ANNOUNCER: What are the practical benefits of having assurance of your salvation? We are going to talk about that today and so glad that you have joined us. This is Grace in Focus. It is the radio broadcast and podcast ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Find out more about us at our website, faithalone.org. We have a free subscription to our magazine for you. The name of the magazine is Grace in Focus. Check it out at faithalone.org. Once again our website faithalone.org. 

Now with today’s discussion about the ramifications of assurance, here are Bob Wilkin and Bob Vacendak. 

BOB W: I’m here again with Bob Vacendak and Bob we’re in the home stretch. We’re on practical ramifications of assurance being of the essence of saving faith. In your dissertation you have what, something like 11 or 12 different ramifications. So I think we’ll probably do this in two shows. Let’s try to get five or six of them in this one and then we’ll get five or six in the second one. So what’s the first practical ramification of being assured of my eternal destiny by faith in Christ apart from works? 

BOB V: The very first one is the ability to interpret Scripture with precision. 

BOB W: Okay the ability to interpret Scripture with precision. That’s saying a mouthful because ultimately what it’s saying is if we don’t get this, it’s going to distort practically every verse in the Old and New Testament. So you’re going to end up thinking every verse is about what I need to do to be saved, what I need to do to get into the kingdom. And so you’re constantly bombarded with confusion. You don’t understand, we’re going to talk about rewards teaching. Everything gets distorted. So if you want to clearly understand the Bible, it starts with being born again and believing the promise of everlasting life. 

BOB V: I have an entire appendix, Bob, that goes through the epistles, you know, New Testament. 

BOB W: Aren’t those are the wives of the apostles? No, no, no, that’s different. Epistles are later. 

BOB V: Basically what I wanted to have in that appendix was so people could access that to see that in all these epistles, they’re all written to people the writer considers children of God. 

BOB W: Right. And he acknowledges that, says that. 

BOB V: It’s an amazing study, but that’s so important because we’ve talked about the fact that the Gospel of John was written specifically to bring unbelievers to faith in Jesus for eternal life and the assurance of it. And so John is like a foundation for understanding the entire New Testament and beyond that, the Bible itself, because without those ironclad, irrevocable, irreversible promises of Christ, some of the more difficult verses that a person may come across, they’ll look at that and they’ll say, wow, this sure sounds like I’ve got to do good works to have eternal life. 

BOB W: That’s a great point. You know, this affects our understanding of whole books. Like, for example, James’ epistle. It’s completely misunderstood, if we think somehow he’s writing to a mixed group of believers and unbelievers and he’s trying to call the unbelievers to commitment and obedience and good work so they can truly be saved or something. That’s getting it all wrong. 

Same thing with the book of Hebrews. It’s totally misunderstood by most people because they think the salvation in Hebrews is salvation from eternal condemnation, when it’s ruling with Christ in the life to come and Hebrews is all about being Christ’s partners in the life to come. You can see Zane Hodges’ commentary on Hebrews or the commentary on Hebrews in our Grace New Testament Commentary by Paul Tanner or we have a commentary by Ken Yates on Hebrews. And the same thing is true with book after book after book. And so yeah, I agree with your first point. One of the major practical ramifications is if we get this, now we can see the Scriptures. It unlocks the Scriptures. 

BOB V: Yes, and lawyers don’t go to the difficult cases that have been adjudicated for information on how to adjudicate other difficult cases. They always go back to the crystal clear, easy to understand cases, and then they build their case on what is certain, what is clear, and what is non-mistakable. 

BOB W: That’s good. All right. What’s the second ramification? 

BOB V: Well, of course, absolute assurance liberates one from living with fear of hell.

BOB W: Okay. That is so powerful because you and I both before we came to faith in Christ, we lived with that every day. And it was something that was scary. And then once we gained assurance of everlasting life, that’s gone. You know, for me now, it’s been 52 years. And what I’ve seen is during that time, I’ve not feared hell at all. And I have people say to me, well, surely you went through times when you were doubting, et cetera. And I’m like, why would I doubt the Lord Jesus Christ? I can doubt me, but I don’t doubt Him. I know I believe His promise. So the only way I’m going to somehow begin to doubt that is if I stopped believing the promise, which would have to mean I take my eyes off Christ. And that’s one of the reasons why I think church attendance in the solid Bible church is so important because it keeps the truths of Scripture before us, week in and week out. So yeah, that’s a great point. That’s very practical because fear of hell can be debilitating for people, right? 

BOB V: And a person’s life totally revolves around trying to rid themselves of that. And they spend much of their waking hours thinking about this and bothering them just like a Calvinist who can’t determine whether they’ve done enough good things to merit eternal life.

BOB W: Or an Arminian too.

BOB V: It’s just really sad. 

BOB W: Alright, what’s number three? 

BOB V: Okay, well, absolute assurance inspires a person to serve Christ and others with joy. 

BOB W: That’s a good point. It inspires them to serve Christ and to serve others. We’re to love Lord our God and we’re to love our neighbors ourselves, right? Well, that opens up when we know for sure that we have everlasting life. But if we don’t, well, it’s very difficult for me to focus on other people when I’m so concerned about myself. 

BOB V: Yeah, that’s right. And if you don’t have assurance, there’s just a natural depression that rests on that person. I wrote there to serve Christ and others with joy. I’m so excited that I know I’m on my way to heaven. And of course, Peter talks about they’re going to be looking for the joy in you. Remember, 1 Peter 3? He says when you’re going through hard times, persecution and they’re wondering, why do you have this hope? Why do you have this joy? Well, I have this joy because I know that I’ll be with Jesus forever and not only that, that everything I do to His honor and glory, He’s going to reward me for, I mean, it’s beyond comprehension. 

BOB W: Remember Paul said the love of Christ constrains us, that He died for us and that motivates us? 

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BOB W: You remember Paul said the love of Christ constrains us, that He died for us and that motivates us? A lot of people know John 3:16, but they don’t know 1 John 3;16. But 1 John 3:16 says, “By this we know love because He laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” What John is saying here is, because we know He died for us and implicit within this is the promise He has promised us, 1 John 2:25 that we have everlasting life. That motivates us to lay down our lives for the brethren. And so assurance is a powerful motivator to live for God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. All right. What’s the next one? 

BOB V: Well, this one goes along with the one we just said, but it frees people, absolute assurance frees people to evangelize with confidence. 

BOB W: I’ve often joked that if you’re a typical evangelical, we’re going to be honest in evangelism. They’d say, I don’t know where I’m going when I die. And if you have 10 minutes, I can help you not know where you’re going when you die. 

But if you do know for sure where you’re going when you die and you know you’re going to be with the Lord forever, then you can say, I know with certainty that I’m going to be with the Lord forever and it has nothing to do with the quality of my life. And if you have two minutes, I can share with you how you can know with certainty. Would that be of interest to you? And people of course are interested because they want to know with certainty. And so yeah, I think it really does free us up. 

BOB V: And the next one that we’re looking at is absolute assurance enables one to endure persecution with boldness. When a person is being persecuted for their stand for Christ. 

BOB W: But let’s say they’re being persecuted for the stand for Christ, but they don’t know where they’re going when they die. They don’t have assurance. Doesn’t that make it kind of hard to put up with the persecution? I guess you could say, well, I better put up with this persecution so I can win my way into heaven. But what if you know for sure you have everlasting life and you’re undergoing persecution, then it would seem to me you can say this is part of the deal. If I’m going to share this message, which God has called me to share, one of the things I need to recognize is people are going to push back against it. They’re going to say you’re, you’re silly. You’re stupid. You’re an idiot because X, Y and Z and they start saying things. But the truth is, didn’t Jesus say, “Blessed are you when men persecute you and revile you and say all kinds of evil against you on account of Me?” 

BOB V: “Great is your reward in heaven,” but if you don’t know you’re going there, it’s kind of hard to rejoice over that. 

BOB W: So yeah, you can’t really be motivated by rewards unless you know for sure you’re already in the family. Who cares about rewards in the kingdom if I’m scared to death that I’m going to spend eternity in lake of fire. All right, what’s the next one? 

BOB V: And this one is similar to some of the other ones, but absolute assurance moves one, motivates one to love God and others with selflessness. 

BOB W: Now, I think what you’re saying here, let me see if I’ve got it. If a person is serving God and others so they can go to heaven, then there’s something in it for them in terms of their eternal destiny, right? It’s like I’m not doing this simply because I’m grateful to what Christ has done for me or I want to please Him whatever. Now, of course, we do need to talk about eternal rewards because that isn’t our benefit, but the difference is it’s not we’re winning our eternal destiny. 

It seems to me that would make a person, well, wouldn’t it be self-centered? You’d be like you’re seeing this other person as a means to an end because that’s going to help me get into the kingdom or I’m giving money to the church so I can buy my way in. They may not be so crass as to say it that way, but that’s what they’re thinking, right? Somehow, it’s not enough to believe in Jesus, but I’ve got to do the works. And of course, a lot of people actually say “justification by faith alone, but the faith that justifies is never alone.” And so they’re coming straight out and saying you’ve got to have works. Well, very good. Well, we’ll go through the last five or six of these in the next episode, but I really like this, Bob. 

And I hope you all are enjoying this and don’t forget to check out Bob’s article on the assurance of the essence in the Grace in Focus magazine, which is available at faithalone.org. Well, thanks so much and keep grace in focus. 

ANNOUNCER: Would you be interested in some free ebooks on topics you hear on this program? Well, if you are, you need to come visit us at faithalone.org. That’s faithalone.org. We would love to hear from you. Maybe you’ve got a question, comment, or some feedback. If you do, please don’t hesitate to send us a message. Here’s our email address. It’s radio at faithalone.org. That’s radio at faithalone.org.

On the next episode: we continue with the positives of assurance of salvation. Please join us. And until then, let’s keep grace in focus.