Our Assurance of Salvation

January, February, March 2000

Introduction

As we welcome this new year, we are not only embarking on a new quarter, a new year, or even a new century but on a brand-new millennium! This occurred only once before since the time of Christ. How fitting it is, then, to launch this new millennium with this crucial message and mission subject of our assurance of salvation in Christ.

Christians who have experienced the rebirth by the Holy Spirit often wonder whether they can be sure of salvation. This question of assurance arises especially when believers realize that their self-centered nature is still present and their character flaws have not all disappeared. It is then that the joy of salvation seems to evaporate. They ask how it is still possible to be sure of salvation and of acceptance by God. This concern continues as long as we live in this natural body and in this broken world; and it can arise suddenly when adversity strikes or a serious illness crushes our plans for the future or when believers succumb to temptation and fall into sin.

Such a question can seriously affect not only our relationship to God and others but also our Christian witness. Can we be effective in our testimony about Jesus when we are unsure of our own salvation? James Montgomery Boice reminds us: "When Martin Luther was wrestling through these questions, prior to the Reformation, he was a monk shut up in a monastery. Afterward, when he knew that he had been saved by Christ's death and that God had justified him, he left the monastery to launch the Reformation. How can we launch out for God if we are shut up in a monastery of doubts?"-James Montgomery Boice, Foundations of the Christian Faith (Downer's Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1989), pp. 431, 432.

How can believers in Christ regain personal assurance of salvation for the present and for the future? How can they cultivate that blessed assurance in order to be a joyful and effective witness for Christ and His cause? This quarter's Bible Study Guide seeks to answer these questions. We plan to study the correlations of faith and the major revelations of God. We will touch on areas such as faith in: (1) the trustworthiness of the Scriptures; (2) Christ and His work on our behalf; (3) the plan of redemption; (4) the end-time assurances of God's accept-ing love; (5) His judgments at the end of time; and (6) His last promises in the book of Revelation. In the process we will learn about the saving and sanctifying knowledge and power of Jesus. Some examples from biblical and church history will illuminate our journey of discovery and clarify the issues of a blessed assurance and a false certainty. As our basic motto we adopt the admonition of Peter: "Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Pet. 3:17, 18, NIV).