Full Assurance for Doubters
Doubt can grip any Christian. We can doubt that things are really going to get better in the future. We can doubt that we are good enough for God (as if our standing depended on us and not on Christ). We can wonder if our sins are too many or too big. Is God's grace really greater than all of my sin? Genuine believers can doubt their own salvation or wonder if suffering for Christianity is worth it. How do we deal with doubt? Scripture shows us the way.
The author of Hebrews writes his letter to persecuted believers struggling with the temptation to shrink back from Christ. Their faith was wavering. Assurance waned. Many began to doubt whether Christianity was worth enduring such struggles. It would be a lot easier, they reasoned, to slip back under the Old Covenant and ditch the New Covenant ratified by Christ's blood. They could still have God; they could still have the Bible (or so they thought). And their fellow Jews would no longer threaten them. But the author of Hebrews exhorts his fellow believers using passages from the same Old Covenant they sought to retreat to, demonstrating that it points inescapably to Christ. To turn to the Old Covenant is to be pointed right back to Christ! There was only one place to run—to Christ!
Hebrews, as difficult as it can seem, is actually very simple. Using the objective, unchanging Word of God, the author systematically lays out the superior person and work of Jesus Christ as the basis for a Christian's full assurance. The entire argument rests on understanding how the Old Testament itself points to the coming of a New Covenant which is better than the Old in every way. If Christ is a better priest over a better house who entered into a better tabernacle, if his is a better sacrifice with better blood, if this covenant has better promises (the forgiveness of sins), if Christ is the substance instead of the shadows, why would anyone be tempted to retreat back to something inferior? That makes no sense at all. But we still find ourselves doubting, right? Thank God Hebrews was written for doubters like us, exhorting us to keep looking to Christ!
How do we deal with doubt? How do we counter the paralysis of fear? How can we have confidence that we are going to heaven? How can we face the difficulties of today assured that God has prepared a better city to live in tomorrow? What can anchor our souls when everything is adrift? How do we know that we have been redeemed once and for all? How can we have confidence when we approach God in prayer? How can we fight fear when faced with the manifold threats of man? What can keep us from wavering in the midst of doubt? Hebrews exhorts us to fight all of these things with God's Word about God's Son. Look at the following examples (I urge you to look them up in context):
"Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession" (4:14).
"Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (4:16).
"We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain" (6:19).
". . . and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful" (10:21-23).
So we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?" (13:6).
One of the glaring deficiencies of these Hebrew Christians was how little they used Scripture. Instead of being Bible teachers by this time, they needed "milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil" (Heb 5:12-14). They needed to get back to the Bible and truly understand it.
One of the glaring deficiencies of Christendom today is not only how little professing Christians make use of Scripture, but how little effort is given to understanding how Christ fits into the whole of Scripture, cover to cover. He is the zenith that both testaments point to, but how much Bible teaching is focused on him? The centrality of Christ to Scripture's storyline conclusively informs the church about what its emphasis must be. Just as saints of old focused on Christ by way of God's Word, just as the Holy Spirit preaches Christ to us in the Word, every Christian church should likewise feast on the exposition of God's promises in his Son.
Though individuals are personally responsible for their Christian lives, most blame must be laid at the feet of pulpits that have replaced the steady diet of Bible exposition with quaint stories full of jokes, man-centered lists on how to have a better life, sermon texts selected to prove the preacher's point but not the one the Bible is actually making, scatter-shot sermons chock-full of cherry-picked verses divorced from their context. And those are the sermons that use Scripture! What about all those sermons from books other than the Bible, whether it’s the latest best-selling Christian book or an ancient historic creed? The ultra-relevant and the ultra-reformed look oddly similar at times. The author of Hebrews, however, was the expositor of one book.
The Holy Spirit does not preach words of doubt to genuine Christians but words of assurance. The Holy Spirit preaches the actual message of Scripture about the eternal, once-for-all redemption that is found in Christ. When the Holy Spirit brings conviction to the Christian, he always points to Christ, our perfect sacrifice for sins. The Holy Spirit, in both testaments consistently points to the person and work of Jesus Christ so that every believer may have full assurance of faith. Full assurance for doubters is always found in the fully sufficient work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Contrary to the Holy Spirit, Satan whispers words of doubt in the ears of the Christian. Satan breathes out condemnation and fear. Unlike the Spirit, Satan never points the Christian to Christ's once and for all sacrifice. He ignores the oaths God swore. He twists God's promises. He conceals Christ's blood. He burdens people with Law. He turns you away from the promises of the New Covenant. Satan breathes lies; the Spirit breathes life. Learn to discern each one's sermons. How do we know what the Spirit says? We do not have to guess. We have his Word about God's Son.
Hebrews stands as a paradigm for fighting doubts of any kind (subjective feelings), brought on by any circumstances (persecution or otherwise) by means of the objective truths of Scripture which focus on Christ. The Spirit of God preaches the Son of God in the Word of God. When we read the promises of God in Scripture rightly, we are invariably pointed away from fear to full assurance in Christ. When Scripture is taught properly, we can be certain that the Holy Spirit is there urging us on, since he testifies to us that these things are true.
Additionally, the whole "cloud of witnesses" that has gone before us stand as examples of faith in God's promises (chapter 11). These 'hall-of-faith' saints believed God's Word about God's Son. As Christ's church, we, too, must continue to gather together under the Word of Jesus as we keep looking to him (10:24-25; 12:1-2)! When we do, doubts will give way to assurance.
