The Third Sunday of Advent, December 17

BLESSED ASSURANCE

Blessed Assurance is a hymn written by Fanny Crosby.  Though blinded at 6 weeks of age due to improper medical treatment, she went on to write more than 8,000 hymns in her 95 year life.  The words of this hymn ring true in the heart of any believer who has been born of the Spirit of the Living God.  The opening verse says it all. Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine.  Fanny Crosby knew, as do all believers, what her assurance is based on.  Our assurance is not based on what we do, but what Jesus did.  Many in Christianity, as well as false religions, don’t have this assurance of salvation.  Many are stuck in a false hope of good works, an idea that as long as your good works out weigh your bad, you are okay.  Think about it.  Would you ever get any assurance in that?  How do you know the weight of sin compared to the weight of good works?  I guess if there was some big chart we could look at that said a lie weighed one pound and a smile weighed two pounds, etc, maybe we could keep a tally, but no such chart exists.  So many people never have rest in whether they are saved or not.  But God sent His Son to atone for our sin.  He tipped the scales, so to say.

When Christ ascended into heaven, He promised us He would send the Holy Spirit. The job of the Spirit is to enter into the hearts of those who have seen their need for a Savior, and put their faith in the only true Jesus. That indwelling Spirit gives us a testimony from within that we can know that we are children of the Living God.  It is all because we worship a Living God.  We don’t worship a statue in some temple, or a multitude of idols representing a multitude of gods, or a dead prophet in a tomb in the desert.  No, our God lives and speaks through His Holy Spirit to His people.  God’s word is full of promises of salvation.  God doesn’t leave us wondering and waiting till we die with no assurance of salvation. There are many Scriptures that make it clear our place in His kingdom.  Here are some you can look at. Isaiah 12:2; Romans 8:16-17; 15:13; Hebrew 10:22-23; 1John 5:13.  In fact, the whole book of 1John.

As we go on singing this hymn, we find that Fanny’s joy isn’t just in the fact that she has salvation in Christ.  The second and third verses start with the words "perfect submission, perfect delight."  Now wait a minute, these two thoughts don’t go together too often in modern Christianity—submission and delight.  Most preachers who start talking about submission to God’s word don’t usually get a lot of delight from the congregation.  Most people start throwing around phrases like legalism or nobody is perfect, etc, etc.  If you want pure joy it will only be from pure obedience. You know you are walking with God when you walk the road that Christ walked.  He came to do the Father’s will, not His own.  There is joy on that road only, and that joy will lead us to the chorus.  This is my story, this is my song.  Praising my Savior all the day long. How many can sing that with a clean heart?  Do we praise Him all the day long, not just for an hour on Sunday morning?  This is all available to His children, if it were not so, He would not have promised it to us.

~ Jim Frantz