How can a Christian know that they’ll be saved? On the day of God’s final judgment, can we be certain that we shall be vindicated and welcomed into God’s glorious future?
In most evangelical circles, Christians are taught that our assurance is solely derived from the atoning death of Jesus upon the cross. Only through “faith” (passive trust or belief) can we have certainty about our future salvation. Some teachers even solemnly warn that if we somehow smuggle in any trust in our own “works,” we put ourselves at risk for eternal damnation!
In the last blog, we reflected on the words of the Apostle Peter. Peter’s message radically diverges from this stock evangelical position. He reminds his readers that God’s divine power has given them everything they need for a godly life. (v3) Christians are able to participate in the divine nature of God himself, thereby escaping from the corruption caused by evil desires. (v4) Peter exhorts his readers to “make every effort” to cultivate the qualities produced by the Holy Spirit. (v5-7) He concludes by again urging his readers to “make every effort” to confirm their calling & election. (v10) He assures them that “if you do these things,” they will receive “a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Messiah.” (v10-11)
The entire passage directly links our salvation with a dramatically altered pattern of life driven by the power of the Spirit. Instead of a passive posture, Peter offers a hearty call to action.
This same pattern can be found throughout the scriptures. When the Bible speaks about assurance, we invariably find references to the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8 is rightly considered one of the greatest chapters in the Bible. It’s the culmination of a long argument which began in chapter 1, where Paul described the plight of sinful humanity. Paul has a specific term for the rebellious & hard-hearted state of humans apart from God’s grace; he calls it “the flesh.” The Greek word for “flesh” is sarx, often translated as “sinful nature.” This condition afflicts Jew & Gentile alike, putting all people at risk of condemnation.
But because of what God has done, the loyal followers of Jesus are no longer on the road to ruin: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Messiah Jesus, because through Jesus the Messiah the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1)
Perhaps no other bit of scripture has been taken out of context more often than this one. I would be a rich man indeed if I had a nickel for each time I’ve heard a pastor confidently declare that there’s “no condemnation” for those in Christ Jesus, only to break off and offer an explanation which is only tangentially related to what Paul actually says. It’s both amazing & sad at how many Christians fail to let Paul finish his sentence!
Evangelicals invariably insist that the certainty of salvation can be derived only from Jesus’ death on the cross. Any change in human conduct is relegated to the category of “thankful response” to what Jesus has accomplished. This approach tears apart what Paul always holds together. For Paul, (and all the writers of the New Testament) salvation is just as much a function of the Holy Spirit as is Jesus’ death of the cross.
Paul explicitly declares that there’s no condemnation because “the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” But what exactly does Paul mean by this curious phrase? What precisely is “law of the Spirit of life?” (nomos tou Pneumatos)
One of the great insights for understanding the Apostle Paul is that when he writes about “the law” (nomos) he always referring to the Torah, the law God gave to Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai. The Torah required that Israel worship the one true God and live in obedience to him.
The ten commandments are the beating heart of the Torah. They’re found in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 6. This latter chapter concludes with these words from Moses: “So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.”
In Deuteronomy 30, Moses uses identical terms to summarize God’s covenant agreement with Israel: “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.”
God offered the children of Israel a clear choice. If they worshiped him alone & followed his commands, they would receive life & blessing. But to turn away from him would inevitably bring death & destruction.
Readers of the Bible know how this story played out. Despite fleeting times of faithfulness, Israel overall abjectly failed to keep the covenant. Instead of life & blessing, they suffering the covenant curses (elaborated in Deuteronomy 28:15-68), culminating in exile. Because of Israel’s “fleshliness” – their stubborn and impenitent hearts – the Torah became a pact of death rather than a path to life. That is precisely what Paul meant in Romans 8:2 when he wrote about “the Torah of sin & death.”
Yet even Israel’s failure was not outside the plan & purposes of God. Even as they were sent into exile, God spoke of a time when the covenant would be renewed: “[The new covenant] will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took [Israel] by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, and I turned away from them…This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time…I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:32-33)
Paul saw that the Torah was God’s gracious gift to Israel: “The law is holy and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.” (Romans 7:12) But the problem was ultimately the people to whom the law was given. Like the rest of humanity, Israel shared in the rebellious nature of their ancestor Adam. As God had said, “They did not remain faithful to my covenant and I turned away from them.”
So even though the law pointed in the right direction, it didn’t have the power to produce the righteous conduct which brings about the life & blessing which God promised to those who live in obedience to him. In Paul’s words, “For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous verdict of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Note that Paul does indeed point to the atoning death of Jesus on the cross. When discussing the cross, evangelicals focus solely on the forgiveness of sins, sharply excluding any altered behavior. But Paul consistently treats forgiveness & freedom as two sides of a single coin. For Paul, Jesus’ death effected the complete and utter condemnation of sin (v4). Jesus broke sin’s deadly hold upon humanity. Just as God freed the children of Israel from oppression at the hands of Pharaoh, now God has freed his people from slavery to sin.
Remember that through the prophet Jeremiah, God promised “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.” This phrase if often glossed over by evangelicals because it clearly indicates that the new covenant will produce obedience.
Paul insists that there is “no condemnation” because of the freedom given by “the law of the Spirit of life.” What he means is that through Jesus’s death, resurrection AND the gift of the Holy Spirit, Christians now have the power to offer God the righteousness and obedience he requires. Thus, the Torah’s promise of life (“the righteous verdict of the law”) is fulfilled in those “who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
How can we be certain that there will be no condemnation on the day of judgment, but rather the vindication which leads to eternal life? Paul’s answer: “live according to the Spirit.”
