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What is particularly poignant about this terrifying warning is that He begins by saying, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.” Then He repeats that by saying, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord.’”
This rare grammatical structure has significance in the Hebrew language. When someone repeats the personal form of address, it suggests and communicates an intimate personal relationship with the person to whom he is speaking.
Jesus is saying that there are many people who profess to be Christians, who use the name of Christ, and who call Him by His exalted title “Lord” but actually are not in the kingdom of God at all. They do not belong to Him and will not be able to stand at the last judgment. The terrifying aspect of this is that these people are not on the fringes of the church. Rather, they are immersed in the life of the church, heavily involved in ministry, and perhaps have the reputation of being professing Christians. Yet Jesus doesn’t know them and will banish them from His presence.
Some Protestants believe that a person can have assurance of salvation for today but no assurance for tomorrow, because they accept the possibility that people who have faith at one time can fall away into faithlessness and lose their salvation.
Jesus says that His true brother is the one who does the will of the Father, not one who simply makes a decision to follow Him.
It wasn’t that Judas was genuinely converted and then fell out of grace and was lost; rather, although he was close to Jesus, he was never a converted man. That ought to give us pause as we consider the states of our own souls.
They hear the preaching of the gospel, but it makes no impact on them. It does not take root in their lives.
Jesus tells us that these people fall away because of the tribulations and persecutions that inevitably arise in the way of faith.
This seed represents a category of people who also hear and receive the Word, but who are overwhelmed by the cares of this world.
Those who are genuinely saved are those who prove themselves to be doers of the Word. When the seed takes root and grows, there is fruit.
the Protestant view, works are a consequence, a manifestation of the state of grace we are in; thus, they add nothing to justification. The only works of righteousness that serve to justify a sinner are the works of Christ. So when we say that we are justified by faith alone, we mean that we are justified by Christ alone, by His works; our works do not count toward our justification.
True faith that connects us to Christ always manifests itself in works, and if there are no works on the right side of the equation, that tells us there is no faith on the left side of the equation.
This is because it is not a decision that converts a person; it is the power of the Holy Spirit that does so. We get into the kingdom not because we make a decision, walk down an aisle, raise a hand, or sign a card. We get into the kingdom because there is true faith in our hearts.
When it comes to assurance of salvation, there are four kinds of people in the world. Every living person, without exception, can be assigned to one of these categories. The categories are: 1) those who are saved and know it, 2) those who are saved but do not know it, 3) those (like the man I mentioned above) who are unsaved and know it, and 4) those who are unsaved but do not know it. Let us look more closely at these categories:
Nowhere does Scripture say we have to know the exact time of our conversion.
Regeneration, which is that work of God by which we are transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, is a real work of conversion, and it happens instantly by the work of the Holy Spirit, so that a person is either in that state or not.
need to distinguish between a conversion and a conversion experience. Furthermore, we need to recognize that not everyone is instantly aware of the moment when the Spirit of God does His supernatural work within his or her soul. That’s why it’s very dangerous to create categories by which we evaluate people whose experiences do not match our own.
We have to determine our theology from the Word of God, not from what we feel.
That’s why we are called to check our experiences against Scripture, so that we define our faith by what Scripture says, not by what we feel or what we experience.
The first problem, which will be our focus in this chapter, is a faulty understanding of the requirements for salvation. People can misunderstand what salvation entails.
The second problem arises when a person has a correct understanding of what salvation entails but is mistaken as to whether he or she has met the requirements.
The second diagnostic question is this: “If you were to die tonight and stand before God, and God were to say to you, ‘Why should I let you into My heaven?’ what would you say?”
But no one taught more clearly about the last judgment and a division between heaven and hell than Jesus Himself. In fact, Jesus talked more about hell than He did about heaven, and He warned His hearers that on that last day, every idle word would come into judgment.
Legalism teaches that in order to get to heaven, you must obey the law of God and live a good life. In other words, your good deeds will get you into heaven.
Unfortunately, a person’s works are a counterfeit basis for assurance. The Scriptures make very clear that no one is justified by the works of the law (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 3:11).
The biblical standard of goodness is the righteousness of God, and we are judged both by our behavioral conformity to the law of God and by our internal motivation or desire to obey the law of God.
We can look at one another’s performances and think that if we keep ourselves from adultery, murder, embezzlement, or some such egregious sin, then we’re doing well. Since we always can find people who are more sinful than we are, it would be easy to conclude that we’re doing pretty well.
The third common error that produces false assurance is sacerdotalism. This is the view that salvation is accomplished through the priesthood, through the sacraments, and/or through the church.
Finally, in the so-called evangelical world, we have a few other sources of false assurance: praying the sinner’s prayer, raising one’s hand at an evangelistic event, going forward during an altar call, or making a decision for Jesus. These are all techniques or methods that are used to call people to repentance and faith. The danger is that people who say the prayer, raise a hand, walk the aisle, or make a decision sometimes end up trusting in that particular act.
Outward professions can be deceiving. One can go through the external motions of a profession but not truly be in possession of the inward reality of salvation.
Paul is talking here about his confidence for his own future because of his knowledge of where he has put his faith. He says he trusts not in his own power to persevere to the end of the race. Instead, his confidence is based on the One in whom he has believed, knowing that One is able to keep him. That is the kind of certainty of election that Peter is telling us to pursue with diligence.
Salvation flows out of election, so if we want to be sure of our salvation, we need to know whether we are numbered among the elect.
He tells us that those whom God foreknew, He predestined. What was the goal of this predestination? It was that those God foreknew would be conformed to the image of Christ.
instance, sanctification is not in this list. Rather, this list includes (going back to verse 29) first, foreknowledge; second, predestination; third, calling; fourth, justification; and fifth, glorification.
And rebirth is tied to this internal calling. So as we seek assurance, we can know we’re numbered among the elect, because without election, this work of the Holy Ghost could never take place in our souls.
To be born again means to be changed by the supernatural operation of God the Holy Spirit. Understanding this is critical for our assurance of salvation.
Before we are regenerated, we are disinclined toward the things of God. We have no genuine affection for Christ; there is no love for God in our hearts.
because they know that if they loved Christ perfectly, they would obey Him perfectly. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). So as soon as we disobey one of His commandments, that’s a signal to us that we do not love Him perfectly.
is critical to understand that regeneration is something that the Holy Spirit does that really and truly changes a person; it changes the very disposition of his soul. If a person is truly regenerate and manifests faith, it is impossible for that person not to bring forth some measure of obedience.
The idea in 2 Corinthians 5:5 is that the Spirit, when He regenerates us, not only changes the disposition of our hearts and the inclination of our souls, He becomes for us the earnest, or the guarantee, of full and final payment.
Paul tells us here in 2 Corinthians that the King of the universe places His indelible mark on the soul of every one of His people. He not only gives us an ironclad guarantee, He seals us for the day of redemption.
The farther we get away from the Word, the less assurance we will experience in this life. The more we are in the Word of God, the more the Spirit who inspired the Word and who illumines it for us will use the Word to confirm in our souls that we are truly His, that we are indeed among the children of God.
