What do you do with people like Jim, Janice, Tom, Willie, and Kate who all profess to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, are living for Him, desire to know Him better, want to experience Him even more deeply, and who faithfully give themselves to church attendance and personal Bible study, yet still intensely struggle with a lack of assurance when it comes to their salvation? Well, if the truth be known, probably many of you reading this post including myself sometimes find ourselves in the same boat with the people I mentioned above. And while there are many reasons why truly born again believers struggle with doubts about their salvation one of the most common and recurring causes is that we focus too much on what we can't see and not enough on Him Who can see what we can't see.
Now, before going any further, let me just add this qualifier. I'm not interested in making
unbelievers feel saved when they're not. Nor am I wanting to give comfort to professing believers whose doubts of assurance are the result of unrepentant and unconfessed sin. No, my intent here is simply to provide some encouragement and comfort to those true believers who, because of spiritual concern and tendency toward negative introspection, sometimes find themselves overwhelmed with doubts that perhaps they really are not believers at all because maybe, just maybe, the faith they thought they placed in Christ wasn't quite what it should have been. Maybe, they wonder if their faith was strong enough, genuine enough, well-informed enough, passionate enough, theological enough, committed enough, or even communicated to God well enough. And because they can't go back to the day, hour, and moment of their profession of faith to investigate all these possible deficiencies in their faith they doubt even more. And because the stakes are so high....life eternal with Christ or life eternal without Him.....can you blame them for being concerned?!
The problem that I see in these folks' struggle is that they seem to have a tendency to be trusting more in their faith than in the proper object of their faith--Jesus Himself. Now let me tell you a story from the Old Testament that I think can help people like them......hmmm.....and like us when the doubts begin to assail our faith and threaten to unravel it.
The story comes right out of Exodus 12. If you're thinking--Passover--you're right! Exodus 12 is where God gives Moses the instructions for the Passover. Now, most of us Bible reading, Bible believing, and sometimes Bible-doubting Christians know the story. We know, for instance, that God told Moses to have every family select an unblemished male lamb to live with them for four days and then on the evening of the fourth day (14th day of the month) the lamb was to be killed. Its blood was then to be collected in a basin so that an unspecified amount of it could be painted on the outside door frame (two door posts and the lintel) of the house. Then, once this was done and the lamb was roasted over the fire, the family was to shut the door, eat the Passover lamb and stay inside the house the rest of the night until morning. Then when the LORD saw the blood on the outside of the door frame He would not allow the death angel to kill the firstborn child in the family. If, however, there was no blood to see because there was no blood on the door the LORD would take the life of the family's firstborn.
Can you imagine being in one of those families? I mean here is a sample scenario of what I think may have actually taken place in some, if not many, of those homes. Once the blood was applied to the door frame and the door shut so that no one was to go back outside until morning can't you imagine dad wondering, as he looks at his firstborn son, if he had applied the right amount of blood or if he had applied it in exactly the right place? And of course the problem was that he couldn't go back outside to even see if the blood was still visible. I mean what if it soaked into the wood because he didn't put enough on or put it on thick enough and was no longer visible--how was God going to be able to see it. I am sure that he was tempted to go back outside several times that evening to check and make sure the blood was still there but he couldn't.
Finally, morning came and with it great relief as both mom and dad saw their oldest sleeping comfortably on the floor beside them. The night was over and they could go outside and see what really was, now, unecessary to see.......whether the blood was still there. And as each family went outside that morning they all noticed that whereas some had applied the blood thicker than others, some in wider and longer swaths than others, and some neater than others--wherever there was blood on the outside of the door frame their was life within the house.
You see what mattered was that the blood had been applied to where God said it needed to be applied. Whether it was applied extra thick or thin, with a broad hysopp brush or narrow, messy or neat simply did not matter. Whereas, there may have been trembling and anxious hearts within during the night, wondering, perhaps, how blood they could not see would keep their precious child safe they had to come to terms with the fact that even though they could not see it, God could and did and that's what mattered!
You see, no amount of fear on their part, no overwhelming doubts, no misgivings, and no weakness of faith was able to weaken or diminish in any way the potency of the blood of the lamb once it was applied. The blood was on the door and that was enough for God. The parents could not see it nor feel it but it was there and even in the midst of their doubts, down deep, they knew it was there but in order for sleep to come that night they had to believe that God also knew it was there because He could see what they were unable to.
So, what do we do with people like Jim, Janice, Tom, Willie, and Kate......people like us.....who having come to Christ as the refuge from the just punishment for their sins and thus who have had His blood applied to their lives still struggle with wondering if in the end they will be safe? We tell them that what God has promised God will do. We tell them that if God promised to apply His Son's blood to the lives of those who would believe in His Son for salvation thus, saving them from the just condemnation and penalty for their sins so as to give them eternal life then that is exactly what God has done. And regardless of whether they can see the blood or not, God does and that is all that matters!
Now, before going any further, let me just add this qualifier. I'm not interested in making
unbelievers feel saved when they're not. Nor am I wanting to give comfort to professing believers whose doubts of assurance are the result of unrepentant and unconfessed sin. No, my intent here is simply to provide some encouragement and comfort to those true believers who, because of spiritual concern and tendency toward negative introspection, sometimes find themselves overwhelmed with doubts that perhaps they really are not believers at all because maybe, just maybe, the faith they thought they placed in Christ wasn't quite what it should have been. Maybe, they wonder if their faith was strong enough, genuine enough, well-informed enough, passionate enough, theological enough, committed enough, or even communicated to God well enough. And because they can't go back to the day, hour, and moment of their profession of faith to investigate all these possible deficiencies in their faith they doubt even more. And because the stakes are so high....life eternal with Christ or life eternal without Him.....can you blame them for being concerned?!
The problem that I see in these folks' struggle is that they seem to have a tendency to be trusting more in their faith than in the proper object of their faith--Jesus Himself. Now let me tell you a story from the Old Testament that I think can help people like them......hmmm.....and like us when the doubts begin to assail our faith and threaten to unravel it.
The story comes right out of Exodus 12. If you're thinking--Passover--you're right! Exodus 12 is where God gives Moses the instructions for the Passover. Now, most of us Bible reading, Bible believing, and sometimes Bible-doubting Christians know the story. We know, for instance, that God told Moses to have every family select an unblemished male lamb to live with them for four days and then on the evening of the fourth day (14th day of the month) the lamb was to be killed. Its blood was then to be collected in a basin so that an unspecified amount of it could be painted on the outside door frame (two door posts and the lintel) of the house. Then, once this was done and the lamb was roasted over the fire, the family was to shut the door, eat the Passover lamb and stay inside the house the rest of the night until morning. Then when the LORD saw the blood on the outside of the door frame He would not allow the death angel to kill the firstborn child in the family. If, however, there was no blood to see because there was no blood on the door the LORD would take the life of the family's firstborn.Can you imagine being in one of those families? I mean here is a sample scenario of what I think may have actually taken place in some, if not many, of those homes. Once the blood was applied to the door frame and the door shut so that no one was to go back outside until morning can't you imagine dad wondering, as he looks at his firstborn son, if he had applied the right amount of blood or if he had applied it in exactly the right place? And of course the problem was that he couldn't go back outside to even see if the blood was still visible. I mean what if it soaked into the wood because he didn't put enough on or put it on thick enough and was no longer visible--how was God going to be able to see it. I am sure that he was tempted to go back outside several times that evening to check and make sure the blood was still there but he couldn't.
Finally, morning came and with it great relief as both mom and dad saw their oldest sleeping comfortably on the floor beside them. The night was over and they could go outside and see what really was, now, unecessary to see.......whether the blood was still there. And as each family went outside that morning they all noticed that whereas some had applied the blood thicker than others, some in wider and longer swaths than others, and some neater than others--wherever there was blood on the outside of the door frame their was life within the house.
You see what mattered was that the blood had been applied to where God said it needed to be applied. Whether it was applied extra thick or thin, with a broad hysopp brush or narrow, messy or neat simply did not matter. Whereas, there may have been trembling and anxious hearts within during the night, wondering, perhaps, how blood they could not see would keep their precious child safe they had to come to terms with the fact that even though they could not see it, God could and did and that's what mattered!
You see, no amount of fear on their part, no overwhelming doubts, no misgivings, and no weakness of faith was able to weaken or diminish in any way the potency of the blood of the lamb once it was applied. The blood was on the door and that was enough for God. The parents could not see it nor feel it but it was there and even in the midst of their doubts, down deep, they knew it was there but in order for sleep to come that night they had to believe that God also knew it was there because He could see what they were unable to.
So, what do we do with people like Jim, Janice, Tom, Willie, and Kate......people like us.....who having come to Christ as the refuge from the just punishment for their sins and thus who have had His blood applied to their lives still struggle with wondering if in the end they will be safe? We tell them that what God has promised God will do. We tell them that if God promised to apply His Son's blood to the lives of those who would believe in His Son for salvation thus, saving them from the just condemnation and penalty for their sins so as to give them eternal life then that is exactly what God has done. And regardless of whether they can see the blood or not, God does and that is all that matters!
No comments:
Post a Comment