Frances “Fanny” Crosby was born in 1820 just north of New York City. She was blind for most or all of her life. Her blindness might have been congenital, or the result of an illness as an infant. Although her eyes were impaired, Fanny possessed a keen intellect and a steadfast faith. She became an astonishingly prolific writer of Christian music, authoring over 8,000 hymns! Perhaps her most beloved hymn is Blessed Assurance:
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.
What does the Bible have to say about assurance? Can people have certainty that they will vindicated at the last judgment and welcomed into God’s eternal kingdom? If so, how?
This blog has recently examined the doctrine of the imputed righteousness of Christ. This doctrine holds that people are incapable of producing the righteousness which God requires. Instead, we must simply place our faith in Jesus. Those who trust in Jesus alone are given his perfect righteousness.
But we’ve found that the concept of the imputed righteousness of Christ contains flaws. Most notably, this doctrine fails to account for the nature of salvation itself. True salvation requires that human beings be completely conformed to the likeness of Jesus, who is himself the image of God. Only then can humans fulfill their divinely ordained vocation of governing the creation wisely, allowing the world to flourish. In short, God requires people who are truly righteous, and not merely given an abstract status of righteousness.
The huge missing element in evangelical soteriology is the Holy Spirit. Many Christians, if asked about the assurance of salvation, would insist that their hope is solely rooted in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. But nary a word would be said about the sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost.
When we turn to the pages of scripture, we find many passages which present a far different road to salvation than the one dictated by the “imputed righteousness” of Christ. One of these passages is found in 2 Peter: “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”
This little paragraph is quite revealing. Peter opens his letter by explicitly declaring that God’s “divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life.” This is a far cry from the frequently heard evangelical refrain that people can’t possibly become righteous. Peter instead happily declares that God has given us all the resources we need in order to imitate him.
The source of this divine power is, of course, the Holy Spirit. Just before his ascension, Jesus promised his followers, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.” The Spirit empowers the followers of Jesus to live righteously and thus please God.
According to Peter, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit allows Christians to “participate in the divine nature.” This is an amazing statement which deserves careful reflection. This blog has talked about how Jesus himself (not the Torah!) is the ultimate standard toward which people must strive. It makes perfect sense, then, that this goal can only be attained – not by merely receiving “credit” for Jesus’ righteousness – but by actually possessing the Spirit of Jesus himself. (As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians, “Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.”) Jesus is the one in whom “all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” It’s breathtaking to think that Christians can share in the divine nature of the God of the universe.
This allows Christians to “escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” Peter is clearly referring to the radically altered behavior which the Spirit produces. We are no longer bound by our old shameful ways.
Peter goes on: “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.”
Because God has given us the Holy Spirit, which equips us with everything we need to live a godly life, we have the responsibility to diligently cultivate the virtuous qualities exemplified by our Lord.
Several things to note here:
(a) Peter’s list of characteristics substantially overlaps with the “fruit of the Spirit” (Greek: karpos tou Pneumatos) listed by Paul in Galatians 5:22-23. Both passages include faith/faithfulness, goodness, self-control and love. To these, Peter adds knowledge, perseverance, godliness and mutual affection. But he’s clearly referring to the character and conduct produced by the Spirit.
(b) This conclusion is further reinforced by verse 8: “if your possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive…” (NIV) The Greek word for “unproductive” is akarpous, which is better translated “unfruitful” as in the ESV.
(c) Peter’s command will clearly require serious moral effort on the part of his audience. He exhorts his hearers to “make every effort” to cultivate these qualities. The Kingdom New Testament translates this phrase as “strain every nerve,” perhaps better capturing the sense of urgency. This closely parallels Paul’s admonition to Timothy: “train yourself to be godly.” Paul’s word for “train” is gymnaze, from which we get our word gymnasium. We all know the tremendous energy that athletes expend in order to prepare for a competition. Paul is encouraging Timothy to exert the same kind of effort cultivating godliness.
Peter concludes this section, “Therefore, my brothers, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Here we find a powerful statement of assurance which might be quite startling to many evangelicals. Peter explicitly states that if his hearers want to make their calling and election sure, they must make every effort to cultivate the qualities which the Holy Spirit inspires. If they are able to “do these things,” they will be assured that they will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of the Lord Jesus the Messiah.
All this is radically different from the rhetoric typically heard in evangelical circles. Evangelicals frequently declare that we can’t have any righteousness of our own; we must instead rely completely upon the righteousness of Christ which is “imputed” to us through “faith.”
Now it’s quite true that humans cannot achieve righteousness apart from God’s divine assistance. But Spirit-filled Christians should never say righteousness is beyond our reach. Peter explicitly reminds us that God has “given us everything we need for a godly life”! Who are we to say otherwise?
Evangelicals are quite correct to insist that we need the righteousness of Christ. What they misunderstand is that the righteousness of Christ doesn’t merely come to us as an abstract status; it comes to us as a concrete reality through the work of the Spirit.
Moreover, evangelicals insist that no human effort or energy can produce righteousness, or make any contribution to our salvation. To this, Peter would say, “Au Contraire!” Instead, he would exhort us to “make every effort” (v5) to produce the fruit of the Spirit. “Make every effort” to confirm your calling and election (v10).
So how can people be certain that they have a place among God’s chosen people? How can we know that we’ll be welcomed into his eternal kingdom? Peter’s answer is straightforward: those people who have given their allegiance to Jesus the Messiah have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of Jesus himself. The Spirit empowers us to imitate our Lord by pursuing righteous lives according to his example.
Make no mistake, this will not just happen by accident. Rather, it will be like an athlete rigorously training in order to win a championship. The goal will only be achieved through complete commitment, effort & energy on our part. But the person who is “fruitful” in manifesting the qualities of the Spirit can have full confidence that the Messiah will richly welcome them into his kingdom.
