A young lady from a local church was in my
neighborhood knocking on doors a while back. I was mowing the front yard
& stopped to talk to her when she came to my house. She asked me this
question: "Are you 100% sure you would go to heaven if you died tonight?"
What she was asking me was "Are you confident in your salvation?" but
the way she phrased it came across to me as a bit presumptuous. I felt
like answering "yes" would be putting myself on a level with God, as
if I was capable of judging myself.
Now I know she didn't mean to come
across that way, but I did start thinking about the question "Are you
confident in your salvation?" I believe it comes down to confident
versus smug or arrogant. I am confident of the righteousness that God has
provided through faith in Jesus: "But now a righteousness from God, apart
from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who
believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that
came by Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:21-24). Notice though that this
confidence is not based on me, but only on God. Any confidence in my own
righteousness would not be confidence but arrogance.
Now we know that we are ultimately
justified by grace and not works (Ephesians 2:8-9, "For it is by grace you
have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift
of God - not by works, so that no one can boast"). Since this is
true, does this mean we can just sit back and do nothing? In other words,
is God's grace through faith in Jesus an excuse for smugness or complacency?
The Scriptures clearly say otherwise. James 2:14-17: "What good is
it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith
save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.
If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well
fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In
the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."
Our faith should be a call to action, not an excuse to sit idly by in a world
where so much evil exists. An unbeliever will never respond to the gospel
when it comes from a Christian who talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk.
So how do we know that we are truly walking
the walk? It shouldn't be based on opinion, mine or yours or anyone
else's. The Pharisees had a very high opinion of themselves and their
righteousness, but as the Lord pointed out to them, they "neglected the
more important matters of the law - justice, mercy and faithfulness"
(Matthew 23:23). When the king returns to separate the sheep from the
goats (Matthew 25), the goats will believe themselves to be righteous, but
their inaction will show they are not. Also note that not one of the
sheep or goats has any say in who is a sheep or goat. Only the king
decides who is a sheep or a goat - the opinions of the sheep & goats don't
count. The only basis for determining if you are walking the walk is by
comparison with the Scriptures and the example Jesus set. Someone's
opinion only counts if it is in agreement with these, but then it is really
fact and not opinion. Using the Scriptures as our guide, we can be
confident in our salvation, but we should also beware of the yeast of the
Pharisees: smugness, arrogance, and hypocrisy.
