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...that you may know that you have eternal life

The Biblical Teaching Of Assurance

Article 1: What is the Gospel

by Larry Harriman

This is the first article in a series of articles I will be writing on the topic of Assurance.

When we talk about someone's position on "Assurance" we are talking about how they view our post conversion life. The position one takes on assurance of salvation is not a light matter. It answers two of the most important questions for anyone who has trusted in Christ. Is righteous living required in order to maintain or prove the genuineness of my salvation? And ultimately the greatest question, can I loose my salvation? All of the advocates of the various positions believe that they are basing their belief on the Word of God. Where the differences come in is how we interpret the "promise" passages and how we interpret the "warning" passages.

A "promise" passage is one that at face value seems to suggest that a true believer can never lose his salvation. Some "warning" passages at face value seem to suggest that a true believer can loose his salvation. Where the primary differences come is how we interpret scripture. As conservatives we all agree that scripture interprets scripture and that the clearest passages interpret the less clear passages. But sometimes we disagree as to what scriptures are the clearest and which scriptures are more obscure and need to be interpreted by other passages.

What I will seek to demonstrate through this series of articles is that while there may be five main positions on the issue of assurance, there are really only two methods of interpretation in this matter.

We either interpret the promise passages in light of the warning passages or we interpret the warning passages in light of the promise passages. There are no other interpretational options to us. Some today have attempted to reconcile what they see as the "tension" between the promise and warning passages. Basically they are speaking out of two sides of their mouth and saying that our works have no part in our salvation - yet they do.

In upcoming articles we will deal with issues such as "what is fruit in the life of a believer", "what are works" and many other issues affecting assurance.

In the next article we will detail the various positions on assurance. But before we can delve into positions on assurance we need to understand what the Gospel is.

Our modern English word "Gospel" comes from the old English word "godspel". "god" in the sense of this word meant "good" and "spel" meant "news". So the English word Gospel literally means "good news". The English language was still in its infancy when the word "godspel" or "Gospel" as we spell it today was used to translate the Greek word "euaggelizo" from the New Testament. The Greek word "euaggelizo" was based off two words "Eu" meaning "good" and "Aggelos" meaning "message". Many times "Aggelos" by itself is translated from the New Testament as "Angel" or "messenger". So we can rest assured that our English word Gospel is actually a very literal translation of what the original Greek word meant.

So now that we know that the word Gospel means "good news", what is the "good news" according to the New Testament?

The "good news" is that God sent his Son into the world to die on a cross at Calvary to pay for the sins of mankind. John 3:16 and Romans 10:9 - 10 are perhaps the clearest presentations in all the New Testament of what the Gospel is.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16(NIV)

"9That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." Romans 10:9-10(NIV)

Romans chapter 10 says we must confess, "Jesus is Lord". From our English translation we can think of Lord in two ways, one as referring to an authority much as in the old feudal systems the people were responsible to their "lords" or "masters". But when the word "Lord" is capitalized in our English translations it means it is referring to God.

The English word "Lord" in Romans chapter 10 verse 9 is a translation of the Greek word "Kurios" which literally means "supremacy". It is translated from the New Testament in other passages as "master", "owner", "sir", "lord"(referring to a person of authority) and like Romans 10 verse 9 as "Lord" referring to God.

It is interesting to note that "Kurios" was the word chosen to translate the name of God (Jehovah Yahweh) by the Jewish scribes who translated the Hebrews scriptures to Greek in what later became known as the "Septuagint".

Bottom line what does "Lord" mean to us as it is used in Romans chapter 10 verse 9? The Jews understood exactly what Paul meant when he said "Jesus IS Lord" he was saying Jesus is God ("Jehovah Yahweh"). You had to accept that Jesus of Nazareth was God in the flesh.

The first part of the Gospel, and thus the first thing that someone had to (and has to) believe is that Jesus of Nazareth was God in the flesh. The second thing we must believe is that "God raised him from the dead". This is in reference to his death, burial and resurrection. This is not a "casual" or "intellectual" assent to the facts of the Gospel either. For the verse tells us we must "believe in" our "heart" these facts. Paul had previously explained the meaning of Christ's death and resurrection in Romans chapter 4:

"He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." Romans 4:25(NIV)

So to tie it all together here is the Gospel: We must accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. By accepting him as Lord, we believe in our hearts that he (Jesus of Nazareth) is God in the flesh. By accepting him as Savior we accept his death and resurrection as the full payment for our sins. It is implied in this that we must accept that we are sinners before we can accept that he has paid the full penalty for our sins.

There are many today who if they don't hear a Gospel presentation that calls for repentance and then belief in Christ they feel they did not hear the full Gospel. Yet if that were true, then we are not giving the full Gospel when we hand out track size books of the Gospel of John.

It is very common for churches to buy track style little booklets that contain the entire Gospel of John. They hand these out and use these for giving the Gospel. But what many people do not realize is that no where in the Gospel of John is the word repent or repentance found. It is always "believe" and you will be saved.

In the case of the Gospel, I believe believing and repenting are synonymous. To most people the English word repent is always talking about asking forgiveness and turning from sin. In fact that is the way most dictionaries define it. But the Greek word "metanoeo", which is commonly translated in English as "repent", really means "a change of mind".

Let me first illustrate with these passages below how understanding the meaning this word helps us understand these passages better:

Mark 1:14-15(NIV)
"14After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent[metanoeo - "change your mind"] and believe the good news!"

Mark 6:12(NIV)
"They went out and preached that people should repent[metanoeo - "change their minds"]."

Acts 11:18(NIV)
"When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance[metanoia - "changed minds"] unto life."

Acts 20:21(NIV)
"I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance[metanoia - "changed minds"] and have faith in our Lord Jesus."

2 Corinthians 7:10(NIV)
"Godly sorrow brings repentance[metanoia - "a changed mind"] that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death."

In order to believe, we must first change our minds or "repent" about who we are and where we stand with God. Really God grants us "repentance"(or changed minds). We must change our minds about ourselves in relation to God. We must change our thoughts that we are the center of the universe and must believe that God is the center and our reason for being.

We must acknowledge that we are sinners and have violated God's law (this brings about the "Godly sorrow" spoken of in 2 Corinthians 7:10). We must also change our minds about how we can atone for this, not by our works, but by the blood of Christ alone. We must change our minds about who Jesus of Nazareth was, that he was not simply a man or a prophet, but that he was God in the flesh. This is the "repentance" - or changed mind "that leads to salvation".

The second kind of repentance in the Bible has to do with sin in the life of a believer:

2 Corinthians 12:20-21(NIV)
"20For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder. 21I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented[metanoeo - "changed your minds"] of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged."

Throughout Christianity, there have been (and still are today) those who maintained that repentance was not synonymous with belief. But that it was a separate act having entirely to do with not only acknowledging one's sin, but turning from his sin. This was (and is) in their understanding a precondition to being saved and gaining eternal life.

If repentance is distinct from belief, and it means turning from one's sin and is required for salvation, why is the word never used in the Gospel of John? It is always "believe" and "have faith".This tells us that when it comes to the Gospel, repentance and belief are synonymous. It is a changed mind and trusting in the shed blood of Christ that saves us - not turning from our sins.

I just want to clarify something at this point. We must acknowledge our sin in order to be saved. This is part of what repentance unto salvation is. Before we were saved, we did not think what we did was sin. When we accept Christ, he grants us the repentance (change minds) to understand that what we have done is sin. But this repentance goes beyond merely acknowledging the sin, it accepts the penalty for the sin. It accepts the Savior's atonement for the sin.

Can repentance include not only the acknowledgement of sin but the turning from sin? Absolutely! But does it always include turning from sin? The clearest answer is no. The New Testament Epistles are filled with admonitions for believers, not the unsaved, to turn from their sin, and many times these were sins they had taken with them from their pre-conversion lives.

One final point on repentance, if repentance is more than the acknowledgement of our sin, it penalty, and our savior's atonement for us, if turning from our sins is also required, how is "turning from your sins" defined? I always find it interesting, that when I ask people who believe repentance also includes turning from your sins, that they have a hard time defining it. I ask them, "does it mean we don't sin anymore?" The answer from them is no. I ask them, "does it mean we don't have any more bad habits? The answer again is no.

Usually how most of them will define it when they get in a corner is one of two ways. One is "it means you try not to sin anymore." - But thats not turning from sin, thats trying not to sin. Others will say it means "you give up your known bad habits when you get saved." So for instance, if you knew and understood that smoking was a sin (which I don't believe it is) and you were not able to give that up when you wanted to accept Christ, you could not be saved at that point.

The most common illustration is given of someone witnessing to a person who is living with someone they are not married to. The person who believes you must turn from your sin in order to be saved, would tell the person they must stop living with the person or get married before they could accept Christ,(or really before Christ would accept them). If the person said they did not know how or if they could stop living with the person, they are told that they are "putting their sex life before Christ and don't see their need of Christ".

I say that based on the scriptures man cannot be "cleaned up" until he is in Christ, until he is actually saved and one of the elect.

Romans 6:20(NIV)
"When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness."

Romans 8:7(NIV)
"the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so."

Faith produces repentance (change of mind) and belief which then brings the justification and positional sanctification of God.

Someone can not get rid of, or give up any sin (in the power of God) until they have completely gone through the conversion process. But even then, they must choose not to obey their old nature, and to obey the new nature.

That is an ongoing battle we fight each day, some days we have victories other days we have defeats, but regardless of the outcome of those battles we have been redeemed and justified and we stand holy and righteous before God.

If all true Christians will give up their bad habits at conversion, how do we explain Paul's admonitions for the Corinthians to stop their wrong doings? He addresses them as Christians, but says they are acting carnally because they are still doing certain things. Clearly they did not leave all their bad habits behind at conversion.

Some have attempted to use verses like Hebrews 12:14 that cleaning ourselves up in this sin-cursed body is also required for salvation.

Hebrews 12:14(NIV)
"Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord."

But what kind of holiness is required to see God? It is perfect holiness, for without perfect holiness no man can walk before the throne of God. Our feeble attempts at holy living in this sin cursed body will never produce the perfect holiness required to see God.

That is why it is not our holiness that is required for seeing God (being saved and having eternal life), but Christ's - because he is the only one who could give such perfect holiness.

At this point two terms must be explained. The first term is positional sanctification. Because man could never attain the perfect righteousness required to see God, Christ's righteousness is credited to our account. Sometimes this is called "imputed righteousness". We can see this doctrine clearly taught in passages like Romans chapter 4:

Romans 4:1-8(NIV)
"1What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? 2If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about--but not before God. 3What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."[1] 4Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. 6David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 8Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.""

This passage in Romans tell us that our faith is credited as righteousness. It does not tell us that we will be "righteous" because of our faith, but that our faith is credited AS righteousness.

1 Corinthians 1:30(NIV)
"It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption."

Second Corinthians goes further into this concept of "imputed righteousness" or positional sanctification. We are told that Christ is "our righteousness, holiness and redemption". So when someone tells us that not only do we need Christ's atonement for salvation, but we need to live a holy live in order to merit, or maintain (or prove) that salvation, they are completely missing the point of imputed righteousness. Yes we are commanded to strive to lead righteous lives, but this has nothing to do with earning, keeping or maintaining our salvation.

Our attempt to live holy and righteous lives each day is called practical sanctification. The Bible tells us that God has given us all the tools we need to live godly lives:

2 Peter 1:3(NIV)
"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."

At this point some will say that since he has given us all these tools, and our practical sanctification is done in his power, that all true Christians will excel in practical sanctification. But then these same people have a hard time explaining Paul's struggle with sin in Romans chapter 7:

Romans 7:18-19 & 22-25(NIV)
"18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing.... 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Paul tells us that he still struggles with sin. Some teachers of the scriptures today have written off most of Romans 7 as Paul speaking of his previous life before Christ. But this is not an honest interpretation and violates the clear present tense teaching of this passage. Many have wrongfully been led to believe today that Christians don't sin and can't continue in sin. We can and we do sin as Christians - this is the honest reading of Scripture.

So what is Paul trying to tell us? Paul tells us "For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out". Does he not speak for each and everyone of us as Christians if we are honest? Before we were saved we could only obey the sinful nature, we had no other choice, no other option. But when God regenerated us and caused us to place our faith and trust in his Son we were given a new nature - but we do not always follow this new nature. If fact, many times we don't.

This new spiritual nature coexists with our old nature. This is the new man, a man that has two natures instead of one. These two natures are in constant conflict, some days we follow our sinful nature and others we follow our spiritual. This reflects the reality of the Christian life. Some of us are more victorious than others, yet this has nothing to do with keeping or maintaining our salvation - that cannot be restated enough.

Paul asks in verse 24 "..Who will rescue me from this body of death?" and he is referring to the daily struggle with sin. He is telling us that Christ will rescue him, but it is clear from other passages that this will not happen until we get our glorified, perfect bodies:

1 Corinthians 15:42-44(NIV)
"42So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body... 54When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." 55"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law."

We are weak, but we will be raised in power. Our bodies now are natural, sinful bodies, but they will be raised perfect spiritual bodies and the "war" Paul spoke of will be over. Notice when the war with sin will be over - "When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality".

There are some at this point who still see a "tention" in scripture here on the issue of holiness. The scriptures like Hebrews 12:14 tell us "to be holy" and yet passages like 1 Corinthians 1:30 tell us that Christ is "our righteousness, holiness and redemption".

But there really is no tention here. The scriptures are saying to us, You ARE holy(Positionally sanctified), now BE holy(Practially sanctified). One is based on the perfect righteousness of Christ, the other is our imperfect attempt to live up to the standard of Christ while we are in these sin-cursed bodies.

My salvation is based on the perfect righteousness of Christ, and is not one iota based on my imperfect attempt to imitate him while I am in this sin-cursed body.

Errors regarding the meaning of repentance are just some of the errors in Gospel presentations today. I wanted to cover this error here in this first article because I believe it has lead to many others. When it comes to Gospel presentations, there are two categories of errors, these are critical and non-critical errors. A critical error is a gospel presentation that causes people who are not saved to believe they are saved. A non- critical error is one that distorts or misleads in regard to what happens to us before or after salvation, and can sometimes cause true believers to doubt their salvation.

For example, I believe in the sovereignty of God. I believe in unconditional election. Some great men of God throughout the ages (and still today) have rejected the doctrine of unconditional election. Does this mean they were (or are) not saved? Of course not. But they were (and are) in error about how we come to the point of Salvation. I will not be addressing errors about election or predestination in this series - that is a whole other topic.

There are conservative, Bible believing Christians today who I believe are in error when it comes to what happens to us after salvation. In this series on assurance I want to address the errors relating to our post-conversion life. What happens to us after we are saved? Can and do we still sin? How much can we sin? What are the Biblical motives for righteous living? I will seek to answer these questions and more concerning our post-conversion lives.

The next article in this series on assurance will be "Positions on Assurance".