February 15 – LD 7, Day 4: Faith
has Assurance of Personal Salvation
by Rev J. Kortering
Ephesians 3:12, “In
whom (Jesus Christ) we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of
him.”
Once we are engrafted into Christ Jesus by faith, our hearts are filled
with His love. His love for us and our responding love for Him affects not only
our minds but also our wills. As the catechism expresses it, “also an assured
confidence, which the Holy Ghost works by the gospel in my heart, that not only
to others, but to me also, remission of sin, everlasting righteousness and
salvation are freely given by God, merely of grace, only for the sake of
Christ’s merits.” We are convicted of our personal salvation.
All Christians have conviction of the truth (knowledge),
they also possess conviction or assurance of personal salvation. We must not
say that it is possible to possess true faith without this conviction. It is
inherent in the work of salvation, from a heart filled with God’s love we are
able to receive our own salvation as a wonder of grace and possess with
certainly that we are saved.
Notice with me why we are sure of our own personal salvation.
Not because I am good enough for God and He ought to accept me into His
covenant because of who I am or how I have lived. If we truly have the work of
grace in our hearts, our sins always cause burden and shame. Even our good
works are not reason for acceptance by God because these works are still
stained with sin and never grounds for our acceptance.
Neither are we sure because we have accepted Jesus as our Savior, as if an act
of our will makes all the difference with God. If you are in touch with your
own spiritual condition, even now as a child of God, you know that your will
still vacillates between wanting God and wanting the pleasure of sin. If we
look at our own inner desires, we lose all assurance.
Rather, our assurance is via looking to Jesus by the Holy Spirit. We focus on
who we are IN and THROUGH Jesus Christ our Savior. He has made us righteous,
the grounds for our forgiveness of sin. He has made us holy, the proof of our
union with Christ.
I encourage you not to look to yourself, but to Jesus for your full assurance
of salvation. In Him we have boldness and can approach God with confidence.