Blessed Assurance

"If you die, will you go to heaven?" It seems like a simple question, and you'll likely get a straightforward answer ... depending on when you ask. Because the question is mainly not about facts, but about assurance. Whether or not you will go to heaven when you die is a fixed truth, but how you feel about it can vary. So "assurance" is confidence that we are saved. And for most of us that can be a variable.

For your own peace of mind, assurance is important. Lots of Christians can wonder, at least from time to time, "Am I really saved?" Paul described his conflict between his flesh and his mind in Romans 7. All Christians experience this. And there is an innate understanding that, in fact, "I'm not good enough." So is assurance possible ... or even safe? The Roman Catholics say, "No." It's dangerous to have assurance because that will lead to sin and sin will lead to lost salvation and ... well, it's not good. But John wrote, "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life." (1 John 5:13) Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life." (John 5:24) Note that, given the verb tenses, this is a past event in the life of a believer -- "has eternal life" and "has passed out of death into life." You can't pass in and out of eternal life. You either have eternal life or you don't, and if, once you have it, you lose it, it never was eternal, was it?

So the real question is "Do I have eternal life?" Or, perhaps, if the question is being asked, it is, "Have I ever had eternal life?" Whence comes this seemingly fleeting assurance?

There are those who will tell you that it's easy. Just look at your life. Are you godly? Voilà! Assurance. No? Then no assurance for you. But which of us feels we're godly? Godly enough? No, assurance doesn't come by reflection on our own lives. That is a fluctuating thing and if that was the measure, assurance would be a myth at best and a danger at worst. But we can know we have eternal life, so how?

Assurance is not our baby. It's God's. Assurance isn't found in my faith or my actions; it's found in God's faithfulness and God's promises. It's in Jude's doxology.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless 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)

It's in Jesus's certainty that "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, 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 the Father's hand." (John 10:27-29) )Notice Jesus's repetition. That's a standard Hebraism, where repeating something for emphasis is their version of italicizing and bold print.) Over and over again Scripture repeats this concept. We don't "keep God"; we are kept by God. We don't maintain our salvation; our salvation is maintained by God.

The question you need to ask, then, isn't "How confident am I that I am going to heaven?" because that's not your job. God saves and God keeps and we don't earn that or keep it (Gal 3:1-3). Have you believed? Now, Jesus warned of false believers (John 8:30-32), so "Yes, I once acknowledged Jesus" isn't the "believe" you're looking for. Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life." (John 5:24) There are repeated warnings that we must persevere in the faith. But that is what Christ accomplishes in us (Php 2:12-13). Because salvation, from faith to heaven, is God's work, not ours. That's what allows us to say, "I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day." (2 Tim 1:12) Those who belong to Christ will simply reflect that in changed hearts and changed lives. Because our assurance is in the finished work of Christ and the ongoing work of God in the lives of those who belong to Him, and He cannot fail.