I’ll say right off the bat that no, it’s not a sin to say that you know you are going to go to heaven. This is not just my opinion but is written in the infallible pages of the Bible, God’s Word to us, and Christ has many statements to back that up as well! (We’ll review this in a moment.) I will add, however, that you can certainly be mistaken about the assurance of salvation, that you may think you are saved when really you are not, but an error of judgment or fact isn’t necessarily a sin. (Which I will certainly extrapolate upon in this discussion!)

Interestingly, the Catholic Church teaches that it is a sin to assume you are saved. They call this the sin of presumption, but it is in direct contradiction to the words of the Bible, and the words and assurances of Jesus Christ, the very person in whom we presume to even have this assurance.

The Catholic Church makes the following statement in their catechism:

“There are two kinds of presumption. Either man presumes upon his own capacities, (hoping to be able to save himself without help from on high), or he presumes upon God’s almighty power or his mercy (hoping to obtain his forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit.” Pg. 507, #2092

What?!?!?! Interestingly, this statement is found under the subheading titled “Hope.” I have to admit, I can’t find a lot of hope in this statement. The Catholic Church implies a perpetual works-based earning of merit that in the end, you “hope” you will be allowed into heaven.

Can you imagine a loving God that would tease you all your life, up until your dying breath, when at your last gasp as the world dims you still carry the fear and uncertainty of tottering over the brink of hell and eternal separation from God because of some unconfessed sin or not knowing if you had gained enough of God’s favor, or that you didn’t say the Lord’s prayer enough times or didn’t pray the Rosary on a regular basis? What’s up with that?

Do you think a God of love would act in that manner towards his children? Is that a God you would want to worship in love and thankfulness and gratitude or like the pagans of old are you constantly running up the volcano, throwing your sacrifice into the pit, and then running down the mountain before He has a chance to spit up a lava bomb on you?

That’s not our God. Our God wants you to know that you are His child; that you will be with him forever; that nothing can take you from His grasp.

Let’s open the Bible… Let’s listen to the Words of Jesus:

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
(John 5:24 ESV)

For this is the will of my Father, 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.”
(John 6:40 ESV)

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.
(John 6:47-48 ESV)

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
(John 8:12 ESV)

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
(John 10:9 ESV)

And most assuredly:

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
(John 10:27-30 ESV)

Jesus, the man who lived a sinless life, told us these things. Therefore, it is not a sin to have this assurance of our salvation.

The Apostle John tells us this as well

I write these things 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 ESV)

The Apostle Paul displayed this confidence… Does that mean that he was wrong or presumptuous to make such an assumption? Faced with the threat of death Paul looks forward to being with Christ but also knows he still has work to do here on earth:

I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
(Philippians 1:23 ESV)

How can you have this confidence? Listen to the words of Jesus above: have faith in Him that he took on your burden of guilt and sin; that he paid the price to get us into heaven. Then you will have the confidence of your salvation and not a blind hope.

When you put your hope in Christ, there’s nothing keeping you out of heaven. As he said, he is the door. And opening that door is to walk the road less traveled. But the way is narrow. If you put your faith and hope in earning your way to heaven as the Muslims and Buddhists and Mennonites and countless other false doctrines do, you may have confidence in your salvation, but it will be a false one.

It’s too easy. We have a hard time accepting it. That salvation is free; and all we have to do is believe on Jesus Christ’s work on our behalf. But God’s ways are not our ways, and Glory be to God for that!

In closing, I’ll ask you to reflect on the popular Hymn, Blessed Assurance, which celebrates the assurance we have in the work of Jesus Christ for our salvation and eternal security in heaven with God our Father.

Don’t just listen to these verses… read them, comprehend them, and be assured… when you accept Christ and His work on the cross, you inherit the righteousness you need to be assured you will spend eternity with God.

May the peace and blessed assurance of our salvation given by God be with you.

He wants you to have that assurance, and to praise Him all day long!

May God Bless you, and may your light shine among men in the darkness.

-Anthony

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.

Refrain: This is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long;
this is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight,
visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
angels descending bring from above
echoes of mercy, whispers of love. (Refrain)

Perfect submission, all is at rest;
I in my Savior am happy and blest,
watching and waiting, looking above,
filled with his goodness, lost in his love. (Refrain)

“He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.” -Jesus, Luke 6:48

One of my most influential teachers, Dear Reader, explained that there are four philosophical elements that every worldview or belief system must answer: Origin, Meaning, Morality, and Destiny. In other words, “upon what foundation will you build the house of your faith?” The worldview given to to us in the Bible revolves around the essence of Jesus Christ: the person of God who came to Earth to save His people so they may follow Him.

Take the first four verses of the Gospel of John where Christ is described as the Word of God and take note of the underlined parts:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. (John 1:1-4)

Christ’s origin, like God’s, is in Eternity. There was never a time that Jesus was not. There was never a time that God was not. That is why the Name of God is I AM. When Moses asked God in the wilderness who he should say had sent him to free the Israelites, God said “Tell them that I AM sent you.” When the temple guards came to arrest Jesus in the garden (John 18:5) and said they were looking for Jesus, he responded “I AM he” upon which the power of His name repulsed them all backwards and caused them to fall to the ground. Christ is, was, and ever shall be and His name, the name above all names, is eternal.

What was Christ’s meaning, or purpose? He came to save sinners, for “there is no one righteous: not one!” -Romans 3:10. Without Christ, no one goes to heaven. He came to do something that we could not do on our own. Jesus did not come to Earth to heal the healthy: he came to heal the sick: the sin-sick souls of His chosen people so they may glorify Him for all eternity. In one fell swoop by paying the penalty of sin on the cross (as the wages of sin are death) and the evidence of His resurrection (Jesus conquered death to open the doorway of salvation to all of us) He allows us access to eternity and fellowship with the Father.

This sacrifice was a one time redemption. Think of it as getting a letter from a creditor saying “paid in full.” Your debt is over… done with. Similarly, once you accept Christ as your redeemer, you never have to approach to God as a wretched human being ever again, but as a chosen son. When Christ rose, it was, as he said in His final words “accomplished” and Christ reigns in heaven at this moment triumphant over death and hell. The Catholic Church, sadly, shows a wretched, battered Christ on the Cross, still suffering for our sins. That, Dear Reader, is not Biblical (dare I say heresy?) Christ has risen, Christ has conquered, and it is finished! The cross, as is the tomb, is empty. Take Him down from there!

Jesus came to give meaning to our morality as well. Without the guidance of the Holy Spirit that God gives us, we have no moral compass. Who is to say what is right or wrong or what is lawful unless you have a law giver? How do we stand on issues such as racism and abortion and murder unless you have a standard to go by?

If you say that morality is relative, then can you say that racism is wrong? If I feel, in my opinion, that one race of people is better than another, do you have any moral ground to tell me I’m wrong to feel that way? Atheism has no moral compass. (When they say they do, they have to borrow it from the Christians.) Stalin, an atheist, was responsible for the death of forty three million people with an estimated total of one hundred thirty million killed under various atheistic regimes. Is a philosophy responsible for that many lives morally wrong? If so, by whose standard? God is the source of all truth and morality, as His law is written on our hearts. (Romans 2:15, Jeremiah 31:33) We know what’s right and what’s wrong. We try to defend our own morality, but there is a higher standard we all will be held accountable to one day.

Finally there is the Christian’s destiny promised through Jesus Christ: Jesus proclaimed, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” In July of 2007 the patriarch of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI essentially said that “no one goes to heaven except through the Catholic Church.” My question to him, Dear Reader, is: “From what fortune cookie did you pull that little nugget of doctrine from? Where in your Bible does it say that? … I haven’t been able to find it!”

If what the pope said were true, where does that leave the faithful Old Testament Israelite? (Is Moses in Heaven?) Where does that leave the church in China, India, Iran, and other countries hostile to the Gospel where thousands die each year in His name? Are they in hell because they weren’t Catholic? More importantly, how could Christ say to the thief on the Cross with a straight face that “today you will be with me in paradise?” That man on His left never went to Church or was baptized or received communion: it was simple faith in who Christ was, and nothing else, that saved Him.

What the pope and other officials in the Catholic Church are saying with this, however, is that what they say is true overrides what the Bible says is true, (because they think they’re the ones with the authority to interpret it, not you) and if the Bible is the Word of God, I’m going to stand as far away from any Catholic Church building in fear of getting struck by lightning or swallowed by earthquake. If I have to make a choice between who I’m more scared of offending: God or Mr. Benedict, I’ll side with God.

There is freedom in the Gospel, not servitude. There is hope in Christ’s absolute power, without which there would be no hope of salvation.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. -Romans 1:16

If God is for us, who can be against us? -Romans 8:31

He wanted me to tell you that.

-Anthony

So, I hope you like today’s inaugural podcast. I have to decide on a schedule of writing and podcasting. I still plan on making daily updates, but whether it’s a 50/50 or a weekly podcast and 4 days writing, time will tell.

Please post some comments and check to see when the podcast will be available on iTunes!

For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

Ephesians 2:8-10, 18-19

Dear Reader: This is a passage which is most freeing to the mind of one who lives a life trying to do their best to earn a place in heaven – something that cannot be done. Read each sentence slowly, and understand its meaning.

First, before doing so, remember and contemplate that the words of Scripture penned in the Bible and preserved throughout the ages is the Word of God, spoken for us, the people of God.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. By believing that Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient for the atonement of your sins, all sin: past, present, and future, you are saved from the wrath of God for all eternity. Welcome to the family! You are blessed by God, as a recipient of his Grace. If you put your faith in the work of Christ instead of your constantly rebellious and failing nature trying to earn your way in you now have an eternal Father and will share a place in His kingdom.

And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. By our nature, since the fall of Adam, we are sinful and do not seek after the things of God. (Read Romans 1 and 3 for more on this.) We live our own lives, thinking of our temporal world and not the eternal. God gives us our faith: the only reason we seek God and seek to do His will is because he gave us our faith to begin with.

Not a result of works, so that no one may boast. God is God and He will get all the glory. God will share his Glory with no one. Answer this question: If God ordains someone to do something, do you think they can say no? Does a little human being have the power to say no to a command of an omnipotent God? Likewise, if God says “no”, do you think anyone can muscle their way against Him? Both answers are obviously no. For this reason, God gets the glory for giving you your faith and enabling you to come to Him: so that no one may boast. God chose you… you did not choose God. You cannot brag “I chose to follow God” when it was God who gave you your faith. Likewise, if you in your still sinful nature want to rebel and turn against God, that’s not going to happen. Once in His grip, He’ll never let go.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, Number 1: God made us for His glory, and no one else’s. He also created us (us believers, that is) with faith in His Son that we would do good works. Mind the parallel here: our faith enables us to do good works… we were already saved through our faith. We do not do good works in order to earn our way into heaven, dear reader… we do good works in response to the gratitude and love we show to God for calling us to be His own.

…which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Nothing is outside of the scope of God’s vision and work. Everything that happens, he has ordained to happen. Not a hair of your head goes unnumbered and not a cry of one of his children goes unheard. God prepared our lives and our good works before the dawn of time that we should walk in them and be His children, worshiping Him, and glorifying him for eternity.

For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. This is the most shocking statement for many: With our faith in Christ, there is no go-between necessary: no intermediary. There are no priests, bishops, or apostles standing between us and the foot of His throne. Just as a child can crawl into the lap of their father and gain his love, comfort, and attention, so we too have access to the lap of our eternal Father. No man stands between us and God.

Will you confess Christ as your savior, redeemer, and mediator? Well then… Welcome to the Family!

He told me to tell you that.

In His lap…

-Anthony

-Galatians 2:15-16, ESV

In keeping the main thing the main thing, the main thing about the Christian life is the relationship one has with Jesus Christ. Nothing else. It is not the things we do, the number of times we recite the Lord’s Prayer or how many times we run our fingers and lips around the rosary beads. The only thing that lets approach God’s throne and presence is the faith in Christ that He, God the Father through the Holy Spirit, gave us.

News Flash: Nothing that we do gets us into heaven. Christ died a death that we deserved, paying a price we could not pay, in order to make us equal with Him and in the family of God. Sounds Hard To Believe or too good to be true, doesn’t it?

No matter how many times we “try” to be good, we cannot. Our nature is to sin against and rebel against God and do what we please as opposed to what he purposes us for: to glorify him and enjoy him forever.

As the apostle Paul says in today’s verse: we are not justified (made just, made right, made approachable) by our works (the things we do), and nothing we can do will ever win us God’s favor.

But: the good news, the gospel, is that through faith in Jesus Christ, through the work that He did on our behalf, we are justified and made God’s children. Simple faith. He (God) doesn’t ask for much. He did all the work! By works of the law: by doing the ten commandments, by going to church, by doing good deeds, by saying our prayers, nothing we do will get us into heaven.

It’s all God.

In His Grip,

Till Next Time,

-Anthony