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Journal of the GES – Spring 1997 Journal of the GRACE EVANGELICAL SOCIETY "Faith Alone in Christ Alone" VOLUME 10 SPRING 1997 NUMBER 18 Assurance: Of the Essence of Saving Faith ZANE C. HODGES 3-L7 The Gospel and Spiritual S/arfare: A Review of Peter'S/agner's Confronting the Powers JOHN F. HART 19-39 The Subtle Danger of an Imprecise Gospel ROBERT N.I$(/ILKIN 41,-60 A Voice from the Past: Sonship and Heirship C. H. MACKINTOSH 61-68 Grace in the Arts: Thomas Hardy: The Tragedy of a Life Vithout Christ JAMES TO\UTNSEND 69-82 Book Reviews 83-92 Periodical Reviews 93-98 A Hymn of Grace: Vonderful Grace of Jesus KEITH \T. \TARD 99-101 Books Received 103-104 Journal of the GRACE EVANGELICAL SOCIETY Published Semiannuallv bv GES Editor Arthur L. Farstad Associate Editor Production Robert N. \flilkin Cathy Beach Sue Broadwell Mark J. Farstad Manuscripts, periodical and book reviews, and other communications should beiddressed to Cathy Beach, GES, P.O. Box167l28,Irving, TX 750t6-7r28. Journal subscriptions, renewals, and changes of address should be sent to the Grace Evangelical Society, P.O. Box 1671'28,Irving, TX7501'6- 7 | 28. Y ou may call us at (97 2) 257 - 7 | 60, {ax to (97 2) 25 5 - 3 884, or E -mail to [email protected]. Subscription Rates: single copy, $2.50 (U.S.); I year, $tS.OO; 2 years, $ZS.OO; 3 years, $39'OO; 4 years, $4q.00. Members of GES receive theJournal at no additional charge beyond the membership dues of $15.00 ($10.00 for active full-time student mem- bers). Purpose: The Grace Evangelical Society was formed 'to promote the cleai proclamation of God's free salvation through faith alone in Christ alone, which is properly correlated with and distinguished from issues related to discipleship." Statement of Faith: "Jesus Christ, God incarnate, paid the full penalty for man's sin when He died on the Cross of Calvary. Any person who, in simple faith, trusts in the risen Christ as his or her only hope o{ heaven' refusing to trust in anything else, receives the gift of eternal life which, once granted, can never be lost." Third-class postage has been paid at Dallas, Texas. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Grace Evangelical Society, P.O. Box 167l28,lwing,Tx75016-7128. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA @1997 Grace Evangelical Society ASSURANCE: OF THE ESSENCE OF SAVING FAITH ZANE C. HODGES Mesquite, Texas I.Introduction A recent political cartoon in LJSA Today caught my attention. It is surprisingly relevant to my subject. In the cartoon a man and a woman were facing each other. Both of them looked like somewhat off-beat types. In the first panel, the man said, "Elvis is alive," and the woman replied something like, "I agree with you." In the second panel, the man said, "I was kidnapped by aliens," and the woman replied, "I believe you." In the third panel, the man said, "Congress and the Vhite House are cooperating on the budget," and the woman turned away from him and said, "Nut!" Of course, the cartoonist is indulging in political satire. Somewhat hyperbolically he suggests that it is easier to believe Elvis is alive or that aliens kidnap earthlings, than it is to believe that a Democratic Presi- dent and a Republican Congress can actually cooperate on a matter of major political importance. But along with this sarire comes a reminder about the ordinary, common-sense way of talking about belief. As the cartoonist and all the rest of us know, believing something may have little to do with the actual evidence for that belief. A person can believe that Elvis is alive, even though the evidence for that is presum- ably rather meager. The same goes for the idea of alien kidnappings. And on the other hand, some people will feel thar the idea of Republican and Democratic cooperation would require quite a bit of proof to be believ- able. But if a person thinks any of these things is true, he obviously believes them. Saving faith really is not any different. A person either believes the offer of eternal life or he doesn't. It really isn't relevant how he came ro believe it, whether his or her reasons were good ones or not. The issue is not bout a person came to believe, but whether or not he does. But that leads me to the subiect of this article. If someone does believe the Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society . Spring 1997 offer of eternal life-as the Bible presents this offer-he will also be sure that he has eternal life. This is what we mean when we say that assur- ance is of tbe essence of saving faitb. I will try to defend this claim biblically. But let me just restate the matter in order to make it clear. The nature of the gospel message is such that, when a person believes it, he necessarily has assurance of eternal salvation. No matter what else he might believe, if he is not assured, he has not believed the gospel. The fact of the matter is that a person may believe certain things about the gospel without actually believing the true gospel. Or he may believe something z ery close to the true gospel which is not, in fact, the gospel. In either case, he will not have the assurance that goes with saving faith. It follows from what I have just said that nobody ever got saved by believing the Lordship gospel. Of course some people /o believe that gospel who are already saved. I am not talking about that. I just mean that on the terms of the Lordship gospel alone, no one can get saved, since this form of doctrine garbles the gospel so badly that assurance of salvation is not available. And if some people do find assurance in a Lordship gospel, that assurance is a delusion since it is not founded on biblical truth. So you see how important this issue is. This is not an adjunct discus- sion in connection uitb the gospel. It goes to the core of things. Only the true biblical gospel gives valid assurance, and believing that gospel akoays gives valid assurance. False gospels either give no assurance at all or give an assurance that is false and deceitful. Vhy is that? Because only the biblical gospel is true! And if I do not believe truth,Icannot be saved or have valid assurance. Remember,Jesus said, "Thy word is truth." Believing something false never saved any- body, although believing a falsehood may give false assurance. So suppose I believe that Elvis is alive and humans have been captured by aliens and I also believe the true biblical gospel. Am I saved? Of course. And suppose I believe the President and the Congress are work- ing hard together on the budget and that God and I must work hard together to get me to heaven. Am I saved? Of course zot. In the former case I will have valid assurance. In the latter case, I will not. So much for my introduction. Let me now proceed to consider my topic under three headings. These are the biblical basis, assurance and the current debate, and the practical consequences for evangelism. Assurance: Of the Essence of Saving Faith 5 II. The Biblical Basis A doctrine is only as good as its biblical support. Biblically speaking, why do we say that assurance is of the essence of saving faith? Ve can make the case easily from the Gospel of John. It is widely recognized that two kinds of statemenrs inJohn's Gospel describe saving faith. One is the phrase 'believe in" (Greek,p isteuo eis). The other is the phrase "believe that" (pisteaoboti).Although some in- terpreters have tried to see a difference between the phrases, this is impossible. Since both kinds of statemenrs are used to indicate how eter- nal life is obtained, there can be no difference berween them. Two things that are equal to the same thing are equal to each other. Rudolf Bultmann was quite right to say that to believe inJesus is short- hand for to believe that Jesus is the Christ. In other words, pisteuo eis aaton (lohn 3:16) is a shorthand way of sayingpisteuo boti lEsous estin ho Cbristos (fohn 20:3 1). Naturally, John 20:31 is determinative precisely because it is part of the thematic statement for the Gospel of John. I also need to remind you of a sratement in 1 John 5:1, which has the same effect. There the same apostle writes: "\(Ihoever believes thatJesus is the Christ is born of God." Please note: ForJohn there are no excep- tions to this. It is not said thatmany people who believe thatJesus is the Christ are born of God. Instead, John claims that wboeper does so is a regenerate Person. Before I go further, let me note this. There is no difference in kind berween believing that Elvis is alive and believing thatJesus is the Christ. Both are acts of faith. Of course, the former faith is unfounded. The latter is divinely sanctioned. The former is misplaced faith. The latter is sav- ing faith. The Christian communiry has been plagued for a long time by its misapprehension about faith. \(e have been told so often that saving faith is more than intellectual assent that we have fallen into a trap. I have argued in Absolately Freelt that the debate over "intellectual assent" is semantically flawed.
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