The Pruning Power of Grace

So yesterday Kristal and I were on our way home from church and we had the following conversation:

Me: Kristal I feel like I have been a bubbling fool for the past 3 months. So often I presume to know more than what I do. Over the past few months I feel like I have taken the body of Christ for granted; I haven't realized the worth in the people God has put in my life; I feel like I have been too picky; that I have overemphasized everyone's faults; I have been consumed by myself and my own agendas. Kristal I have not been right with the Lord in these things. I want to value the people of God and their ideas; I want to not be nit-picky; I want to only speak when it will be beneficial.

Kristal: Wow. I think we all struggle with those things.

Me: Yeah, I know. But I feel like I have been extra careless lately. I honestly am ashamed of myself. This is a part of myself that I don't want anyone else to see.

Ok, we have to take a break in the narrative. So, I was in the middle of confessing the blackness of my heart, and then out of no where I start to laugh. Ok, back to the narrative:

Kristal: Why are you laughing?

Jimmy: I love this!

Kristal: What? What do you love?

Jimmy: Kristal, the Lord isn't through with me! He is still pruning me; He is still purifying me; He is not leaving me in my sin. I AM HIS!

Yesterday I experienced first hand the purifying power of the grace of God. These are the strangest moments in the world--one second you feel like a run-over, bloated toad in the middle of the road on a hot day, and then, out of nowhere, you feel like a Child of the Most High. Then you wonder how such great joy could fill your heart in the midst of such inner chaos. Then you see the grace of God and the power of His Spirit and you just don't care anymore how awful it feels to be pruned by him--your only desire is to be like Christ. Your joy becomes bound up in the cross. You know you are a failure and you are just happy that God's love for you does not depend upon your performance but upon the perfect and completed work of Christ.

1 John and Assurance Part II

So, on what basis does the Holy Spirit through the Apostle John assure his readers that they have eternal life? Lets take a look. In 1 John 1:6-7 John says, "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." If you do not walk in the light, then you can have no assurance that the "blood of Jesus His Son cleanses" you from your all your sin. What does it mean to walk in the light? It is very clear from the context that walking in the light has to do with obedience to the commands of God. The question is, Do you walk in the light; Do you walk in obedience to the commands of Christ? If not, you can have no assurance that you have eternal life. We must look at this in a positive light as well. After all, John wrote this to provide his readers with assurance. If you walk in the light, if you live in obedience to the commands of Christ you can have great assurance that you have eternal life. Rejoice!

John in no way is here teaching that you must flawlessly walk in the light. NO! John is not teaching that only those who live lives of perfect obedience can have assurance that they have eternal life. This is such a big deal that John, in the very next verse, says that "if we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8). We also know that John is not here saying that assurance of salvation is given only to those who flawlessly walk in the light because just 4 verses after saying this he says, "And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1).

This is such a difficult thing to communicate to people today because of a tendency to oversimplify things. Yes, we do have an advocate with the Father if we do sin, however it is true that you can have no assurance that you have eternal life if you, as a lifestyle, walk in the darkness. We all falter, we all mess up, however those who truly have eternal life, as a lifestyle, walk in the light.


So let us ask the beloved Apostle John, "JOHN! How can I know that I have eternal life?" Hear the words of the Holy Spirit through his Apostle, ""If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:6-7)


Let us move on to 1 John 2:3-6, "By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked."


I do not know how John could have made this any clearer. "Beloved John, how can I know that I have eternal life, how can I know that I have saving faith?" Let me ask you a question, "Do you keep the commandments of God? If not, then you can have no assurance that you have eternal life, however if you do keep His commandments then rejoice for you have eternal life." Once again, John is not saying that keeping the commandments of Christ in some way merit salvation, rather he is saying that keeping the commandments of Christ is that which gives the professor of faith assurance that they have true saving faith.


Notice how emphatic John is here when he says, "The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep his commandments, is a liar." Let us imagine that John were to somehow be thrown into our present day context. Well, one day he decides to go to Starbucks to enjoy the wonderful flavors of rich espresso. He goes the counter, get his drink, and then takes his seat on one of those oh so wonderful wooden chairs with the wide seats to fit our large bottoms. After sitting for a few minutes sipping his cup of joe he notices a well dressed man come in through the door. As the man walks by the Apostle John stops him and says, "Hello friend, are you a Christian?" The well dressed man smiles at John and says, "Why yes, I am. I excepted Jesus into my heart a few years ago." John then looks at him and says, "Would you like to sit and drink coffee with me."


After ordering his drink the man comes back to the table and the two begin to talk. Their conversation starts by them telling their testimonies. After hearing about this man’s entrance into Christianity John then asks him, "Brother, so tell me how you life has changed since you have believed on the Lord Jesus." The man sort of hangs his head and says, "Well, I don’t have much time for my faith. Even though I am a follower of Christ I really haven’t changed all that much since I first accepted Christ. I mean, I know and love God and everything, but to be honest, the only real change in my life is that I have a semi-new set of beliefs and I go to church once or twice a month. I mean, I still get drunk most weekends, never read my Bible, and am not all that honest with my wife, but hey, none of us is perfect."


What would John’s response to this man be? Well, look at what he says in this verse. I suspect that John would say, "What, you know and love God? No you don’t, you are a liar, because the evidence that you know God is that you keep His commandments." John actually calls the one who claims to know God and yet does not keep His commandments a liar. Once again, John here speaking of a life style of disobedience to the commands of Christ. The one who sincerely struggles in their battle with sin need not go away thinking themselves damned to hell.



However, the one who is using the reality that they are imperfect and the reality of a graced based salvation as a crutch they use to justify their sin ought to be concerned for their soul. The one who, as a lifestyle, lives in disobedience to the commands of Christ ought to be concerned for their soul.

More on this later.

1 John and Assurance

John very clearly states his purpose for writing the book of 1 John in 1 John 5:13. "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life." John here is not answering the question, "what must I do to be saved?" He is answering the question, "how can I know that I have eternal life," or "how can I know that I have true saving faith." John is here dealing with those who are doubting their salvation. If John were answering the question, "what must I do to be saved," he would definitely answer, "by grace through faith." But this is not John’s purpose, rather he is writing to give his hearers assurance that they truly have eternal life.

This is a question that those who profess Christianity have always asked, "Pastor how can I know that I have eternal life?" It is an amazing thing that John wrote the book of 1st John to answer this question, and yet pastors/believers never use it to give assurance to those who are questioning their salvation. In today’s context, rather than using the clear teaching of the Holy Spirit through the Apostle John, Pastor’s deal with the doubts of their people with the popular teachings of modern day Christianity.

The way we answer those who are doubting their salvation ought to be conformed to God’s Word. Most pastors neglect the great amount of teaching in the Scriptures on this subject and simply opt to do their own thing. If someone were to come up to you and ask you, "I have received Jesus as my Lord and Savior but I am doubting my salvation, how can I know that I am truly born again," what would you say? If what you say cannot be found in Scripture then you might need to change your answer. Many do not want to change their answer because the way John deals with these doubts is so foreign to the way the majority in America deal with them today.

I want to stress again that John is not calling into question the fact that faith is enough to save. Salvation is by grace through faith. John is asking the question, "how can I know that I have the sort of faith that saves?" In today’s Christianity if someone were to approach a pastor and say, "Pastor how can I know that I have eternal life?" The pastor would respond by saying something similar to this, "Well, was there ever a time in your life when you prayed to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior; have you ever prayed the sinners prayer?" If the person answered, "Yes I have," the pastor would then say, "Well, did you sincerely mean it?" If then the person said, "Yes" again the pastor would then say, "You have nothing to worry about, you have eternal life."

Many who are reading this would have absolutely no issue with this sort of pastoral counseling because this is such a common way of counseling one who is doubting. However, we must realize that this sort of counseling is absolutely foreign to the Bible. The Bible never eases the fears of professing believers by having them recall a point in time in the past when they prayed a heartfelt prayer. When John deals with these very same fears he says nothing about a heartfelt prayer prayed in the past.

The question we need to ask is this, "on what basis does the Holy Spirit through the Apostle John give assurance to the professing believer who is doubting his/her salvation?" We need to seek to not give someone assurance that they have eternal life if the Holy Spirit does not do so in His Word. So many Pastor’s act as if the Holy Spirit simply has not spoken on this subject, but He Has! The Holy Spirit saw this as such an important issue that he put it into the heart of the Apostle John to write a whole 5 chapter letter on it.

Lets say, for the sake of the argument, that a Mormon came up to me and said, "Hey Jimmy, I want to know if I have eternal life." Imagine how you would respond if I were to say, "Well, my dear Mormon neighbor, let me ask you a question, have you refrained from the consumption of coffee and other caffeinated beverages?" For the sake of the illustration lets say that he says, "Yes!" So I respond to him, "Did you do so with a smile on your face?" Again my Mormon neighbor says, "Yes." Immediately after he responds I say, "Then you have nothing to worry about, you have eternal life." I assume that everyone who is reading this knows that this is a hypothetical situation. How would you respond to my counseling practice here? Would you not consider me a heretic? I would hope so! Why would you consider me a heretic? Would you not because I am doing this man a great disservice by giving him false assurance divorced from Scripture. Essentially, I am giving him a false assurance.

Never for one moment think you are being a biblical minister because you are easing the fears of those who are doubting their salvation. Biblical counselors and ministers seek to give assurance that is based upon a clear understanding of the Word of God. God is not pleased with those who simply ease the fears of the people. In fact, this is why He railed against the false prophets in the OT saying, "You proclaim ‘Peace, Peace’ where there is no peace" (Jer 6:14). What is God saying here? He is saying that His biggest issue with the false prophets is that their only purpose is to provide assurance and peace without a care as to whether the peace preached is true or false.

I do not want to make a hard connection to genuine modern day pastors and OT false prophets, however both essentially are committing the same error. They both give false assurance to their hearers. OT false prophets did everything they could to convince the Israelites that they had nothing to worry about, they tried to convince them that their enemies were not going to come and destroy them, but they did not have one biblical reason for doing so. Modern day pastors do everything to convince those who have simply prayed a prayer that they have no reason to question or doubt their salvation, however they say this without having one biblical reason for doing so. It would be completely different if the Bible was not full of information on how one can have assurance as to whether they are truly born again or not. The fact is that God has given us more than enough information when it comes to counseling the fears of those who are doubting. But, pastors counsel as if God has not said one thing on this issue.

More on this later. For the time being, check it out. Dig your big fat noses (kidding) into the book of 1 John to see how John deals with these fears and concerns. Dig your big fat noses into the book of 1 John to see on what basis the Holy Spirit gives assurance of salvation to the one professing faith in Christ.