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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Ways of Knowing

One of the huge complaints Roman Catholicism threw up against Reformation theology was that whole "You can know that you're saved" concept. "No!" they shouted (metaphorically), "You can't know that! You can't know it until you get there." The concern was that, knowing that you're saved, you could just live a life of profligate sinning. Interestingly, Jesus shared something of that concern. He said, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness'" (Matt 7:21-23). In fact, if you're paying attention to Scripture, it is full of dire warnings about continuing, remaining, working, not falling away ... over and over and over.

What, then, are we to conclude? Is it true what the Pope says? Is it not possible to know that you have eternal life? Ah, you see, now we have a problem! Because John wrote his entire first epistle on this premise.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13).
Interesting! "That you may know." So John is not saying "You cannot know" or John, as we might say in the vernacular, was an idiot. He contradicted Jesus who warned about the many who would think they were His and weren't and he contradicted all those other warning passages and, well, let's face it, John needs to be deleted from the Bible. Or ... perhaps those who claim that you can't know are wrong and the Bible is right. Now that might be a possibility.

So, if it is true that the Bible is right and John was not mistaken and you can know, there are two considerations. First, does the Bible elsewhere support John's position and, second, it begs the question: How can you know? So, what about that? Does the Bible suggest anywhere else but in John's first epistle that you can know? As it turns out, it does.

Paul told Timothy, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day" (2 Tim 1:12). He told the Philippians, "I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil 1:6). And Paul wasn't alone. Jude wrote, "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen" (Jude 1:24-25). In his Gospel John wrote, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him" (John 3:36) which closely followed Jesus's own words, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God" (John 3:17-18). (See also John 5:24.) "Is not condemned." "Has eternal life." Over and over and over there is assurance offered. Elsewhere John writes, "We know that we have passed from death unto life ..." (1 John 3:14) (and gives an answer to the second question we face) and "Hereby we do know that we know Him ..." (1 John 2:3-4) (and does it again). Over and over again we find passages that tell us we can have genuine confidence that we are saved.

So ... how can we know? Well, that, too, is an oft-repeated concept. John in the passages I've just mentioned says, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren" (1 John 3:14) and "And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep His commandments" (1 John 2:3). Two indicators. But there are lots and lots more. Peter said we should be diligent to make our calling and election sure by this method:
Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love (2 Peter 1:5-7).
There's a list for you. But it's a list by which, "if these qualities are yours and are increasing" (2 Peter 1:8), you can make your calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10). Jesus said, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (John 14:15) (and, conversely, "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love" (John 15:10)). Paul wrote, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Rom 8:16). Hebrews says, "If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons" (Heb 12:8), so those who experience God's discipline have a measure of certainty. And didn't Jesus, in His warning about the "many", give an indication of who it would be? "The one who does the will of My Father." This list goes on and on. James tells us that faith without works is dead (James 2:17). Thus, living, saving faith is demonstrated by works. John said that the one born of God cannot make a practice of sin (1 John 3:9), so you can ask yourself, "Am I comfortable with sin? Do I defend it? Do I continue in it?" That would be a problem. And Paul gave us the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23) as a measure to tell if the Spirit is at work in us. Lots and lots. As I said, the entire book of First John is written for this purpose, so there are lots of points in there in which to examine yourself to see if you're in the faith.

These are the two extremes where error occurs. One is to say, "I cannot know that I am born of God." This stands in stark contrast to Scripture and denies the One who bought you. It denies John's first epistle and every other reference to reasons by which we can say that we belong to Christ. The other error is to say, "There is nothing to be concerned about." The Bible is full of warnings, tests, cautions, commands to be careful. Paul told the Corinthians, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you fail to meet the test!" (2 Cor 13:5). So self-examination is necessary and caution is required. There will be many who deceive themselves into a false sense of assurance. Jesus promised the number would be "many". So avoid the two errors. Test yourself, but don't conclude that you can never know ... because the Bible assumes you can. I'd suggest going with the biblical view.

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