The Believer’s Assurance
I have never been much of a T.V. watcher. Quite frankly, I find television to be a major waste of my time and really not as exciting as real life….so I don’t watch it very much at all.
However, during those few moments when I have sat down to numb my brain and move into a semi-comatose state of mind in front of the TV, the one show I will watch is Jeopardy.
And the reason I’ll watch Jeopardy every once in a while is because it’s the one game show that gives you an answer to the question you need to figure out is being asked.
Well…..this is can be fairly challenging especially when our brains are wired to look for answers rather than questions.
And this is one reason as well why Romans 5 is such a challenging chapter in the Bible to deal with, especially in verses 5-11.
You see, Paul in these verses is giving us answers to a question he has not asked directly but in effect is only implying in his answers.
And so the challenge of making sense of this chapter is discerning the questions Paul is answering.
In writing in this particular way, Paul is using a form of a literary device known as Prolepsis, in which he answers a question he has not asked.
The intended value of this literary device is that it forces the reader to ask numerous questions of the passage and thus, become very familiar with it before he finally figures out what the author’s intended question really was in the first place.
And let me tell you that what you are hearing today took several hours and a multitude of legal pads and ink to finally figure out.
In fact, this message is the fifth one that I wrote regarding this passage over the course of this week simply because when I would get done heading down one track and think I had the right question to the answer Paul is giving—I would realize I didn’t have it and back to the drawing board I went.
Well, finally, after much prayer, study, and even a certain sense of desperation the passage opened up like the layers of an onion and what a wonderful message I received from the Lord—one which should greatly encourage all of us in our Christian lives especially when we are struggling with the assurance of our salvation.
Turn with me to Romans 5:5-11.
Romans 5 is specifically dealing with “The Believer’s Assurance” and actually begins a new section in the Book of Romans that runs all the way to the end of Romans 8 dealing almost entirely with the believer’s assurance of his salvation.
Thus, in Romans 5 we’ll see that the believer is assured that he has been freed from the penalty of sin, which is an eternity in hell separated from the goodness and love of God forever.
In Romans 6, we will see that the believer is assured that he has been freed from the power of sin so as to truly be able to live a new life in Christ.
In Romans 7, we will see that the believer has been freed from the curse of the Law.
And finally, in Romans 8, we will see that the believer is assured that he is free from any divine condemnation for his sins and will indeed experience future glory with God in Heaven for all of eternity.
And intermixed within these four chapters on the believer’s assurance we’ll find a sections in Romans 6, 7, and 8 dealing with how we as believers are to deal with the sin issues we all struggle with as we grow in holiness before the Lord.
Today we are going to deal with the issue of “The believer’s assurance of God’s acceptance of him or her irregardless of how well he is living the Christian Life.”
In essence, Romans 5 could be described as the “What if” chapter in this four chapter section on the assurance of the believer’s salvation.
You see, Paul is really raising the question that most of us have asked at one time or another in our Christian experience and that is—
Is it possible for me to so badly screw up my Christian Life
that I out sin God’s grace and love and lose
my salvation in the end?
I mean, “what if” I don’t end up loving God with all my heart, mind, and soul over the long haul of my Christian experience? Will this result in me not being saved from the penalty of my sins?
Or, “what if” I fail to respond correctly to the tribulations and other tools God uses in my life to develop Christian maturity in me so that I never really see much spiritual growth in my life—could this effect whether I am ultimately saved from my sins and go to heaven?
Or, “what if” I commit the unpardonable sin—whatever that may be—would that cause me to lose my salvation?
Or, “what if” God just plain gets tired of me and my lack of spiritual desire, progress, and devotion to Him—could that happen—and if it did would I still be saved from my sins and go to heaven?
Or, “what if” I don’t ever get victory over this besetting sin that has had such a strong grip on me for years—in the end will this result in me losing my salvation?
These are the kinds of pertinent questions that Paul answers for us here in Romans 5 and especially in our text this morning, which is Romans 5:5-11.
In reading the first 11 verses of this chapter we see that Paul is urging us as believers to celebrate and rejoice in three things—
First, we see in verses 1-2 that we, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who are now at peace with God and standing in grace, are to celebrate our certain and expectant hope of experiencing the glory of God in Heaven at the end of our earthly lives.
This of course is a great contrast with what unbelievers will experience, which is the wrath of God for all of eternity in the Lake of Fire.
Second, we see in verses 3-4 that we are to celebrate and rejoice in our tribulations—because they are designed to produce perseverance, which reveals proven Christian character, which ultimately authenticates our faith in Christ as being genuine and real, which in turn results in an even more certain expectant assurance and hope that we have really been saved from the penalty of our sins and made into new creations in Christ who will go to heaven when we die.
And finally, in verse 11, we are to be celebrating and rejoicing in God Himself—because we really have been reconciled to Him through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And it is between this second and third exhortation that Paul answers the “what if” questions most of us have all asked at one time or another about the security of our salvation as he explains why we as believers should be celebrating and rejoicing in our great God.
Now let’s begin our study in the text by looking at Romans 5:5.
Paul, again in writing about this “hope” of our eternal security is referring to the certain and expectant hope that believers can have that they have been saved from the penalty of their sins and will go to heaven and be glorified with Christ when they die.
And what Paul tells us about this hope is that it will not disappoint us.
The word “disappoint” comes from the Greek word, kataischunei, which refers to the sense of disappointment a Christian would experience if instead of being welcomed into heaven by God when he died—he was instead shamed and disgraced as one who had either lost his salvation or was never ever truly saved in the first place.
It is the kind of disappointing shame and desperation that the people in Matthew 7:21-23 experience when told that they aren’t going to Heaven because they were never truly saved in the first place.
I mean these people are genuinely surprised to hear they aren’t going to Heaven but the fact of the matter is that their appeal to God for salvation was based upon their works (v. 22) rather than any trust in Christ.
And so, the question Paul is answering is—could such a thing happen to one who has trusted in Christ Jesus?
Is it possible that the believer could end up dying and not be eternally saved from the penalty for his sins?
Is it feasible that the believer could potentially lose his salvation and end up being shamed, disgraced, and consigned to hell rather than glorified and given a home in heaven?
And Paul’s answer to those questions is: “Absolutely Not! And here’s four reasons why.”
1. God loves you with a great love. (5a)
2. God has placed the Holy Spirit in you. (5b)
3. God loved you with a great love. (6-10a)
4. God has placed you in Jesus Christ. (10b)
Today we will deal with the first of these four reasons why the true believer in Christ Jesus will never lose his salvation and be disappointed at the end of his earthly life.
1. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ we can have complete assurance of our salvation because God loves us with a great love. (5b)
Note that the very next phrase in verse 5 begins with the word “because”.
He starts this section with the word “because”, because he is going to give us the first reason why our eternal hope in Christ for salvation cannot be dashed, disappointed, ruined, or destroyed by anything we or anyone else, including God Himself can or will do.
Look at what Paul says is the basis of our eternal security: It is the Love of God for us.
He writes—“because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who was given to us.”
You see, the reason why we cannot lose our salvation is because God loves us with a great love, which is described here as being “poured out” within our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who was given to us.
In other words, God’s guarantee of our salvation is based upon the “amazing grace” of His divine love that has been poured out into our hearts.
In other words, the assurance of our hope of eternal salvation as believers has nothing to do with how well or how badly we have loved God but rather upon the fact that He loves us with a love that is greater than all of our sin.
The words “poured out within our hearts” mean to “flood our hearts to overfilling”. It has the idea of flooding an area to such an extent and for so long that whatever else was in that space has now been displaced and washed away.
With that picture in mind turn to 1 John 4:16-18.
Note the phrase in verse 18, “Perfect love—God’s Love—casts out fear.”
The words “casts out” come from the Greek word ballo, which means to throw, cast, vomit, push, propel, or displace.
It has the basic idea of forcing an object out of one place to another.
Thus, what God is saying in Romans 5:5 is that there is no need to be afraid of losing your salvation or having it diminished in any way because your salvation is secure in God’s love for you rather than in your love for Him and furthermore…
If you would just spend more time growing in your understanding and acceptance of His love for you than you do worrying about your love for Him you would come to experience His love in your heart, which when it is experienced displaces your fears of losing His acceptance and thereby losing your salvation.
But what about my sin issues? What about my besetting sins and lack of love for God? I mean shouldn’t I take these seriously and be concerned about them?
Sure, you should take them seriously and you should be working on them but as one old Presbyterian preacher put it--“The only people who get better are people who know that, if they never get better, God will love them anyway.”
Now that almost sounds like its OK to keep sinning as a Christian because God will love you anyway and if this is the case why not just keep on sinning?!
Well, after writing Romans 5 that is exactly the question Paul expected to hear, which is why he rhetorically asks in Romans 6:1 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?”
And of course his answer in verse 2 was “May it never be!”
But people’s misunderstanding of “God’s grace” and “God’s love” so as to think that they produce an environment for more and even greater sin is no reason to quit preaching God’s Grace and God’s love and the fact that, people misunderstand what God’s grace and love is all about—thinking they will just lead to more sin—is the evidence that you are correctly preaching them.
Listen, whereas the true believer does not want to continue in his sin and desires with all of his heart to be delivered from his sin—he must grasp onto this truth with all of his might if he is to ever make progress against his sin and again this truth is that—
“The only Christians who ever truly defeat their sin are those who know and believe with all their hearts that if they don’t, God will love them anyway!”
These are the sentiments of a Christian who has come to know and believe the love God has for him and thus this is a believer whose assurance of salvation is grounded and rooted not in himself and his spiritual performance but in God and God’s love which is poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit of God.
CONCLUSION
One of the obvious questions that arises about this time is:
If the basis of my assurance of salvation is rooted and grounded in God’s love for me and furthermore, in experiencing His love for me…Can you tell me how I can know with some sense of objectivity that God’s love has indeed flooded my soul when my emotions are fighting against me?
Well, actually there are probably a number of ways to determine this but probably the best way is seen is described for us in 1 John 4:19, which teaches us that—
“We love God because He first loved us.”
In other words, the objective proof that God’s love has been poured out within your heart by the Holy Spirit of God is that as a result you love God.
Listen, if you have a desire for God. A desire to know Him, to obey Him, to worship Him, to praise Him, to commune with Him, to love Him more and more. . . . you need to realize and understand that the only reason you have these desires is because God’s love has been poured out within your heart.
As Blaise Pascal wrote: “Thou wouldst not be seeking Me unless thou hadst already found me.”
You see a person who desires Christ is a person who already has Him.
Is it possible for you as a Christian to so screw up your life that you lose your salvation?
Absolutely Not! Because God’s love for you as His child is greater than all your sin and shame.
No comments:
Post a Comment