ANNOUNCER: What would you think, if I said that the essence of having the gift of eternal life is being assured that you have the gift of eternal life? And what benefits would you have if you had it that way? Stay tuned, we will talk about it right here on Grace in Focus. Thank you for joining us today. This is the radio broadcast and podcast ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Find us at faithalone.org. And when you come to that website, make sure and stop by our stores, see all the books that we have to offer. Also at the store, Bob Wilkin’s most recent book, The Gospel is Still Under Siege. 

Now with today’s discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and Bob Vacendak. 

BOB W: Bob, we’re kind of wrapping up the discussion of practical ramifications of assurance of salvation being of the essence or a necessary component of saving faith. We talked about six of them in the last episode and let’s go ahead and hit another five now. What’s the first one of the remaining five? 

BOB V: This is a really great one. This is the truth that absolute assurance encourages a person to pray with conviction. 

BOB W: Yes, because it’s hard to pray with conviction if you don’t know God as your Father. Our Father who art in heaven, well, how can I pray that if I don’t know God is my Father? If I don’t know I’m a child of God, all of my prayers are going to be tinged with doubt. 

BOB V: Yeah, and you don’t know, you’re wondering if He’s even listening to you. What if He’s angry with me? 

BOB W: Right, if you hold the view that, well, okay, God’s not going to hear the prayers of unbelievers. Remember, Bailey Smith [ed., the former Southern Baptist Convention president] famously said, “God doesn’t hear the prayers of Jews.” He was talking about unbelievers. Obviously, there are Jewish believers and here’s a prayers, but we know from Acts 10 that God hears the prayers of unbelievers, Cornelius is someone. 

But the point is, lots of people think that way. And so what sets them free to pray with confidence and know God is hearing and listening is to know that I have everlasting life. People call it God’s forever family, John 1:12 “to become children of God.” We’ve been born of God, John 1:13. Well, once I know that’s true of me, I now have the right as a child to cry out, Abba Father, Romans 8:15. 

BOB V: Yeah, and on top of that, you have promises from Jesus like, “If you being evil, give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him?” If I don’t know Him, He’s my heavenly Father, how do I know He’s good? You know, there’s no confidence there. That’s right. 

BOB W: That’s a good point. All right. And what’s the second of the remaining practical ramifications? 

BOB V: I’m going to roll these two into one here. Absolute assurance motivates a person to prepare for the Judgment Seat of Christ with urgency. And then I’m going to combine it with, “spurs one to seek eternal rewards with fervor.” So we got the Judgment Seat of Christ and rewards. 

BOB W: Okay. And this could easily be a whole program because the concept of eternal rewards runs all the way through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. You see it in the Old Testament. You see it in the New Testament. You see it in the teachings of Jesus. You see it in the Epistles. You see it in the book of Revelation. You see it all the way through the Bible. 

I remember I was taking my first course with Zane Hodges on the book of Hebrews. Well, we were about five or six sessions in, class sessions, maybe the third week class or something. And he kept talking about ruling with Christ and being Christ’s partners in  the life to come and eternal rewards and the Judgment Seat of Christ. I raised my hand and I thought I was so clever. I’d read some articles that said there were two major passages on eternal rewards in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, and 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. I said that in front of the whole class and Prof. Hodges said, well, actually that’s a great misunderstanding. He said, the truth is the doctrine of eternal rewards is on practically every page of the New Testament. 

I was struck by that then and I’m struck by it now. He was so right and the Scriptures open up for us clearly like we talked about in the last show when we know for sure we have everlasting life. And one of the ways that opens up clearly is the Judgment Seat of Christ and eternal rewards now becomes meaningful. This is a very practical ramification. And what it means is my life has meaning and purpose beyond eating and drinking and working. 

In 1 Corinthians 15, the whole chapter, it’s the resurrection chapter. It’s all peaking in verse 58. “Therefore be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” Why? 

BOB V: “You know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” 

BOB W: It seems to me that’s something you know, if you know you have a guaranteed glorified body and a guaranteed home with the Lord, therefore you’re highly motivated based on the Judgment Seat of Christ and ruling with Christ. And by the way, it’s really not self-serving to want to rule with Christ in the life to come and have eternal rewards because the more I rule with Him and the more rewards I get, the more I glorify Him. Now that will bring me joy, true, but it’s really about Jesus, the kingdom’s about Jesus. And so ultimately me wanting to rule with Christ is me wanting to glorify Him more.

BOB V: Yeah, He’s wanting to bring many sons to glory. That’s His desire. Yes. And so if we’re one of those, He’s so proud, He’s so happy that He can bring us on board to rule with Him. 

ANNOUNCER: Just jumping in here to make you aware of our magazine, Grace in Focus. It is a bi-monthly six issues per year, 48-page magazine, full color. And we want you to subscribe by emailing your name and your snail mail address to ges@faithalone.org. The subscription is free. It can be accessed electronically or it can be actually physically sent to you if you live in the lower 48 United States. That’s our Grace in Focus magazine. Send your name and snail mail address to ges@faithalone.org.

BOB W: So what’s the next one? 

BOB V: Well, the next one that we wanted to do is the way that absolute assurance stirs us to view all circumstances, no matter whether they’re good or bad, with gratitude. 

BOB W: Okay, now maybe you can flesh that out a little bit because let’s say that I’m going through cancer. My wife Sharon, she had cancer a little over five years ago now and went through chemo and all that. And you know, I have many friends that are going through much suffering. I have a friend just went through a major massive stroke. And I have another friend that’s facing death, within probably months of dying. You know, we all know of people who are facing all these difficult times. So why would me being sure of my eternal destiny help me face these difficult times with gratefulness, with gratitude, with thanksgiving? 

BOB V: Well, the reason would be that having assurance of your salvation, we can take verses in the Bible at face value like “count it all joy,” when you fall into these different tests, knowing that the trying of your faith produces endurance. So we’ve got multiple verses like that. We’ve got verses that, if we suffer with Him, we will also be glorified with Him. So there’s multiple verses in New Testament. These are some that are just coming off the top of my head where God is saying, look, you know what? I’ve got a purpose in your suffering. It’s only for a short time. I’m training you to reign and don’t look negatively on this. Be grateful because your reward will be great. Your reward will be incredible. And so Bob, I think that what we’ve got here is that knowing, see, if a person doesn’t know that they’re a child of God, then those promises are like, they’re like null and void. How could they know they apply to them? They’re hoping that they’re even going to get in the kingdom, let alone, you know, have rewards and bring Jesus joy and all that. 

BOB W: Well, I was at the Evangelical Theological Society meetings about 20 years ago. And Dr. Craig Blomberg, a leading New Testament scholar, professor at Denver Seminary, gave a talk in which he said, will there be degrees of reward in the kingdom? And his answer was no. And he had a footnote and he said, well, if you’re a dispensationalist and you believe in the Millennium and you believe there’ll be different rewards for a thousand years, but then after a thousand years, there’s no more rewards. We’re all back to the same. He said, then that’s okay because a thousand years will be like a day according to 2 Peter 3:8. So a thousand years in the kingdom is just going to be whoop and we’re past that. 

And I remember his view there and there are a lot of people who think that everybody’s going to have the same experience in the kingdom and ultimately all the rewards are for all believers. And so it could, because don’t a lot of people say in Revelation 2 and 3, all believers are overcomers, all believers are victorious, right? So if you’re not victorious, you don’t get in. And so it’s really a kind of, I think, a sad thing that people get caught up in thinking somehow that they have to strive in order to be good enough or persevere so they can win the prize of eternal life. All right, what else do you have? 

BOB V: Well, just a couple more here. We’ve only got a couple of minutes, but absolute assurance energizes people to pursue holiness. 

BOB W: That’s so, so true. You know, we’ve heard the opposite said, if I believe that, why wouldn’t I go out and live like the devil? I know your experience is like mine. I was pre-med in school. What were you in college? 

BOB V: Engineering. 

BOB W: So you were pre-engineering, you were going to be an engineer. Well, you ended up becoming a pastor. I ended up being a pastor and then teaching in some Bible colleges and then heading Grace Evangelical Society for almost 40 years now. And both of us changed our direction. And we didn’t all of a sudden say, you know what, I think I’m going to become a bank robber. Now that I know I’m eternally secure, or I think I’d like to be an immoral person, or I’d like to be, no, if you know that God loves you, then you know that God has a wonderful plan for your life. And that living God’s way is the good way. So it motivates holiness. It motivates us to please him because we long to please the one who’s given us this wonderful gift. All right, what’s the last one? 

BOB V: Well, this one is absolute assurance empowers people to face death with courage. And you know, I know that we don’t have the persecution in America like in some countries, but nonetheless, we don’t ever know what could come down the pike and to have to stand there and to take your final stand at the very end like Stephen did in Acts chapter seven and to take your final stand for Jesus and to know that He is smiling, that He’s looking down, and He’s blessed that you’re taking that final stand, that boldness that comes with knowing you’ll be with Himm. 

BOB W: That’s a good point. And this applies to people who aren’t undergoing persecution, but just okay, if I’m on hospice, I’m facing death with confidence. In fact, one of my prayers, and I’m sure it’s one of yours as well, is that I glorify God in my death, right? I don’t want to dishonor God in the process of dying, whether it’s hours or months or whatever. I want to glorify God through that, and I’m sure you do as well. And so our assurance of our eternal destiny motivates us to finish the Christian life well.

Well, thanks so much, y’all. And we’ll do one wrap-up session here in the next one, wrap up our whole discussion of assurance being of the essence, and in the meantime, keep grace in focus. 

ANNOUNCER: Be sure to check out our daily blogs at faithalone.org. They are short and full of great teaching, just like what you’ve heard today. Find them at faithalone.org/resources/blog. We would like to thank all of our financial partners who help us keep this show going. All gifts are tax deductible and very much appreciated. If you’d like to find out how you can be a financial partner, visit us at faithalone.org.

On the next episode: we wrap up this series about the assurance of salvation. Please join us, and until then, let’s keep grace in focus.