Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine, Oh What A Foretaste of Glory Divine…

          We are assured of our salvation in the promise of our Lord Jesus Christ.  I grew up assuming that, which I suppose is a tribute to the theology of the Christian Reformed Church.  In Sinclair Ferguson’s wonderful book, “in Christ alone”, he tells us that assurance of salvation was the single biggest theological division between the Reformers and the Roman Catholic Church (who held religious dominance across Western Europe). 

          That is different from what I grew up on.  For me, the theological charge leveled on the Reformers, especially in the Counter Reformation-the backlash of the Catholic Church versus these upstart Protestants, was, in the words of the Old Testament, that everybody would do what was right in their own eyes.

          For me, the proliferation of denominations and non-denominational and non-affiliated churches seems the answer to that charge.

          But I see the similarities in the charges.  Without the control of church structure and tradition, the Church as we know it has branched into so many directions.  One of the great abuses possible in the church is for some smooth talking, charismatic leader, to use the Word of God for their own ends. 

          Again, without the control of church structure and the traditions of what is not only expected of, but mandated of believers, what is to stop the insincere from saying all the right things, claiming Jesus as Lord and Savior, claiming that they have received, from the Great Commission, the Baptism into the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit which is the call for the church to the world, but continuing to do whatever they want?

          Good works as the provision of salvation, it ties faith to practice.  The idea being that without the mandate of practice, to go by faith alone, will be to invite trickery. 

          Does anybody know what the unforgivable sin is?  It is to grieve the Holy Spirit.  Let me tell you, I reflected long and hard on what that means when I was younger.  It did not really come back into my theological consideration until Harry Potter.  And there by association.

          In Harry Potter, there are the three unforgivable curses.  Something that is done that one cannot come back from.  Grieving the Holy Spirit is that equivalent in the Biblical witness.  And it is never explained unto itself.

          So here is the question that will take me forward from here.  To understand the question of the Assurance of Salvation requires understanding how we consider it if it were not a thing.  Would we phrase it in the way I hear more commonly, that I would do something ‘to lose my faith and/or salvation’ or would we phrase it, ‘Jesus has taken away my salvation’?

          Takes us down different paths when considering the assurance of salvation, when considering grieving the Holy Spirit, when answering the charge leveled against the Reformation.

          More to come.

Peter Hofstra