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By David Wright After rising from the watery grave of baptism, a new convert feels wonderfully clean before God. The blood of Jesus has washed his sins away, and he is certain that death will find him prepared for the day of judgment. With the passing of time, though, insidious doubts begin to creep in and steal the new Christian's joy. Satan, the one behind these unsettling fears, tries to discourage him by insinuating that being in Christ may be insufficient. “Even if you love the Lord with all your heart and faithfully serve him,” the devil says, “you may be overlooking something and end up going to hell after all.” Due to this Satanic assault, some Christians wonder whether they can know they are saved. Unfortunately, they often ask the wrong person, a person just as uncertain as themselves. The answer they hear is deeply disappointing: “No, you cannot know you are saved. You can only hope.” The writers of the NT do speak of “hope” for the Christian. Paul, for instance, wants the Thessalonians to be informed “concerning those who are asleep [dead], that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13). A grieving believer has hope. In heaven he is to reunite with departed Christian brothers and sisters. And this hope is more confidence than desire. Biblical hope equals firm conviction. This explains why the author of Hebrews can describe hope as “a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” (Heb. 6:19). Can a Christian know with certainty that he is secure in the loving embrace of God, or must he be content with merely wishing for eternal life? The apostle John answers this question definitively at the close of his first epistle. Here is his purpose for writing the letter: “I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). |