Blessed assurance does not mean perfect assurance: Part II

My point in the last post was to discuss whether or not perfect assurance was possible. Now I want to argue that a blessed-although imperfect-assurance is actually better and honors Jesus even more.

Jesus reminds us in John 6:40 that "Everyone who looks on the Son, and believes in Him should have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the last day."

No one who truly fears leaving the faith needs to fear leaving the faith. Jesus gives us all kinds of promises to hold on to along our spiritual journey. At a time when my assurance was threatened, perhaps due to spiritual attack, depression, faulty thinking, over-analyzation, trusting my heart, or a little of all of the above-I ran to and rested upon this verse time and time again until it eventually stuck. I love it. 

For the over-analytical folk like myself, it need not be over-analyzed. If you truly look to the Son, you'll be raised up. Luke 7:36-50 gives us a perfect picture of what looking to the Son actually "looks" like: weeping, repenting, believing, rejoicing. 

But we have to continue to look to the Son everyday. Not to be saved from the punishment of of our sins (past tense-that's ALREADY happened) but from the power of sin in our lives (present tense) and one day the presence of sin (future tense).

Remember Jesus says, "Follow me." That's quite different than trusting in a prayer you prayed once. Keep looking at Jesus. Keep trusting in Jesus. You'll find that if you are truly afraid of walking away, and you come to Jesus and say, "Help me overcome my unbelief (Mark 9:23-24)," He's going to answer it. In the end you'll see that the work He started in you will be completed (Phil 1:6). And that's actually the evidence that He did in fact start the work in the first place.

You need Jesus everyday. You need to trust in Him everyday. If you have a blessed assurance, instead of a perfect assurance, you still recognize that need. If you thought there were no way you could ever turn away, you'd become arrogant. You'd become self-dependent. You would be trusting in your own perseverance instead of Him who is at work in you, struggling for you (Col 1:29).

You would never sing anything like Rich Mullins once sang, "Hold me Jesus, because I'm shaking like a leaf."

Jesus is more glorified by offering you the assurance that you need (which is real and actually even greater than the assurance we have in our car brakes-we don't fear coming to a red light), so be sure to thank him for it. Keep looking to the Son even when you can't "see" Him, because He sure can see you. Even when we are faithless, his eyes never leave His children.