John 5:24

John 5:24
²⁴ “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

The New Testament contains many verses that assure us of salvation if we repent and believe in Jesus. Such assurance has always been very important to me. I was raised a Roman Catholic, when we were told that we might end up in hell, heaven, or purgatory. Having a sense of assurance was discouraged. It was the sin of presumption.

Then, when I started meeting evangelical Christians, they pointed me to the New Testament, which tells us that we can be sure if we repent and believe. God does want us to grow in holiness, but our salvation doesn’t depend on our level of growth. It depends on what Jesus did on the cross. You could say that our level of heavenly reward depends on how we live our life down here.

To be fair, some New Testament verses can shake your assurance. You do get warnings about the need to persevere, but if you truly believe, the Lord Himself will help you to persevere.

Philippians 1:3-6
³ I thank my God every time I remember you. ⁴ In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy ⁵ because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

I sometimes compare it to a class with an excellent teacher. If half the class fails their exams, a poor teacher might say “Well it wasn’t my fault. Some of my class were lazy or stupid.” But an excellent teacher will motivate them and teach in such a way that they all do well. I suppose, you won’t get perfect teachers, but I see Jesus as a perfect teacher.

What about the sin of presumption? I can understand that a little more now. For example, let’s say some guy with a sinful lifestyle walked forward in a Billy Graham crusade and committed his life to Christ. Then, the next day, he goes back to his sinful lifestyle, but he isn’t worried because he “got saved” at the meeting. Even evangelical Christians will emphasize the need to bear fruit.

Some weren’t very happy with evangelistic crusades for the very reason that they feared that they would yield false converts who just responded because of psychological tactics that momentarily touched them emotionally. Or sometimes nowadays, churches grow by creating an environment where you’ll meet people who might be useful to you. Joining such a church isn’t equivalent to true repentance and faith. Presenting the gospel is about calling people to repent and believe, not presenting quick some tricks to get into heaven or solve all their earthly problems.

But anyway, even if we are genuine converts, none of us are gonna be deserving of salvation, even if we manage to live exceptionally holy lives. When Jesus died, he wasn’t only dying for our past sins, he was dying for all our sins.

On the night before He died, He knew that Peter would deny Him three times and that His disciples would desert Him when He assured them that He was preparing a place for them in heaven. And if Jesus focused on me when He died on the cross, He’d have known all the sins that I’d commit, even after my conversion. Would that have stopped Him dying for me?

Why do some believers lack holiness? Well, we all do if you examine us closely enough. And because God is so Holy, He probably sees us in the way we see very unholy people. But sometimes public figures serve as bad examples of believers. Yet, perhaps they are tempted more than others, and they might have more to cope with. The Bible doesn’t hide the faults of significant figures. You can see flaws in Abraham, David, and even in the New Testament, Peter and Paul, and Barnabas and Paul had conflicts with one another.

Maybe it’s a little like raising a family. If I adopted kids, I’d like to raise them well. If they didn’t meet my expectations, would I send them back to the orphanage? Surely not! I would discipline them, but they would still be my kids. And when we believe,. we become God’s children.

John 1:12
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

Nowadays, in Irish Roman Catholicism, there’s much less emphasis on purgatory and hell. Even some of the recent Popes seem to be reinventing them in such a way that no-one spends much time in either of them. But I’d much rather build my faith on Scripture rather than what’s fashionable in the world of modernist theology.

I sometimes come across people who believe but who struggle with issues such as addiction and relationships. But, like King David, I believe that their hearts are in the right place. It won’t be me judging them on judgement day, but my hope is that they did sincerely trust in Christ. Here are some country stars who seemed to have had a real faith, yet struggled with addiction at various points:

Sometimes, we dismiss people if we hear anything bad about them. But God knows all our thoughts, words, and deeds, so if He did what we do, He’s dismiss us all. In His eyes, we all fall short, which is why we need a Saviour. It’s true that He wants us to be holy, and we should encourage each other to be holy, but my hope is that all these stars had a true and real faith, despite their issues.