This is the last in our short series on the first question and answer to the
Heidelberg Catechism. Today, we look at the last portion of the answer.
‘Therefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life and makes
me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.’ Today, we look
at assurance. I imagine that each of you has asked the question, ‘Am I
saved?’ There isn’t anything wrong with asking that question. In fact, it’s
good to do that from time to time. The Apostle Paul exhorted the Corinthians
to ask that question. The real issue is how you answer it and especially how
you arrive at your answer. Hopefully, the Spirit will say some things this
morning that will help in your dealing with that question.
The first thing that I’d like you to notice is that the Catechism is
responding to the question, ‘What is your only comfort…?’ Assurance is an
important aspect of a Christian’s comfort. I say this not because the goal
of the Gospel is for Christians to be able to take it easy – to enjoy a
‘comfortable’ life. Quite the opposite. Settling the matter of assurance is
important because it affects your ability to serve Christ well. Someone
lacking sufficient assurance is distracted from the work for the kingdom,
work that needs to be accomplished. We need to be able to set all
distractions aside so that we can focus on serving Christ for as long we are
here. So, my concern here is not merely that you all are assured so that you
don’t struggle with the issue. My concern is that you would be solidly
assured that eternal life is yours so that you would lead lives of great
service to Christ. That is always the prime goal. Serving Jesus well trumps
everything.
Now, I want to draw your attention to something in our Catechism answer that
I suspect many Christian people need to hear. It says, ‘… by His Holy
Spirit, He … assures me…’ Did you notice who does the assuring? It’s Jesus
who does the assuring. It is something that He does as our faithful Savior.
And that makes sense, doesn’t it? What good is it for Him to save you if you
aren’t sure that it’s happened? And so, you see, even this part of the
Gospel is a matter of grace. I think that many struggle with assurance
because they think that they need to do some special ‘something’ that will
make them feel assured. They think that bringing about assurance is a
responsibility placed on them. And for these folk this quickly becomes a
great burden. But that’s not the Gospel. Assurance is something that Jesus
does. He assures us by His Spirit. The pressure is off. And again, the
Catechism hasn’t dreamed this up on its own. It is based, among other
places, in our text. ‘The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that
we are children of God …’ It is the work of Jesus to make clear to us by His
Spirit that we are the children of God. Assurance is His responsibility.
Do you see the kind of salvation that Jesus has provided? It is a salvation
that includes assurance of that salvation. It is a salvation that includes
the assurance that you are a child of God, so that you are able to cry out,
‘Abba, Father’ and know that you are being heard. All of this is a gift of
Jesus. It is ours through the ministry of the Spirit. The Gospel really is a
matter of grace.
At this point I am, once again, reminded that preaching is so often a matter
of joining together two distinct things, and doing that quickly before
someone misunderstands you. Having stressed, as I have, how assurance is
something that Jesus creates, I need, now, to be quick to say that this does
not mean that you are to be passive. The pressure is off, but that doesn’t
mean that you can coast. Once again, I want to remind you that the Bible
does not teach ‘zap theology’. The Spirit does not go around with a magic
wand zapping people out of the blue, willy-nilly. The Spirit uses means,
tools, to accomplish His purposes, including things like granting you
assurance of eternal life. And so, we see in the Scriptures that the Spirit
uses the means of the Word and Sacraments. These are the tools that He uses
to create in you this sense of assurance. This says a great deal about how
we are to go about the Christian life.
You’ve noticed, no doubt, that the Word holds a prominent place in our
worship services. We have three readings: a Psalter Reading, a Gospel
Reading and then a Reading of one of the other books of the Bible. Then,
there is always a sermon on some portion of the Scriptures. We do not have
cantatas or skits that take its place. This comes from the conviction that
the Spirit uses His Word, both read and preached, as a means to things like
assurance. I hope that what we do on Sundays is matched with your own daily
reading of the Scriptures during the week. And I certainly hope that you
fathers are reading a bit of Scripture to your family each day as well. The
goal in all of this is not to have some striking experience as you discover
some profound truth of Scripture. The goal is for you to simply interact
with God’s Word. The Spirit uses the Word. Sometimes He acts immediately and
even in a striking way, and you just may discover what is for you a profound
truth. But usually He just allows you to get more Scripture into your mind
so that, later, He can join Gospel truths together to bless your life. The
Sacraments also fit in here. They are signs and seals of the promises of the
Gospel. They picture the Word and drive it home to our hearts. The Spirit
uses them to strengthen faith, which results, among other things, in a
growing sense of assurance.
And so, when it comes to the heavy lifting of creating assurance, it’s all
on the Spirit. But you still have something to do. You need to interact with
the Word by reading it, hearing it read and listening to it preached, and by
having its truths impressed upon your heart by means of the Sacraments. Many
unnecessary struggles result from a lack of emphasis on the Word and
Sacraments.
Let’s move on. It is odd, is it not, that I have been talking about
something that I have not defined. We all know the language of assurance,
and yet, how would you explain what it means to be assured of salvation?
Getting this right is a critical step to gaining assurance. Too many,
especially these days, tie aspects of being a Christian, including having an
assurance of eternal life, to some emotional state. And these poor, misled
souls suffer so as a result. Defining some aspect of Christian maturity in
terms of some emotional state will seem to work as long as you’re feeling
‘up’. But no one can maintain an ‘up’ feeling all the time. Emotions, being
what they are, are sometimes up and sometimes down. Does that mean that your
sense of being assurance goes up and down with them?
Imagine a young boy. He’s playing outside with siblings and friends. His mom
calls him in for dinner. He washes up and sits at the table. He bows his
head as his dad prays. Over dinner he and the rest of the family enjoy
talking about the events of the day. After dinner, our young boy takes care
of his kitchen chores. Later, his dad tells him that it’s time to put away
his toys and get ready for bed. Then his mom tucks him into bed with a kiss.
Do you think that this young boy stops what he’s doing every so often to ask
himself, ‘I wonder if these really are my parents and that I really am their
son’? Does he think about it and then hope for some emotional response that
will assure him of his parentage? No. He is simply confident that that’s his
mom over there sitting on the couch next to his dad, and he acts
appropriately, obeying their commands and enjoying their love. Assurance isn
’t some big emotional thing. It’s a quiet confidence about the facts: ‘God
is my Father. Jesus is my older brother. The Spirit lives within me to make
sure that I will make it home to heaven.’ That’s assurance, and it comes
about by the work of the Spirit as He takes the Word and Sacraments and uses
them in your life.
There’s one more part of our Catechism answer that we need to look at. ‘By
His Holy Spirit, He … makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to
live for Him.’ What is this, the fine print? ‘Well, since the Spirit has
blessed you so in granting you assurance, you need to do your duty and live
for Jesus. Time to pay up! But, it’s a small price to pay.’ Is this what
catechism getting at? Never! Where is the grace in that? Our Catechism
understands this. Notice how it captures the biblical nuance: ‘He … makes
me … heartily willing and ready to live for Him’. It’s not a matter of duty
or payment. It is something that we desire to do. Once again, this is
something that Jesus does in us by His Spirit. One good place to see this is
in Romans 6 where Paul talks about our walking in newness of life. There, he
emphasizes the means of the Sacrament of baptism. Through our baptism, we
are made heartily willing and ready to live as Christians. Jesus, by the
Spirit, does this tremendous work so that we want to live for Him. It is no
arduous duty. It is our desire. But bear in mind what Paul writes back in
our text in Romans 8. He writes about the glories of heaven that will be
ours, being ‘fellow heirs with Christ’. But then he adds, ‘provided we
suffer with Him’. Living for Christ is not some simple thing, easily done.
Faithful discipleship includes suffering, being confronted by and fighting
against sin in its many different forms. There is no crown for those who
will not bear a cross. And yet, in a very curious way, all of this
strengthens our assurance, doesn’t it? Why do we battle against sin,
especially our own? Boil it down and we do it because we are children of
God. And so, even our battles are used to encourage us. We are God’s
children battling our way our home. And we fight confident of the outcome.
‘God is our Father. Jesus is our older brother. And the Spirit lives within
us to make sure that we make home to heaven.’ Rest assured of this. It is
the Gospel.
