Lately I’ve been studying through the book of Hebrews. I’m still early in the book (Chapter 5), but being the Type “A” personality I am, I’ve looked ahead. And I’ve been amazed at the thread running through the entire book concerning a Christian’s confidence and assurance. In fact, I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the author’s purposes of the book was to encourage the readers to be bold in their faith. The Church is way too timid, because we do not understand who we are because of who Christ is and what He has done. A great deal of this timidity stems from a misunderstanding — or even ignorance — of our standing before God in Christ.
If we live as if our salvation, or even God’s attitude towards us, is dependent on our behavior, how can we possible know if we’ve been “good enough” to get to heaven, or “good enough” for God to be pleased with us? And if we can’t know, how can we ever live in joy and peace, knowing that our salvation and God’s good pleasure are secure? And if we have no joy and peace, how can we be bold in our faith and witness?
In fact, we can know those things. We can know that if we’re depending on our behavior (works), then our salvation is not only not secure, it doesn’t exist. The minute we think we’ve been “good enough” is the minute we fail to see God’s holiness and perfection, as well as the depth of our sin. God demands perfection, and we cannot, and never will, achieve that. This is the fallacy of legalism.
Likewise, the moment we think that God is pleased with us because of our behavior (works), then our salvation may be secure, but our joy isn’t. In fact, in that case our joy will be dependent entirely on our subjective state of mind at any given minute, a rollercoaster of emotion and futility. This is the fallacy of nomism.
God does not intend us to live this way. He wants to give us a joy that springs from a confidence and assurance that our salvation is secure, and God’s good pleasure in us is sure. Enter the book of Hebrews. Notice all the times God exhorts us to be confident and sure:
2:16 For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham.
Hebrews 2:16
Abraham lived by faith, and those of us who do likewise can be sure of God’s help in our trials, our temptations, our struggles, our failures, even our sin. As with Abraham, when God sees our faith, He counts it to us as righteousness. Not performance. Not doing the right things. Faith. Only faith.
[B]ut Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.
Hebrews 3:6
We must hold firm — the Greek word means to cling to, grasp with a death grip! — to our confidence. Do not let it be shaken.
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16
In Christ we can approach God with confidence, without worrying whether we have been “good enough.” Because here’s the bad news: we haven’t! But as we approach God in faith with confidence, we will always find grace and receive mercy. Note, though, that our confidence is not in our faith; it is in the One Whom we have faith in: Jesus Christ. It is our faith in Christ that allows us to approach God with confidence.
6: 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end.
Hebrews 6:11
Here we see the heart of God spelled out clearly. He desires us to have full assurance of our hope of election, adoption, justification, sanctification, and glorification. We do not have to worry about such things — they are sure. And because they are sure to “until the end”, they can never be taken away from us — or given up by us. Believing these things and being sure of them is not arrogance, it is obedience. It is following the very heart of God.
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Hebrews 10:19
In ancient Judaism, the holy place (the Holy of Holies) was the very throne of God on earth, and could only be entered into by a priest, and then only once a year (the Day of Atonement) as part of a very detailed ritual. If anybody else tried to enter, or if even a priest tried to enter at any other time, that person would die. But through the blood of Christ, we have immediate, continuous access directly to God Himself. By faith we can approach him confidently and with assurance that we will not die, because we have been made pure in body and soul. But only by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
Hebrews 10:35
Christians cannot lose their salvation, but we can lose our confidence. We can throw it away. We can forfeit our joy, and put ourselves back into the slavery of performance. But our confidence gives us the great reward of joy and peace that comes from shedding the chains of legalism and embracing our freedom from the law.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1
By faith, we don’t have to wonder about anything — our salvation, God’s good pleasure, our eternity. We can be assured of those things, even though right now they can be difficult, sometimes even impossible, to see.
So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
Hebrews 13:6
We can lose our fear, our doubt. We can be confident in God’s help, because he loves us, and is sure to walk with us and deliver us in all things, not just mortal, but also immortal (supernatural). And as the author says: what can (mere) man do to me? Or, as the apostle Paul said in Romans 8, if God is for us, who can be against us?
