It's worth asking ourselves, in this discussion, how are we answering this question? Are we pointing to something outside of ourselves, or pointing to something inside of ourselves? Or even more explicitly: Are we pointing to something objective or something subjective?
Are we looking to ourselves, to our own thoughts, feelings, behaviors? Or are we looking to something outside of ourselves, to something that actually happened, something concrete, actual.
If my place with God is determined by subjective things such as works, feelings, thoughts, or such invisible, highly fickle, ever-shifting, never stable things, then one is building a foundation of faith upon shifting, shaking sand.
But if my place with God is determined by objective things, God's works, God's word, God's promises, what Christ has done once and for all (etc), then we have a stable, never-changing, unalterable, immutable foundation upon which our faith can be built.
Growing up I was frequently beset by horrible doubts and feelings of despair--what if I'm not saved? How can I know if I'm saved? And the answers I was always given always pointed back to myself: "When did you accept Jesus? And did you mean it?" I remember distinctly being only eight years old and being anxious-ridden because I was given just such an answer, "Did you mean it?" "Were you sincere?" And I didn't know. How could I know? How could I know if I really really meant it, what does that feel like? How could I know? How do I know that I did mean it, what if I thought I meant it, but I was only fooling myself. I was a maelstrom of interior turmoil. To which the (at least) implicit answer was that, if I really meant it, if I was really saved, then I should bear certain fruit--I would produce fruit evident of this faith.
By the time I reached adolescence and hormones began to rage in my body, the despair and condemnation of my own thoughts frequently led toward every thought that I was not improving in righteousness, my moral life was not getting better, I was not producing the abundance of fruit that I ought. And in the quiet, hidden places of my heart--though I did not share it anyone else--I became convinced that God must surely despise me, that I was beyond hope. Surely with everyone around me so seemingly certain that they had believed, been sincere, and were now living lives of Christian virtue that I was a fluke, a freak, a mistake in the system. Why was I, out of everyone I knew, to be condemned by my own inability to truly make my decision to follow Jesus and make Him Lord and Savior of my life. Christ's face was hidden from me, behind the dark veil of righteousness which all my teachers had convinced me I was to show in my life.
The truth is that Christ's face was never hidden from me, but I was always being pointed in the wrong direction. I was always looking inward, to myself, because that is what I was taught and told to do--to look to my own feelings, thoughts, decisions, acts of will, my own choices.
Christ is not hidden from us. His face is set right before us, in His Gospel. So that when the word is preached to you, that Christ died for you, that Christ came to save sinners, that God demonstrates His love in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, it's yours. It's not up to you to make that true for yourself, that statement is true, objectively true. Christ is Lord and Savior without your permission. And God has provided us with signs and Means by which He has declared His word and promise to be visibly, solidly, concretely known.
That's why the Apostle can say, "All of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ". Because the you that went into the water came out a new creation, born anew, born from above, a child of God, with the white robes of Christ's own righteousness. Baptism is not some token ritual to make people feel better about themselves, to boast in their own religiosity and piety; it is the sacred and holy Means, God's own flag in the ground, that makes you a child of God. When you were baptized God staked His claim over your entire life, His flag is upon you. Indeed, His very Name is written upon you, which is why you were baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. God has clothed you with His own beloved Son, He has given you the gift and promise of His Holy Spirit. The name and claim of God is upon you, now and always, and there is nothing in all of creation that can destroy that,
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other thing in all of creation, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:38-39
You have been sealed by God, sealed in Christ, sealed by the Holy Spirit. You were baptized, that's what it means to be baptized. You belong to Jesus Christ, and all which belongs to Christ belongs to God. You are God's, now and forever. Trust this good news, rejoice in this good news, it is yours. Rejoice, be glad, and praise the God who loves you--who has always loved you, who always will love you, and who keeps you.
-CryptoLutheran
Pentecostals from New Zealand.
