
1. The Objectivity of the Story
2. The Promises of God
3. The Witness and Work of the Holy Spirit

....

The Objectivity of the Story

1. "Salvation is not something we ourselves do, feel, think, wish or achieve. If it were, then we might rightly doubt whether we have done enough to be sure of being saved. Or we might worry that we don't feel saved. But the Bible makes it clear that salvation is something that God has accomplished. That means our salvation is grounded in the objectivity of the story. By objectivity, I mean something that stands outside and independent of ourselves...So assurance of salvation comes not from trusting in my own faith for its own sake, but rather from trusting in the object of my faith - what God has actually done to make my salvation possible."

The Promises of God

2. Hebrews 6: 13-20 "For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So 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, so 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. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."

"And you notice how the writer of Hebrews makes the example of Abraham relevant to us by saying at the end of the passage that we too can have the same rock-solid security in our faith because of the character and promise of God."

Romans 8: 28-30 "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified."

The Witness and Work of the Holy Spirit

3. "Is there not also a profoundly personal, internal, emotional and spiritual experience of salvation? Am I not actually supposed to feel saved? And of course the answer is a resounding and joyful 'YES'!...Then, once we have come into that new relationship with God through Christ, it is the Holy Spirit who bears witness within our own minds and hearts that it has indeed happened - that we have indeed been born again and have become children of God. God has made us sons and heirs, objectively. But it is the Spirit who gives us the inner assurance that it is indeed so, and our life of prayer, in which we call God 'Abba Father', as Jesus did, confirms that relationship."

Romans 8: 15-17 "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."

"So, another aspect of our assurance of salvation comes from the way our lives are being changed more and more into the image of Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit. As we begin to bear the fruit of the Spirit, and to exercise the gifts of the Spirit, and to 'walk in the Spirit', then we grow in our assurance of salvation because the evidence of that salvation at work within us is being seen in our lives."

Calvin on Assurance

John Calvin writing on the assurance of salvation says,

"He alone is truly a believer who, convinced by a firm conviction that God is a kindly and well-disposed Father toward him, promises himself all things on the basis of his generosity; who, relying upon the promises of divine benevolence toward him, lays hold on an undoubted expectation of salvation.....No man is a believer, I say, except him who, leaning upon the assurance of his salvation, confidently triumphs over the devil and death."

Institutes, III.ii.16.

Further Thoughts on Sanctification and Union with Christ

From Richard Lovelace's Dynamics of Spiritual Life

"Believers should first be assured that sanctification, like justification, is grounded in union with Christ. The power of sin to rule their lives has been destroyed in the Cross of Christ; we have died with Christ, and have been raised up together with Him in newness of life. Therefore we are not to set the estimates of our power to conquer sin according to past experience of our will power, but are to fix our attention on Christ and the power of His risen life in which we participate; for we have died and our life is hidden with Christ in God. This power is accessible in our experience through faith, not through simple striving of the will."

Therefore, we grow in holiness by tapping into the grace and power of Christ made available to us through our union with Him, which we have by faith.

The Solid Rock

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

-Edward Mote, 1834

....

This is one of my top five favorite hymns of all time. It speaks of the confidence we have in the blood of Christ as our righteousness. How often I find myself in awe of the sweet frames of this earth, and become numb to the immeasurable grace of Jesus, which is the only reason I exist..the only mechanism by which I breathe...the root of my salvation...the the only explanation for true purpose and joy in this life. These lyrics sing of God as an unchanging stronghold, whenever and wherever we find ourselves, who has us tightly in His grip.