The Nature of Assurance

David Brainerd was a missionary to Native Americans in the 1700s. He’s life was extraordinary, and though he died when he was 29 years old, his influence continues to this day, mainly because Jonathan Edwards, his contemporary and friend, took his journals after he died and published them (a scary thought for those of us who keep journals).

The Life and Diary of David Brainerd has never gone out of print. The man, I mentioned only live 29 years, and only 4 of them were as a missionary, and people have pointed to them as some of the most powerful writings to aid Christians in their walk with God.

John Wesley thought that every preacher should “read carefully over the Life of David Brainerd.” Henry Martyn, famous missionary to India and Persia, experienced something like a second conversion while reading his diary, and was “at length fixed in a resolution to imitate his example.” William Carey who went to China and Robert Murray McCheyne who served in Scotland and David Livingstone who went to Africa and Jim Elliot who gave his life to reach an unreached people group-- why did they all look upon David Brainerd with a kind of awe and desire to imitate him in their efforts to live for Christ?

One might think that it was his tremendous strength, his unstoppable drive, his unflagging conviction, his remarkable talent, his extraordinary zeal, his great faith and courage. But actually, what you find while reading his journals, it’s his palpable weakness that stands out.

As a church, the greatest danger we face is not our weaknesses, but believing the lie that we’re all strong. Wearing costumes of strength in an attempt to hide weakness at church will kill us. Admitting and owning our weaknesses won’t kill us. Acting strong when we’re not will.

And this is why the raw honesty of David Brainerd is so powerful. He’s extraordinarily weak, and that’s what makes his life so compelling. Hear a few of his journal entries

April 1, 1742: “I seem to be declining with respect to my life and warmth in divine things...Oh that God would humble me deeply in the dust before Him! I deserve hell every day for not loving my Lord more, who has, I trust, loved me and given Himself for me...Oh, if I ever get to heaven it will be because God wills, and nothing else…”

April 3: “Was very much amiss this morning and had a bad night.”

Lord’s Day, April 4: “My heart was wandering and lifeless. In evening God gave me faith in prayer, made my soul melt in some measure, and gave me to taste divine sweetness. O my blessed God!”

April 9: “No creature stands in need of divine grace more than I, and none abuse it more than I have done, and still do.”

Lord’s Day, June 6: “I feel much deserted; but all this teaches me my nothingness and vileness more than ever.”

June 19: “Felt much disordered; my spirits were very low, but yet enjoyed some freedom and sweetness in the duties of religion. Blessed be God.”

You get the point. Here is a man who is struggling to love God with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength, and is acutely aware of his failures. And in his failures, he is always in need of true assurance of his standing before God.

If you have a sensitive conscience and are aware of your sin, you will face despair unless you have an understanding of the rock-solid-ness of salvation.

When we’re talking about assurance, we’re talking about our confidence that we are loved by God, accepted by God, and welcomed by God into his presence. There are two sides of assurance. One is the side of our own subjective experience. We’re not just talking about the objective reality that we are saved, we want to subjective experience of salvation. We want to know it and enjoy it. But if we are to have that subjective experience of assurance, we need to start by understanding the objective realities.

The first objective reality is the nature of salvation. To get that, we’re going to head to Ephesians. The letter goes from eternity past to eternity future; it’s designed to describe God’s eternal purpose, which he set forth in Christ, to glorify himself by redeeming his people. If you’re understanding of salvation has been “Jesus died for your sins, so ask him into your heart,” Ephesians wants to help you zoom out and see how your personal salvation fits into God’s eternal, cosmic plan. And you’ll find it will make your heart soar.

You can look at chapter 1:3-14, which are a single sentence in Greek. When Paul’s pen hits the page, it is burning so brightly with praise to God that those who have studied the letter have been struggled to find words to describe its wonder. One calls the opening sentence a “magnificent gateway,” another calls is a “golden chain of many links,” another a “kaleidoscope of dazzling lights and shifting colors.” William Hendriksen compared this portion to a “snowball tumbling down a hill, picking up volume as it descends.” To one commentator is a racehorse gaining speed, to another it’s a eagle soaring high into the clouds, to another it’s an overture in an opera. You get the point -- human language scrapes and claws to find a way to present the grandeur of this opening section.

It starts in eternity past and ends with a guaranteed inheritance in eternity future. It starts in the mind of God and spills out into the redemption of man. Let’s read the text, and show how this brings us hope and security.

I want to point out 3 unshakable foundations for our assurance. The Eternal Plan of the Father, the Perfect Redemption of the Son, and the Permanent Seal of the Spirit.

The Eternal Plan of the Father

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

The section starts in praise. Verse 3 is essentially the theme of the rest of the verses. Paul breaks into worship of God. The word “Blessed” here is not the same Greek word as the “blessed” in the beatitudes. That refers to contentment, happiness, satisfaction. This “blessed” refers to how worthy he is, how great he is, how wonderful he is, how praiseworthy he is, how admirable he is. It is a joyful declaration that God is great!

Why? If this sentence of praise is a flowing river, what is the spring? Where does such exuberant joy come from?

“Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” The “us” here is referring to Christians (vs. 1-2), and the reality is that all God’s blessings have been poured from heaven. If you have an imagination, you can picture a river flowing vertically, straight down from heaven, of living water free for all his children to drink. He is not holding back anything, he does not dam the flood of his kindness.

In our new song Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me, we sing, “There is no more for heaven left to give.” That line comes from this text. Every spiritual blessing has already been given to the people of God. It is theirs. If there is a blessing in heaven, it has been designated to be the inheritance of the saints of God. There are no blessings sitting around in heaven ungiven.

Our full experience of these blessings await our arrival into heaven. But they are ours.

Why are they ours? Have you ever asked that question? Why do we get this indescribable blessing? Is it because we earned it? Is it because we asked for it? Is it because we had faith? Is it because we were good people?

Verse 4: “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”

The reason we are blessed with salvation from God is because God chose us before the foundation of the world to be his holy blameless people. Your salvation is not founded on the fact that you chose God, but on the reality that God chose you.

If that’s not clear enough, verse 5, “in love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.”

Consider this: God, in eternity past, brimming with perfect love, before Genesis 1, before the creation of mountains and birds and oceans, in the silent solitude of the Trinity, God chose us for salvation, God predestined for adoption.

This was before you existed. This was before you did anything right or wrong. This is before you ever trusted Christ. Your life choices, your goodness or badness, had nothing to do with your salvation. You were already predestined for salvation before you ever heard the name of Jesus. God set his love on you and wanted to adopt you into his eternal family.

You say, “I’m a Christian because I sought the Lord! Yes, but why? “Because I cried out to him!” Yes, but why? “Because I felt my need for him!” Yes, there are millions of people on earth who need him but don’t feel it, why did you? “I read the Scriptures.” How did you come to read and understand the Scriptures? Is it not God at the bottom of it all?

Yes, you made a choice to trust in Jesus, but before you ever made a choice God had chosen you. You don’t really think you came to God apart from the Spirit’s enabling, do you? God chose, God predestined, and it was all according to his eternal purpose to do so.

Now this is humbling, because it forces us to admit we did not contribute anything to our salvation. We had no hand in it. It wasn’t a 50-50 cooperative effort. It wasn’t even 99% God and 1% us. He determined to do it all before we even existed, so that he would receive praise, honor, and glory.

I remember having a discussion with someone who despised this reality, no matter how much I showed them how frequently the Scriptures teach it. And so I asked him, “Let’s just imagine for a moment that you’re in heaven and from there you can see people suffering in hell. Would you be able to say that the final, ultimate reason I’m here and not there is because I made the better choice!” He said “Yes.” And I said, “I can’t take that credit.”

Yes, I made a choice to follow Jesus. But I could never have chosen God unless he had chosen me.

What does this have to do with assurance? Everything. Your assurance is only as strong as who you believe caused your salvation. If you think your salvation was caused by your will-power, then your assurance is only as strong as the power of your will. If you think your salvation was caused by God’s infinite power, according to his eternal plan, then your salvation is as secure as God. It’s immoveable, unshakable, unchangeable.

Lest you think this is only taught in Ephesians 1, let me show you around. It is the eternal plan of the Father to save his people through his Son.

1 Corinthians 1:27: “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”

God chooses who he saves, and here the lesson is that he chooses weak, foolish people. Why? So that the strong don’t think they’re saved because of their strength, and the wise don’t think they’re saved because of their wisdom. God wants to make it crystal clear that he chooses so as to prove that it’s all grace.

Verse 30: “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus.” If you had any doubt why you’re saved, listen to Paul: “Because of him you are in Christ.” It’s God’s doing, God’s choice.

This is why the Bible repeatedly describes a group of people called “the elect.” God will gather his elect from from all nations, Matt. 24. God will give justice to his elect, Luke 18:7. Who can bring any charge against God’s elect, Romans 8:33. Paul said he’d endure anything for the sake of the elect, 2 Tim. 2:10. Peter wrote to “elect exiles” 1 Peter 1.

This is just a smattering, but you can find this theme in every book of the Bible. Before the foundation of the earth, God had an eternal plan to choose people to lavish his grace upon, to redeem them, to adopt them, and to love them forever.

Your salvation didn’t start with you. It doesn’t depend on you. It wasn’t because of you. You didn’t earn it, you didn’t deserve, you didn’t choose it. And so what do you do? You humble yourself and say, “Who am I? Why me?” And then you worship.

Your salvation started in the infinite mind of God, as part of his eternal plan, and therefore it is secure.

The Perfect Redemption of the Son

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

What we see in this glorious sentence is that God the Father purposed to redeem his people through his Son. God chose his people, and gave them to his Son to redeem. We have redemption in Christ through his blood.

You can imagine the Father and the Son hatching this plan in eternity past. The Father, I will choose them. The son: Great! I will redeem them! The Father: You do know that will cost you your life, and that you must shed your blood to accomplish their salvation. The Son: For the joy set before me I will gladly endure the cross. I am their Good Shepherd, I will lay down my life for the sheep, and I will lose none that you give me.

It’s not hard to imagine this conversation when you read some of Jesus’ statements in John.

John 6:

Verse 37: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”

Verse 39: “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me.”

John 10:27-29 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

You see, God the Father in eternity past had chosen a people for salvation, he gave them to Christ and said, “God redeem them, and lose none.” And Jesus came to redeem them. Jesus promised to accomplish the Father’s plan.

John 17:1b “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.” Verse 6: “I have manifested my name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.”

Could it be more clear? God chose a people in eternity past, he gave those people to his son to redeem, and he came to earth to rescue those people.

Back to Ephesians 1:7. We have been given to Christ. In Christ, we have redemption (that means, full, total freedom from the consequences of our sin) through Christ’s blood. Christ accomplished our salvation by making a payment for our sin.

Our sin demanded punishment, and Christ paid it by his shed blood. This payment is to be grounds of our assurance.

Not only have we been chosen by the Father to be his beloved, adopted children, but we are redeemed by the Son, fully cleansed by the blood of Christ.

Christian, you are clean. You are washed. You have total and complete access to God. You belong in God’s presence. Your struggles with sin are no match for Christ’s perfect redemption.

Your welcome into God’s presence is not based on your performance, but on Christ’s.

Do you, after sinning, feel you need to wait a little bit before you can come to God and experience the joy of forgiveness?

Do you feel that, immediately following your sin, God wants you to pay some penance first?

Friends, the gospel is that God chose you for salvation, in love he predestined you for adoption, in grace he sent his son to pay for your sin on the cross. The price has been paid, stop acting like you need to make payments. God is not asking you to make payments for your sin. Look to Christ and be certain of your salvation, and stop trying to pay God back.

If you’re not a Christian, you may become one right now. Whosoever comes to Jesus will be saved. All your life perhaps is leading up to this moment, all the good and bad, the blessings and the difficulties, so that you would hear of God’s salvation and trust the redeemer. Trust him now, and be secure in the eternal salvation he offers.

The Permanent Seal of the Spirit

“13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

Now I’ve been mentioning the Father and the Son working together to accomplish salvation, but that’s not the whole story. God is Triune, three persons in one God, and the whole Trinity is involved in redemption. Here, we are taught that the moment a person believes the gospel, that is, this good news about Christ’s work of salvation, they are sealed with the Holy Spirit.

What’s that mean? Get this image in your mind: hot wax melted, dripped on an important letter, and then imprinted by the king’s signet ring. The seal represents three things. 1) It shows it’s genuine and true. 2) It shows whose property it is, like a cattle-brand 3) It renders it secure.

God stamps his seal on every believer the moment they believe in Christ. He gives them the Holy Spirit to dwell within them. This marks them as genuine, it shows that this person is God’s very own precious possession, and that it is therefore perfectly secure.

God does this. This is God’s act. It is according to his eternal purpose. It is his unchanging promise. Those whom he chooses, he gives to Christ, those given to Christ are redeemed, those redeemed are sealed forever by the Holy Spirit.

Look back at verse 14: “who [the Holy Spirit] is our guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

Guarantee. What’s a guarantee? It’s something meant to make sure feel certain. It could be translated as a down payment. It’s a promise. God says, “I’ve given you the Spirit, and you can count that as a promise that you will soon receive the full inheritance of salvation.”

Gather all the devils in the world, all the enemies of God, all the accusers and doubters, and let them try to unseal the believer from God’s salvation. They cannot. They fail. God says, “This is my eternal purpose, and I will be glorified in it.”

Pile up all the sins of that believer, let them stand against him, let them accuse, let all the filth he’s committed testify to his unworthiness. And God says, “No I have chosen him to show off the riches of my grace. I am washed him clean by the blood of my son. I give him my Spirit. He is forever mine.”

If you had lived a million lives, and in all of them committed a million grievous sins, if God had so chosen you for salvation, and gave you to Christ, do you doubt his blood is enough? The showers of his grace could drown Mt Everest, and do you think there’s not enough for you?

Christian, the salvation you’ve been given is secure. It’s rooted not in your flimsy ability to choose but in God’s choice in eternity past. It’s accomplished not by your own faithfulness but by Christ’s perfect redemption. It’s secured forever not by your ability to hold on but by the Spirit’s promise to hold you.

God is not a Father who likes to see his children doubt his love. Rather, it pleases him when his children come confidently to him, knowing they’re accepted.

We’ll finish again with David Brainerd’s February 10th, 1742 journal entry. Note his honesty dealing with his sin, and how he finds comfort:

“February 10: Was exceedingly oppressed, most of the day, with shame, grief, and fear, under a sense of my past folly, as well as present barrenness and coldness. When God sets before me my past misconduct, especially any instances of misguided zeal, it sinks my soul into shame and confusion, makes me afraid of a shaking leaf...I have no confidence to hold up my face, even before my fellow worms; but only when my soul confides in God, and I find the sweet temper of Christ, the spirit of humility, solemnity, and mortification, and resignation alive in my soul. But, in the evening, was unexpectedly refreshed in pouring out my complaint to God; my shame and fear was turned into a sweet composure and acquiesence in God.”

For the David Brainerds among us who sometimes lose warmth and grow cold, who sometimes have bad nights and feel disordered, who often sense deeply the reality of their sin, and often wonder how God could actually love them, the answer is to reflect on our great salvation. Chosen by the Father. Redeemed by the Son. Seal by the Spirit. What comfort!