What is the "Gospel"?
by Keith Comparetto
Table of Contents
Part One: Preface & Introduction
Part Two: The Lessons of Church History
Part Three: A Closer Look at Scripture
Part Four: Seeing, but not Perceiving
Part Three: A Closer Look At Scripture
The above facts may sound like dry historical trivia, but we would be wise to be aware of the ideas that have shaped the way we think about Scripture, for rarely in any age do Christians read the Bible in a vacuum. And as people of the Book, we must understand that the final details of God’s revelation of salvation were given in the writings of the New Testament, not in the writings of primarily 20th century theologians who, whether from good intentions or otherwise have infected our churches with an easy-believe mentality that underlies their entire program.
Consider the following scenario which can be found to some degree in most evangelical churches today. An individual’s acceptance into the church is usually based on whether one could remember a time when they believed the truths of the Gospel and had a “born-again experience.” One’s “salvation testimony” usually recounts when it happened, where it happened, and how they felt when it happened. If one becomes cold and indifferent to spiritual truth, we are much too quick to say they are “not right with God,” “carnal,” “not walking with the Lord,” or “backslidden” – the last term being especially troubling because it is not found in the New Testament at all, and in the Old Testament it is almost exclusively used for unbelieving Israel, which Hebrews 3 & 4 indicate were not saved people at all. Preachers give constant appeals for apathetic “Christians” to “come back” to God or to “get right” with Him, despite the hard truth presented in such Scriptures as Col. 1:22-23, which says that Christ died “to present you holy, and unblameable, and unreproveable in His sight—if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard” – thus indicating that those who become cold and indifferent should first be considered lost.
Of course even true Christians may be found in various stages of development and maturity; but if God has indeed saved a person, that salvation has great power and meaning. A powerless salvation, at any age or at any stage, is not a genuine one, for, as Spurgeon said, “Beloved, believe in God to keep you faithful and earnest all your life…take a ticket all the way through…Other tickets are forgeries.”
The New Theology
God has placed within His Word many warnings directed at those who fellowship among the saints but are, in truth, children of Satan. They are the tares among the wheat Jesus spoke of, and in most cases are blind to their own condition, for as Scripture says, “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked – who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9). But their blindness is reinforced by the preaching they are hearing, which dogmatically holds to interpretations that are rarely found among Christian authors prior to the late 1800’s. We do not suggest that there is no room for differences of interpretation among good men; but when the Scriptures are always preached with the same bent (as in the following examples), with regular invitations to “get right with God” (as in most evangelical churches today), the result can destroy people’s souls. Some of these interpretations include the following:
1. The falling-away passages in the book of Hebrews (chapters 2 & 3; 6:1-7; 10:26-31, and others) are preached as if speaking to backsliders, not to those who are lost. No great preachers or commentators I know of prior to the 20th century take such a view of Hebrews. In fact, most write that the book of Hebrews contains many serious warnings to those in the church who are trusting in false confidences, and thus are lost. Even if such people are challenged on their lack of love for the Lord and His Word, the challenge is powerless because they have already been given a theological underpinning for believing that they can live in a long-term, cold-hearted condition and merely be “backslidden”! To such presumptuous professors, Spurgeon said,
Beware, I pray thee, of presuming that thou art saved. If thy heart be renewed, if thou shalt hate the things that thou didst once love, and love the things that thou didst once hate; if thou hast really repented; if there be a thorough change of mind in thee; if thou be born again, then thou hast reason to rejoice; but if there be no vital change, no inward godliness; if there be no love to God, no prayer, no work of the Holy Spirit, then thy saying ‘I am saved’ is but thine own assertion, and it may delude, but it will not deliver thee.”
2. To preach that professing Christians who live a lifestyle characterized by serious sin, coveteousness and all manner of worldliness must be saved simply because many of the epistles are addressed to “the brethren,” “the saints,” “the church,” “all who are sanctified,” etc., ignores the fact that virtually all of the New Testament writers put forth clear warnings to the unsaved, even in the very books with these introductions. Paul, for example, addresses the book of Romans “to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints,” but chapter 2 as well as other sections clearly speaks to self-righteous, unsaved Jews. He tells those in the Corinthian church, “examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith” (II Cor. 13:5), and “judge [yourselves]” (1 Cor. 11:31). He told those in the Ephesian church, “Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them” i.e., with those who are lost. (Other such warnings include Romans 8:6-9, 1 Corinthians 15:2, and Galatians 5:19-21.) The writer of Hebrews likewise warns, “Let us labour [i.e., “be diligent”], therefore, to enter into [God’s] rest, lest any man fall after the same example of disobedience” (Heb. 4:11), and “looking diligently lest anyone fail [or “fall short”] of the grace of God” (Heb. 12:15). James addresses those who are among other things “double-minded,” “adulterers and adulteresses,” “enemies of God,” and “sinners,” terms which nearly all older commentators considered descriptions of the unsaved, but which I have always heard preached as admonitions to the saved. Peter, likewise, warned his readers to make their “calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10); and John wrote his entire first letter (1 John) to put his readers to the test of true faith, suggesting that those who did not keep His commandments were “liars” with “no truth in them” (1 John 2:4). The basic truth to remember is that Scripture is written first to God’s own, and secondarily to sinners who can come to God only by receiving the truth that God has written to His people.
3. Matthew 11:28-30 (“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”) is presented as a series of levels to which aspiring believers may attain, whereas most notable earlier authors believe this passage is a basic condition of salvation which applies to any who would claim Christ as their own. A.W. Pink said it well:
No one can receive Christ as his Savior while he rejects Him as Lord. It is true, the preacher adds, that the one who accepts Christ should also surrender to Him as Lord, but he at once spoils it by asserting that, though the convert fails to do so, nevertheless Heaven is sure to him. That is one of the Devil’s lies.4. Matthew 16:24-26 (“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”) is usually given an easy-believe bent. Modern preachers and commentators claim that these verses tell Christians how they can be more “spiritual” if they take their faith to this level, similar to how an average athlete becomes a super, Olympics athlete. Why then is it followed with a verse warning a person about losing his soul?
5. To preach passages like Isaiah 5, the parable of the wild grapes (and other similar passages in the Old Testament), to refer to Christians who backslide and can fall to the point where God must burn their hedge, tear down their wall, and trample them down (thus, resulting in a ruined life), is the typical modern easy-believe interpretation: i.e., to take the wickedness of unbelieving Israel, and apply it to a backsliding Christian. I believe such a message is completely contrary to the Scriptural teaching that those who do wickedly will not inherit the Kingdom of God: “But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned…to whom he sware that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?” (Heb. 3:17-18). I find it interesting that some of the same theologians who say the Old Testament promises to Israel do not apply to the New Testament church, try to apply the curses to unbelieving Israel to New Testament Christians. These Old Testament people of God do not represent His spiritual seed, and to make such an analogy deceives many. I believe God will extend mercy to the Jews in the future when He restores them as a nation, but individuals, then and now, Jewish or gentile, who persist in their rebellion and unbelief did not and will not enter into “God’s rest,” for withoutholiness, “no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).
6. To preach the “carnal Christians” passage in 1 Corinthians 3 as a reference to a “carnal” class of Christians who are in a carnal “state” and remain there for an indefinite period of time is not being honest with an important passage of Scripture. The people here are described as being guilty of certain carnal behaviors, not a chronic condition, a condition Charles Ryrie defends when he says, “Certainly we can admit that if there can be hours and days when a believer can be unfruitful, then why may there not also be months and even years when he can be in that condition?” (Spurgeon, by contrast, said, “If the grace of God has really changed you, you are radically and lastingly changed.”) Since Romans 8:6 tells us that “to be carnally minded is death,” we can understand why Paul would later warn those who persisted in such behavior to examine their professions of faith to be sure they were genuine (as in 1 Corinthians 15:2 and 2 Corinthians 13:5). (Interestingly, the behavior Paul has just charged them with, the tendency to praise and follow celebrity preachers, is common in our day and is rarely condemned, even though Paul himself commanded them to “let no man glory in men,” 1 Cor. 3:21.)
7. The parable of the seed and the sower is preached as a parable about how the Word of God falls on the hearts of Christians. But the passage indicates that only one of the four bears any fruit, thus only one is saved. To preach it otherwise is to allow those who are “unfruitful” because they are, for example, distracted by riches and the cares of this world, to be deceived into a false sense of security.
8. The prodigal son is preached as a story of a Christian coming back from a backslidden condition, rather than as a story of salvation. It is indeed, first of all, a story of salvation: Jesus used it to convey to the Pharisees why He bypassed them and went directly to the publicans and sinners, and perhaps even to foreshadow God’s intention to offer salvation to the gentiles – thus, the anger and jealousy of the second brother, representing the Jews. But it is also a beautiful picture of an individual’s salvation: the unsaved person takes the provision of his Maker and squanders it on riotous living; because of the natural consequences of ungodly behavior, he finds himself in a pitiful condition; in his despair, he “comes to himself” (i.e., he is “enlightened”), then comes to his father in deep repentance, much as the publican who prayed, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” His father, like God, has been awaiting his return, kisses him, and puts “the best robe” – the robe of righteousness – on him. To make this into a backslider story denigrates God’s saving power and makes a mockery of the Scriptural truths of salvation, because it makes it to be of so little value that it could not keep a sinner from such a woeful condition: “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake!”
9. To preach that Christians can be the object of God’s wrath and fiery indignation (as is often preached in Heb. 10:27); calling Christians “sinners,” “adulterers and adulteresses,” “enemies of God,” (as preached in James 4); saying a Christian can backslide to the point where God will “abhor you” (as in Lev. 26), and your life will be “laid waste” (as preached in Isaiah 5) confuses the difference between “My people” as unbelieving Israel and “My people” as the saved remnant. It also ignores the loving Father-son relationship between God and His true children, “the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’” Can a father imagine thinking of his own child in the above negative terms?
10. To preach that the people in the church at Laodicaea (Rev. 3:13-20) were believers who had become lukewarm or complacent in their service to God seems to ignore the clear meaning of the passage. The adjectives applied to them are those which Scripture frequently applies to the unsaved: “wretched,” “miserable,” “blind,” and “naked.” The Lord advises them with words indicative of their need for salvation, especially “white raiment” suggesting the white robes of salvation, and “eye salve” to heal the spiritual blindness of a lost person, for, as mentioned above, the saved are not blind because they have the indwelling Spirit of God who teaches them. Can a believer, one of God’s elect, be so repugnant to God that He would vomit His own child, whom He sees as righteous (not by his own works but by the blood of Christ), out of His mouth?
Sin and the Christian
Those who preach the above interpretations would say they are simply acknowledging the presence of sin in the life of the Christian, which is indeed a biblical truth, for John says that “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). In fact, I would suggest that no one is more aware of the reality of sin in their life than a true Christian. To deny it would be both unreasonable and unbiblical: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 Jn. 1:8) We are painfully aware of it as Christians, as Paul was when he admitted that “the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do,” and then cried out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:19, 24). As Spurgeon said, “The man who is converted cannot live as he likes; or rather, he is so changed by the Holy Spirit that if he could live as he likes, he would never sin.”
The case of Old Testament saints is especially significant. Lot, who “pitched his tent toward Sodom,” though he was “vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked” [i.e., “troubled” by it], is nowhere said to have participated in their wicked behavior. Even the cowardly offering of his daughters to the wicked men of Sodom was, as far as the text tells us, a one-time event and not a lifelong behavior, and it is perhaps noteworthy that even in such a wicked city as Sodom, we are told that his daughters were still virgins. When we consider David, it is natural to think of the enormity of his sin and say, “Look how far David went into sin!” Yet we find that the sin and its cover-up occupied him for only a few months, just over a year at the most, and when he was confronted with it, he, like Peter in the New Testament, immediately repented and wept bitterly, as recorded in Psalm 38:3-6: “There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.”
In other words, he responded as a true believer, and when we look at the life of David through his writings, we see a man who loved God with such intensity that God called him “a man after God’s own heart.” Thus, we see the truth of Hebrews 12:11: “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”
Another common backslider example is Jonah, who ran from God, yet the time span of his sin as presented in the book is only a day or so, and that he was immediately, severely and supernaturally chastised. Solomon is much more of an enigma, but we must admit that there is much we do not know about him. We do not know the exact timeline of his life: when he was saved, which of his books were written when, etc. Furthermore, the doctrine of Old Testament salvation is in itself difficult to know with precision. Certainly it was by faith, which manifested itself in obedience toward God, just as in the New Testament. But many believe that the reality of an indwelling Spirit of God, residing permanently in every true believer, was not known in the Old Testament, as Paul indicates when he says, “I am made a minister...to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints....which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Certainly, there is no mention of a New Birth in the Old Testament, but it is not only spoken of but mandatory in the New Testament: “Ye must be born again.”
My point is that we cannot take these challenges, nor our own personal experiences, to contradict the plain meaning of other Scriptures, and we should not build a doctrine of salvation based on incomplete information in the Old Testament when we have a more perfect explanation of it in the New Testament. Nor should we build a doctrine on an incomplete character like John Mark, who is often preached as an example of a backslider, when the truth is we know very little about him. We know only that Paul “thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work,” but that later, Paul wrote to Timothy, “Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.” He does not say that he was once “unprofitable,” in the sense of “backslidden,” for we know nothing of the reason Mark departed from them. Evidently Barnabas, also a godly man, did not seem troubled by Mark’s departure. Perhaps Mark did not feel the Spirit was leading him in that direction, or that he was qualified for the ministry with Paul at that time. Perhaps it was simply a matter of spiritual immaturity; but it should not be extrapolated that Mark walked away from the Lord or got involved in long-time serious sin, and thus was an example of the modern “backslider,” when the text does not tell us so.
The Indivisible Truth
Again, we are not preaching that sinless perfection is attainable in this life. But if we say a Christian can look just like the unsaved person for indefinite periods of time, we make a mockery of 2 Corinthians 5:17, which says that “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new,” a truth that is reinforced throughout the Bible, including the following passages:
Psalm 23:1-3: “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” (How many will trust Psalm 23:4, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,” as God’s preparing them for death, while forgetting that the rest of the Psalm declares God’s work in the believer for life? Salvation is a sovereign work of God, with power to lead the believer into righteousness; Sanctification is God’s work, and it is done in all Christians, so that only He gets the glory. This is indeed the Gospel the Apostles preached, and the one “that you received.” How is God glorified in a salvation that leaves a person in a condition little different from his natural state?)
Proverbs 2:6-8: “For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.” (Yes, we are also commanded in Prov. 4, “Keep thy heart with all diligence,” but according to this passage, there is an unseen power making it possible for us to keep that commandment.)
Rom. 2:5-9: “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious [or “self-seeking”], and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish…” (Those who are perpetually “backslidden” should see which half of this verse applies to them, and should be fearing the wrath of God, not the absence of rewards.)
Rom. 6:12-22: “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness….But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” (The fruit of salvation is stated as a fact, not as a “should be.”)
Rom. 8:1, 6, 9, 13-14: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit…. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace…. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His…. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” (The “carnal Christian” is accepted as a given in the church, but those who live in a perpetual state of carnality, according to this passage, are flirting with spiritual death.)
2 Cor. 5:17: “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (He “is” a new creation, not “ought to be.” The true Christian loves God, which is evidenced by the reality that he now longs for Him and delights in His Word, Ps. 119:174! The truth is as Spurgeon said: “Many people think that when we preach salvation, we mean salvation from going to Hell. We do mean that, but we mean a great deal more… we mean that He is able to save him from sin and make him a new man.”)
Gal. 5:22-24: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” (It says “have crucified,” not “should crucify.”)
Col. 1:21-23: “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard.” (Most of us know many professing Christians who fall away into deep sin. Many will never come back to church, and of them we will rightly say, “They went out from us…that it might be made manifest that they were not of us.” But many others will eventually come back to church or “back to the Lord” when they are burdened by their own guilt, a natural consequence of sin even in an unsaved person, which demonstrates “the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another” (Romans 2:15). Some of these will even come back with great joy and become excited and active in the church again, but if Biblical salvation is indeed as this verse describes it, these people need to be seriously questioned about their salvation before they are accepted back into the embrace of the assembly of saints. But this verse has further implications. If those who choose to remain in what they admit to be a “backslidden” condition would consider that perhaps they are not just sacrificing closeness to God but are playing with their eternal destiny, many would consider their condition more carefully – for it is not saying a prayer or making an emotional profession that brings one to salvation, but as Jesus said, we must “strive to enter in at the strait [narrow] gate,” for wide is the way that leads to destruction, but narrow is the way that leads to life. Or, as Peter wrote, “Be diligent to make your calling and election sure.”
1 Timothy 4:16: “Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.” (Do those who tell of a salvation experience but then grow cold and indifferent to the things of God have a right to boast confidently that they are saved? And who could imagine that Paul would have to remind even Timothy of this warning?)
Titus 2:13-14: “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” (If this does not happen in a “saved” person’s life, or if it happens but then they fall away, what does it say about their “redemption”?)
Hebrews 8:8-10: “…Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” (This passage quotes Jeremiah 31:31-33, echoed in Ezekiel 36:26-28, which speaks of a future day when the nation of Israel will turn back to God and He will supernaturally change their hearts to obey Him, and will remember their sin no more. This Hebrews passage then goes on to indicate that this prophecy was now coming to pass with the coming of Christ – i.e., it is a description of every New Testament believer. Many believe it will be fulfilled on a national scale at a future time.)1 John 2:3-5: “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.” (Does one whose life is characterized by a continual struggle with serious sin and with a lack of love towards God and His Word have the right to be confident about his salvation?)
Jude 1:24: Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.” (Can a person who is always struggling with and/or stumbling into major sin say confidently that he is saved?)
Biblical Assurance
These passages should serve to rejoice the heart of the true believer who sees God working in him “both to will and to do.” We believe God desires that all of His saints would have the assurance that they have been partakers of the grace of God: “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God” (1 Jn. 3:21). Just as the Israelites were told that God would work miracles among them “that ye may know that I am the LORD,” every New Testament saint upon salvation is given the inner witness of “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,” “the earnest [or “down payment”] of our inheritance,” which works in the inner man resulting in “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:14-19).
But assurance in this modern age has become, in most evangelical circles, an end in itself, to be held almost as a basic right of all church members who have prayed a sinner’s prayer, whether or not they have experienced or give evidence of these workings of the Spirit; and those who struggle over assurance are counseled for the quick cure, often with an “assurance verse” such as 1 Jn. 5:13, which says, “These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that you have eternal life…” This verse is often misunderstood to support the notion that a lack of confidence about one’s salvation or causing others to lack confidence is not of faith or is even sinful; thus, it is often pointed out to a new “convert” to give him immediate assurance. It is used in appeals given from pulpits such as, “How many of you know for sure you are going to heaven?” These appeals fail to consider, first, that self-deceit about one’s soul is the natural state of the unsaved man, and giving Bible verses out of context that perpetuate that self-deceit can lead one to hell. Furthermore, they fail to consider that assurance does not come from the Bible alone; it is the combined result of the truths of God’s Word, an individual’s awareness of them, the evidences of saving grace working in his life, and the inner witness Holy Spirit, the last three of which cannot be known by any other human being. To carelessly impart assurance to a new convert before we see these evidences is extremely dangerous, as pointed out by Dr. John Duncan, who observed in the late 19th century, “When the doctrine of assurance [as] being necessarily contained in faith (as to be essential to it) gets into a church, in the second generation it gets habituated to the use of the highest appropriating language by dead, carnal men.” I fear that this describes most churches in our day.
I have heard of people lacking assurance being told that without assurance, one “allows Satan to have the victory.” How is it possible for “he that is in the world” to have the victory over “He that is in you”? To the contrary, I would suggest that Satan has the ultimate victory by keeping an assured but lost soul ignorant of his true lost condition. The truth is, no professing believer who is living in a long-term backslidden condition, spiritually indifferent, with little affection for God or His Word, or under the dominion of major sin, has the right to claim biblical assurance.
Assurance is only for those whose life and affections back up their testimony: “My little children, let us love not in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him” (1 John 3:18-19). We can’t take 1 John 5:13 out of context and ignore the rest of the book, which is a self-test by which those who profess salvation may determine whether or not they are in the faith. John repeatedly points out that mere words do not make a true saint: “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth” (1 John 1:6); “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar” (1 John 4:20); “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4); “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now” (1 John 2:9). Why are we overly eager to claim the assurance of 1 John 5:13, while at the same time ignoring or glossing over the discomfiting implications of all of these verses and others in the same book, such 1 John 2:15, which says, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him”?
Another favorite “assurance passage” is 2 Peter 1:19: “We have also a more sure word of prophecy,” and is used to indicate that we base our salvation on the Bible, not on our feelings. In this case, a common pulpit appeal is for people to raise their hands if they would like to know from the Bible how they can go to heaven. It is true that the Bible is indeed the source of all we can know about salvation; but one must evaluate one’s own condition not only on what the Bible says about the facts of salvation, but about the fruits of salvation. If the person lacks assurance, they first need to determine if their life, not their memory of an experience, gives evidence of true salvation – or bears the “marks of grace,” as some Puritans expressed it. If they are not sure, they should be advised to spend time in God’s Word and on their knees, and allow Him to give assurance or take it away. As for re-praying the sinner’s prayer “just in case,” it has no biblical basis; it accomplishes nothing, and could indeed make one more a child of hell than he is already.
I would suggest that the widespread use of these unbiblical assurance teachings and misguided appeals in evangelical Christianity is the great error of our day, and has resulted in an almost unreachable generation of fruitless professors, like those of whom Spurgeon said,
They say they are saved, and they stick to it; they simply are, and they think it wicked to doubt it; but yet they have no reason to warrant their confidence. There is a great difference between presumption and full assurance. Full assurance is reasonable: it is based on solid ground. Presumption takes for granted, and with brazen face pronounces that to be its own to which it has no right whatever.
Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth
Some would argue that, because Christians are repeatedly told to do certain things, it is of course possible that they are able to be in a state of not doing them. In a sense this is technically possible – but it is akin to saying Jesus could have sinned because God can do anything – but it does not take into consideration God’s many proclamations of what the indwelling Spirit of God will do for us and in us. For example, we are told in Jude 1:21, “keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” But 1Pe 1:5 says that Christians “are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Likewise, James 4:7 says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you,” but 2 Thessalonians 3:3 promises that “the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you and keep you from evil,” and 1 John 5:18 says, “he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.” Titus 2:11 lays the responsibility for godly living on us when it commands, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.” But in the next verses we are given the wonderful promise that our Savior “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Philippians 2:12 commands us to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”; yet the next verse tells us, “for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” In 1Thessalonians 5:22 we are told, “Abstain from all appearance of evil,” yet 2 Timothy 4:18 pronounces it done: “And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom. To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen!”
I believe it is the dividing of deep truths like this that Paul is referring to when he exhorts Timothy to “rightly divide the word of truth,” for the Bible preaches a double-sided message: yes, Christians should do these things, but that does not negate the fact that Christians are these things. The modern church has erred on the side of the former, and to a large extent abandoned the latter, thus invoking the admonition of Galatians 3:3: “Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?”
