What is the "Gospel"?

by Keith Comparetto

 

Table of Contents

Part One: Preface & Introduction

Part Two: The Lessons of Church History

Part Three: A Closer Look at Scripture

Part Four: Seeing, but not Perceiving

Part Five: Closing Thoughts

 

Part Three: A Closer Look At Scripture

The above facts may sound like dry historical trivia, but we would be wise to be aware of the ideas that have shaped the way we think about Scripture, for rarely in any age do Christians read the Bible in a vacuum.  And as people of the Book, we must understand that the final details of God’s revelation of salvation were given in the writings of the New Testament, not in the writings of primarily 20th century theologians who, whether from good intentions or otherwise have infected our churches with an easy-believe mentality that underlies their entire program. 

Consider the following scenario which can be found to some degree in many evangelical churches today. An individual’s acceptance into the church is usually based on whether he could remember a time when he believed the truths of the gospel and had a “born-again experience.”  One’s “salvation testimony” usually recounts when it happened, where it happened, and how he felt when it happened.  If such a person becomes cold and indifferent to spiritual truth, we are much too quick to say he is “not right with God,” “carnal,” “not walking with the Lord,” or “backslidden.”  Preachers give constant appeals for apathetic “Christians” to “come back” to God or to “get right” with Him, despite the hard truth presented in such Scriptures as Col. 1:22-23, which says that Christ died “to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight––if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard” – thus indicating that those who become cold and indifferent should first be considered lost. 

Of course even true Christians may be found in various stages of development and maturity; but if God has indeed saved a person, that salvation has great power and meaning.  A powerless salvation, at any age or at any stage, is not a genuine one, for, as Spurgeon said, “Beloved, believe in God to keep you faithful and earnest all your life…take a ticket all the way through…Other tickets are forgeries.”

The New Theology

God has placed within His Word many warnings directed at those who fellowship among the saints but are, in truth, children of Satan.  They are the tares among the wheat Jesus spoke of, and in most cases are blind to their own condition, for as Scripture says, “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked – who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9).  This natural blind and deceived condition is exacerbated by the preaching they are hearing, which dogmatically holds to interpretations that are rarely found among Christian authors prior to the late 1800’s.  We do not suggest that there is no room for differences of interpretation of individual passages among good men; but when the Scriptures are always preached with the same bent (as in the following examples), with regular invitations for backsliders to “get right with God," the result can destroy people’s souls.  Some of these modern interpretations include the following: 

1.  Old Testament backsliding passages such as Isaiah 5, the parable of the wild grapes, are preached as if spoken to genuine Christians who backslide and can fall to the point where God must "burn their hedge," "tear down their wall," and "trample them down," terms which are interpreted to refer to a ruined Christian life.  This is a classic modern easy-believe interpretation: to parallel the wickedness of national Israel to that of a backsliding Christian.  This is an unsound interpretation for a number of reasons: 

We must be very careful about coming to conclusions about Scripture that will justify the wicked and weaken the church (Proverbs 24:24; Jeremiah 8:11, 23:16-22; Ezekiel 13:22, etc.).  Isaiah says that we should “tremble at God’s words” (Isaiah 66:2), and the above passages should cause us to fear, lest we also should fall away, for only they who endure to the end, by God’s grace, are the truly saved, as is taught all throughout the New Testament (Matthew 10:22, Luke 8:15, Romans 2:7, 11:22, Colossians 1:23, 1 Timothy 4:16, Hebrews 3:14, James 1:12, 1 John 2:24, Revelation 2:10-11, etc.). 

2.  Passages using biblical terminology which typically applies to the wicked are routinely preached as referring to Christians.  To preach that Christians can be the object of God’s wrath and fiery indignation (as is often preached in Hebrews 10:27); calling Christians “sinners,” “adulterers and adulteresses,” “enemies of God,” (as often preached in James 4); saying a Christian can backslide to the point where God will “abhor you” (as in Leviticus 26), and your life will be “laid waste” (as preached in Isaiah 5) confuses the difference, as pointed out above, between “My people” as unbelieving Israel and “My people” as the saved remnant.  It also fails to give proper place to the loving Father-son relationship between God and His true children, “the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’” The negative terms cited above are not compatible with this familial relationship.

Another example of this tendency is the description of the people in the church at Laodicaea in Revelation 3:13-20, using adjectives that Scripture frequently applies to the unsaved: “wretched,” “miserable,” “blind,” and “naked.”  We must ask, Can a believer, one of God’s elect, be so repugnant to God that He would vomit His own child, whom He sees as righteous – though only by the blood of Christ – out of His mouth?  Though this passage is routinely preached as if the Laodicaeans were believers who had become lukewarm or complacent in their service to God, consider that the Lord advises them with words indicative of their need for salvation, especially “white raiment” suggesting the white robes of salvation, and “eye salve” to heal the spiritual blindness of a lost person.  While there is certainly an application to Christians in this and the other passages mentioned above, sobering words like these, as most older commentators believed, always carry a warning to counterfeit Christians.

3.  New Testament apostasy (falling-away) passages, such as those in the book of Hebrews (chapters 2 & 3; 6:1-7; 10:26-31, and others), are preached as if speaking to backsliders, not to those who are lost.  Few if any great preachers or commentators I know of prior to the 20th century take such a view of Hebrews.  In fact, most write that the book of Hebrews contains many serious warnings to those in the church who are trusting in false confidences, and thus are lost.  If these passages are preached assuming they refer to true Christians, our pastoral challenges for people to come back to God from their backslidden condition are powerless because our hearers have already been given a theological underpinning for believing that they can live in a long-term, cold-hearted condition and merely be “backslidden,” and still get to heaven in the end! Spurgeon said to such presumptuous professors,

Beware, I pray thee, of presuming that thou art saved. If thy heart be renewed, if thou shalt hate the things that thou didst once love, and love the things that thou didst once hate; if thou hast really repented; if there be a thorough change of mind in thee; if thou be born again, then thou hast reason to rejoice; but if there be no vital change, no inward godliness; if there be no love to God, no prayer, no work of the Holy Spirit, then thy saying ‘I am saved’ is but thine own assertion, and it may delude, but it will not deliver thee.”

4.  The hard sayings of Jesus, in which He sets forth His terms of discipleship, are preached as good principles for all Christians to follow, but not necessary for salvation.  One such saying is Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  Although most notable earlier authors believe this passage sets forth the terms of the gospel which applies to any who would claim Christ as their own, it is generally presented today, adhering to the newer Scofield-Ryrie interpretation, as a series of levels to which aspiring believers may attain.  Fifty years ago, A.W. Pink said, in upholding the older view:
No one can receive Christ as his Savior while he rejects Him as Lord. It is true, the preacher adds, that the one who accepts Christ should also surrender to Him as Lord, but he at once spoils it by asserting that, though the convert fails to do so, nevertheless Heaven is sure to him. That is one of the Devil’s lies. 

Another of Jesus' "hard sayings" is Matthew 16:24-26: “Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?'” Modern preachers and commentators claim that these verses tell Christians how they can be more “spiritual” if they take their faith to this level, perhaps similar to how an average athlete becomes a super, Olympics athlete.  Yet an important clue is in the context of the passage, for why are the verses above followed by a verse warning a person about losing his soul?

5.  The parables of Jesus, most often given as warnings to false professors (such as the very religious, but very lost, Pharisees), are preached today not as salvation passages but as moral lessons for Christians – for example, the seed and the sower is seen as a parable about how the Word of God falls on the hearts of Christians.   But the passage indicates that only one of the four bears any fruit, thus only one is saved.  To preach it otherwise is to allow those who are “unfruitful” because they are, for example, distracted by riches and the cares of this world, to be deceived into a false sense of security.

Another parable is the prodigal son, often preached today as a story of a Christian coming back from a backslidden condition, rather than as a story of salvation.  It is indeed, first of all, a story of salvation:  Jesus used it to convey to the Pharisees why He bypassed them and went directly to the publicans and sinners, and perhaps even to foreshadow God’s intention to offer salvation to the gentiles – thus, the anger and jealousy of the second brother, representing the Jews. 

But this parable is also a beautiful picture of an individual’s salvation:  the unsaved person takes the provision of his Maker and squanders it on riotous living; because of the natural consequences of ungodly behavior, he finds himself in a pitiful condition; in his despair, he “comes to himself” (i.e., he is “enlightened”), then comes to his father in deep repentance, much as the publican who prayed, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”  His father, like God, has been awaiting his return, kisses him, and puts “the best robe” – the robe of righteousness – on him.  To make this into a Christian backslider story denigrates the life-changing power of God’s saving grace, because it makes it to be of so little value that it could not keep a sinner from such a woeful condition:  “He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake!”

6.  The "carnal Christians" passage in 1 Corinthians 3:1-15 is interpreted as referring to a “carnal” (fleshly and worldly) class of Christians who remain in that state for an indefinite period of time.  This interpretation, however, is not being honest with an important passage of Scripture. The people here are described as being guilty of somewhat carnal behaviors, namely, following celebrity preachers, and the disunity that resulted from it.  Paul is not speaking here of a chronic condition, a condition which Charles Ryrie (author of the Ryrie Study Bible) defends when he says, “Certainly we can admit that if there can be hours and days when a believer can be unfruitful, then why may there not also be months and even years when he can be in that condition?”  This takes human reasoning to the extreme, for the Bible tells us that a true Christian is as Charles Spurgeon said: “If the grace of God has really changed you, you are radically and lastingly changed.”  Since Romans 8:6 tells us that “to be carnally minded is death,” we can understand why Paul and other New Testament writers would later warn those who persisted in such behaviors to examine their professions of faith to be sure they were genuine, as in 1 Corinthians 15:2, 2 Corinthians 13:5, and many other passages. 

1 Corinthians 3 then continues in vv. 11-15, "For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire."  This portion is also used to support the carnal Christian doctrine, but in context, Paul is referring to the carnality of following preachers and not Christ.  Verses 11-15 continue in this vein, as a message to preachers that their churches are not to be built on men but on Christ.  Preachers who allow their churches to aggrandize their own gifts and personalities, though they be otherwise godly and sincere as Christians, will be saved but not rewarded for their church-building labors.  There is nothing here to support a doctrine of a long-term, self-pleasing, flesh-feeding, world-embracing, "carnal Christian."

7.  Warnings to the unsaved within the church, which appear throughout the epistles, are seen as speaking only to genuine Christians.  This popular interpretation often rests largely on the evidence that these inspired letters are addressed to “the brethren,” “the saints,” “the church,” “all who are sanctified.”  But this argument goes against the vast body of solid, Biblical Christian commentary prior to the 20th century, and it disregards a rather simple but vitally important scriptural principle:  that unsaved people often congregate with God's people, and thus, the greeting of a biblical epistle does not exclude the possibility that the author is speaking to “tares” that may be growing among the “wheat.”  As Charles Hodge points out, regarding Paul's introduction to his letters to the Corinthians,

It is not to be inferred from the fact that the apostle addresses all the nominal Christians in Corinth as saints and as sanctified in Christ Jesus, that they were all true believers, or that those terms express nothing more than external consecration. Men are uniformly addressed in Scripture according to their profession.

In fact, it could be argued that virtually all of the New Testament writers, despite their use of similar introductions, put forth clear warnings to the unsaved:   

Sin and the Christian

Those who preach the above interpretations would say they are simply acknowledging the presence of sin in the life of the Christian, which is indeed true, for the Bible says, "there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin" (Ecclesiastes 7:20).  Even for the Christian, John says that “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).  In fact, I would suggest that no one is more aware of the reality of sin in his life than a true Christian.  To deny it would be prideful, unreasonable and unbiblical:  “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).  As Christians, we are painfully aware of our own remaining sin, as Paul was when he admitted that “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice,” and then cried out, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:19, 24).  But here is one of the differences between the sin of a false professor and that of a true Christian.  "For the false professor," someone has said, "sin is his couch of ease; but for the true Christian, it is his bed of thorns."  Spurgeon said it this way: “The man who is converted cannot live as he likes; or rather, he is so changed by the Holy Spirit that if he could live as he likes, he would never sin.” 

But we are on dangerous ground when we begin comparing ourselves with "sinning saints" in Scripture.  The case of Old Testament saints is especially significant.  Lot, who “pitched his tent toward Sodom,” though he was “oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked” [i.e., "vexed" or “troubled” by it], is nowhere said to have participated in their wicked behavior.  Even the cowardly offering of his daughters to the wicked men of Sodom was, as far as the text tells us, a one-time event and not a lifelong behavior, and it is noteworthy that even in such a wicked city as Sodom, we are told that his daughters were still virgins.  Samson, the Old Testament judge, is another interesting case study; it seems that, in modern times, his character has been unfairly impugned and his sins grossly misinterpreted, especially when we consider that he is honored in Hebrews 11:32 as a great man of faith.  Likewise, when we consider David, it is natural to think of the enormity of his sin and say, “Look how far David went into sin!”  Yet we find that the sin and its cover-up occupied him for only a few months, just over a year at the most, and when he was confronted with it, he, like Peter in the New Testament, immediately repented and wept bitterly, as recorded in Psalm 38:3-6: 

There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your anger, nor any health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds are foul and festering because of my foolishness. I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. 

In other words, David responded to his sin as a true believer, and when we look at his life through his writings, we see a man who loved God with such intensity that God called him “a man after God’s own heart.”  "We had best not think we can sin like David," one of the old divines wrote, "until we can repent like David." 

Another common example of a so-called "backsliding believer" is Jonah, who ran from God, yet the time span of his sin as presented in the book is only a day or so, and he was immediately, severely and supernaturally chastised.  Solomon is much more of an enigma, but we must admit that there is much we do not know about him.  We do not know the exact timeline of his life:  when he was saved, which of his books were written when, etc.  Furthermore, the doctrine of Old Testament salvation is in itself difficult to know with precision.  Certainly it was by faith – "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness" – which manifested itself in obedience toward God, just as in the New Testament.  But the reality of an indwelling Spirit of God, residing permanently in every true believer, was quite possibly different in the Old Testament, as Jesus indicates when He announces the sending of the Comforter, God's Holy Spirit, as something heretofore unknown (John 14:16-17). Likewise, there is no mention of a New Birth in the Old Testament; however, it is not only spoken of, but mandatory in the New Testament:  “You must be born again.”  In any case, we cannot take these Old Testament figures, or our own personal experiences, to contradict the plain meaning of other Scriptures, and we should not build a doctrine of salvation based on incomplete information in the Old Testament when we have a more perfect explanation of it in the New Testament. 

Likewise, New Testament characters do not furnish us with adequate support for a "carnal Christian" doctrine.  Peter is often the brunt of preacher jokes for his impetuous personality and his denial of Jesus by the enemy's fire.  But we also see Peter's great sorrow in Matthew 26:25 when he heard the rooster crow the third time:  "And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, 'Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.' So he went out and wept bitterly" (Matthew 26:25). 

John Mark is also often viewed as a backslider, but the truth is, we know very little about him.  We know only that Paul “thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work,” but that later, Paul wrote to Timothy, “Take Mark, and bring him with you: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.”  He does not say that he was once “unprofitable,” and we ought not to presume he was "backslidden” when we know nothing of the reason Mark departed from them. Evidently Barnabas, also a godly man, did not seem troubled by Mark’s departure.  Perhaps Mark did not feel the Spirit was leading him in that direction, or that he was qualified for the ministry with Paul at that time.   Perhaps it was simply a matter of spiritual immaturity, butwe have no grounds to extrapolate that Mark walked away from the Lord or got involved in long-time serious sin, and thus was an example of the modern “backslider,” when the text does not tell us so. 

In any case, whether Old Testament or New, our model of Christian behavior is Christ, and the great saints when they are at their best, as presented to us in Hebrews 11.  The faults of sinning saints, however we perceive them, are not recorded for our encouragement in sin, or for our comfort when we sin, but, according to 1 Cor. 10:6-11),  as examples that we would not do as they did.  The true believer's comfort, when he sins, is not in the sins of others, but in Christ alone.

The Indivisible Truth

Again, we are not preaching that sinless perfection is attainable in this life.  But if we say a Christian can look just like the unsaved person for indefinite periods of time, we make a mockery of 2 Corinthians 5:17, which says that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new,” a truth that is reinforced throughout the Bible, including the following passages.  Portions which are especially relevant to our theme are underlined.

Psalm 23:1-3:  “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.”  How many will trust Psalm 23:4, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,” as God’s preparing them for death, while forgetting that the rest of the Psalm declares God’s work in the believer for life?  Salvation is a sovereign work of God, with power to lead the believer into righteousness:  "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). Sanctification is God’s work, and it is done in all Christians, so that only He gets the glory.  This is indeed the gospel the Apostles preached, and the one “that you received.”  How is God glorified in a salvation that leaves a person in a condition little different from his natural state?

Proverbs 2:6-8:  “For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding; He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly; He guards the paths of justice, And preserves the way of His saints” We are commanded in Proverbs 4:23, “Keep your heart with all diligence,” but according to Proverbs 2:6-8,  there is an unseen power making it possible for us to keep that commandment.

Romans 2:5-9:  “But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who "will render to each one according to his deeds": eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self–seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness––indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil…”  Those who are perpetually “backslidden” should see which half of this verse applies to them, and should be fearing the wrath of God, not the absence of rewards.

Romans 6:12-22:  "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.... But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.  The fruit of salvation, though I have omitted a portion of the passage which acknowledges the weakness of the flesh, is stated as a fact, not as a should be.

Romans 8:1, 6, 9, 13-14:  “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.... For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.... But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His....  For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.  (This distinguishes a spiritual walk from a fleshly one in terms of saved and lost, not in terms of "spiritual Christian" and "carnal Christian.")

2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” The one who is truly saved ("in Christ") is, not merely ought to be, a new creation.  The true Christian loves God, which is evidenced by the reality that he now longs for Him and delights in His Word, Psalm 119:174!  The truth is as Spurgeon said:  “Many people think that when we preach salvation, we mean salvation from going to Hell.  We do mean that, but we mean a great deal more… we mean that He is able to save him from sin and make him a new man.”

Galatians 5:22-24:  “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self–control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires..”  Note that it says they “have crucified,” not “should crucify.”

Colossians 1:21-23:  “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight–– if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard...”  Most of us know many professing Christians who fall away into deep sin.  Many will never come back to church, and of them we will rightly say, “They went out from us…that it might be made manifest that they were not of us.”  But many others will eventually come back to church or “back to the Lord” when they are burdened by their own guilt, a natural consequence of sin even in an unsaved person, which demonstrates “the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another” (Romans 2:15).  Some of these will even come back with great joy and become excited and active in the church again, but if Biblical salvation is indeed as this verse describes it, these people need to be seriously questioned about their salvation before they are accepted back into the embrace of the assembly of saints. 

But this verse has further implications. If those who choose to remain in what they admit to be a “backslidden” condition would consider that they are not just sacrificing closeness to God but are playing with their eternal destiny, many would consider their condition more carefully – for it is not saying a prayer or making an emotional profession that brings one to salvation, but as Jesus said, we must “strive to enter in at the narrow gate,” for wide is the way that leads to destruction, but narrow is the way that leads to life.  Or, as Peter wrote, “Be diligent to make your calling and election sure.”

1 Timothy 4:16:  “Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.”  Do those who tell of a salvation experience but then grow cold and indifferent to the things of God have a right to boast confidently that they are saved?  And who could imagine that Paul would have to remind even Timothy of this warning?

Titus 2:13-14:  “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”  If this does not happen in an apparently saved person’s life, or if it happens but then they fall away, what does it say about their “redemption”?

Hebrews 8:8-10:  “…Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah––not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”  This passage quotes Jeremiah 31:31-33, echoed in Ezekiel 36:26-28, words spoken to Israel which speak of a day when God will supernaturally change their hearts to obey Him, and will remember their sin no more. This Hebrews passage then goes on to indicate that this prophecy was now coming to pass with the coming of Christ – i.e., it is a description of every New Testament believer.  Some, including many of the Puritans, believed it may also have a national fulfillment at a future time.

1 John 2:3-5:  “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.”  Does one whose life is characterized by a continual struggle with serious sin and with a lack of love towards God and His Word have the right to be confident about his salvation?

Jude 1:24:  "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.”  Certainly, any Christian can fall into sin, sometimes even for an extended period of time, but again, the issue is whether such a person can confidently insist that he is saved.

Biblical Assurance

The above passages should rejoice the heart of the true believer who sees God working in him “both to will and to do.”   However, it must be asserted that it is possible to have true faith and yet lack assurance.  "This infallible assurance," says the Westminster and 1689 Confessions, "is not an essential part of faith, for a true believer may wait a long time, and struggle with many difficulties before obtaining it."  On the other hand, it is also possible to have assurance without genuine saving faith. as the same Confessions point out:  "Temporary believers and other unregenerate people may deceive themselves with futile and false hopes and unspiritual presumptions that they are in favour with God and in a state of salvation, but their hope will perish."  The balance between these two undesirable conditions, which would be biblical assurance, is one that cannot be understood aside from both Bible knowledge and genuine Christian experience:  "Yet those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love him in sincerity, and endeavour to walk in all good conscience before him, may be certainly assured in this life that they are in the state of grace" (all from the 1689 Modernized by A. Kerkham).  These quotations may seem strange to those familiar only with modern evangelical theology and practice, but a careful study of Scripture will bear these statements out.

First, understand that we believe God desires that all of His saints would have the assurance that they have been partakers of the grace of God. “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God” (1 John 3:21). Just as the Israelites were told that God would work miracles among them “that you may know that I am the LORD,” every New Testament saint upon salvation is given the inner witness of “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,” “the guarantee [or “down payment”] of our inheritance,” which works in the inner man resulting in “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints”  (Ephesians 1:14-19). 

But assurance in this modern age has become, in most evangelical circles, an end in itself, to be held almost as a basic right of all church members who have grown up in the church, been baptized, prayed a sinner’s prayer, walked an aisle or signed a decision card during an invitation, whether or not they have experienced or give evidence of these workings of the Spirit.  However, assurance has never been given out as cheaply as it is today. Those who struggle over assurance are often counseled for the quick cure, as if the problem is merely a matter of learning or assimilating a Bible verse or two.  A popular verse used for such purposes is 1 John 5:13, which says, “These things I have written to you, that you may know that you have eternal life…”  This verse is often misunderstood to support the notion that a lack of confidence about one’s salvation, or causing others to lack confidence, is not of faith or is even sinful; thus, it is often pointed out to a new “convert” to give him immediate assurance.  It is also used in appeals given from pulpits such as, “How many of you know for sure you are going to heaven?”  

The above appeals, however, fail to consider, first, that self-deceit about one’s soul is the natural state of the unsaved man, and giving Bible verses out of context that perpetuate that self-deceit can lead one to hell.  God-given assurance does not come from the Bible alone; it is the combined result of (1) the truths of God’s Word, (2) an individual’s awareness of them, (3) the evidences of saving grace working in his life, and (4) the inner witness of the Holy Spirit – the last three of which cannot be known by any other human being.  To carelessly impart assurance to a new convert before we see these evidences is extremely dangerous, as pointed out by Dr. John Duncan, who observed in the late 19th century, “When the doctrine of assurance [as] being necessarily contained in faith (as to be essential to it) gets into a church, in the second generation it gets habituated to the use of the highest appropriating language by dead, carnal men.”  I fear that this describes most churches in our day.

Scripture teaches clearly that assurance is only for those whose life and affections back up their testimony:  “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him” (1 John 3:18-19).  We can’t take 1 John 5:13 out of context and ignore the rest of the book, which is a self-test by which those who profess salvation may determine whether or not they are in the faith.  John repeatedly points out that mere words do not make a true saint:  “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do practice the truth” (1 John 1:6);  “If someone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar” (1 John 4:20);  “He that says, I know him, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4);  “He that says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness even until now” (1 John 2:9).  Why are we overly eager to claim the assurance of 1 John 5:13, while at the same time ignoring or glossing over the discomfiting implications of all of these verses and others in the same book, such 1 John 2:15, which says, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him”?

Another favorite “assurance passage” often given is 2 Peter 1:19:  “We have also a more sure word of prophecy,” and is used to indicate that we base our salvation on the Bible, not on our feelings.  A common pulpit appeal is for people to raise their hands if they would like to know from the Bible how they can go to heaven.  It is true that the Bible is indeed the source of all we can know about salvation; but one must evaluate one’s own condition not only on what the Bible says about the facts of salvation, but about the fruits of salvation.  If the person lacks assurance, they first need to determine if their life, not their memory of an experience, gives evidence of true salvation – or bears the “marks of grace,” as some Puritans expressed it. If they are not sure, they should be advised to spend time in God’s Word and on their knees, and allow Him to give assurance or take it away.  As for re-praying the sinner’s prayer “just in case,” it has no biblical basis; it accomplishes nothing, and could indeed make one more a child of hell than he is already.

I would suggest that the widespread use of these unbiblical assurance teachings and misguided appeals in evangelical Christianity is the great error of our day, and has resulted in an almost unreachable generation of fruitless professors, like those of whom Spurgeon said,
They say they are saved, and they stick to it; they simply are, and they think it wicked to doubt it; but yet they have no reason to warrant their confidence. There is a great difference between presumption and full assurance.  Full assurance is reasonable: it is based on solid ground.  Presumption takes for granted, and with brazen face pronounces that to be its own to which it has no right whatever.

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth

Some would argue that, because Christians are repeatedly told to do certain things, it is of course possible that they are able to be in a state of not doing them.  In a sense this is technically possible – akin to saying that Jesus could have sinned because God can do anything – but it ignores other biblical truths that must be considered if we are to "rightly divide the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15).  For example, we are told in Jude 1:21, “keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”  But 1 Peter 1:5 says Christians “are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”  Likewise, James 4:7 says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you,” but 2 Thessalonians 3:3 promises that “the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you and keep you from evil.”  Titus 2:11 lays the responsibility for godly living on us when it commands, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.”  But in the next verses we are given the wonderful promise that our Savior “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous of good works.”   Philippians 2:12 commands us to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”; yet the next verse tells us, “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”  In 1Thessalonians 5:22 we are told, “Abstain from all appearance of evil,” yet 2 Timothy 4:18 pronounces it done:  “And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen!” 

When these passages are considered in balance, "rightly divided," it is clear that Christians should do these things, but that does not negate the fact that Christians are these things.  This is a very humbling truth, for it gives all the glory, not only for our salvation but for our sanctification, to God alone. The modern church, in making sanctification something we must do in order to please God or obtain fulfillment in the Christian life, has thus unwittingly made living the Christian life a matter of works and not of grace; thus, Paul's admonition to the legalistic Galatians should not be lightly dismissed today: “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3).