One of the pressing problems that many Christians faced when I was growing up had to do with the whole area of assurance, knowing for certain that you are a Christian. I was at a conference run by Bill Gothard once where this really hit me. The name ‘Bill Gothard’ may not mean anything to most of you, but he put on conferences intended for motivated Christians of a decidedly conservative theology. At one point in this conference the people in the audience – motivated, conservative Christians – were asked to raise their hands if they were not sure that they were Christian, if they had issues with assurance. It was a large crowd. Most of the people raised their hands. Now, a lack of assurance is a problem because it’s hard to follow Jesus well if you’re not sure that you’re following him at all. The question of assurance doesn’t seem to be as pressing today. But that’s not because Christians today are doing a better job when it comes to knowing that they are true followers of Jesus. The common assumption of way too many these days goes something like this. ‘Well, of course, I know that I’m a Christian. I know that because I know God loves me. After all, it’s what He does. He loves people.’ That’s not biblical assurance. That’s presumption. I wonder what this person would say if I told him that hell will be filled with people whom God had loved. And presumption never works when life gets hard and difficult questions demand thoughtful answers. The issue of being sure that you are one of the saved is still with us today, even if it shows itself in a different form.
Now, why am I talking about this? It’s because of something that our world is in great need of: Christians who are confident. I’m talking about Christians who, because they are confident, are ready to act in response to Jesus’ call, ready to deal with whatever, for Jesus’ sake. I would use the word ‘bold’, but that usually implies being loud and flashy. I don’t mean that. Maybe a good word would be ‘fearless’. We need Christians who are fearless because of what they know, and that includes knowing that they are among the saved. These are the people who will be used by Jesus to change this world. And that, after all, is the point of the Gospel. What we have, instead, are a lot of timid Christians, Christians whose lack of confidence shows when that confidence is most needed. Some are timid because they are not sure that the Father loves them. Others are timid because they simply presume that He does. This timidity needs to go.
In speaking to you on this topic I am not suggesting that you are timid Christians. In fact, I have seen in some of you the clear evidence of a biblical certainty that you are followers of Jesus. But even though that is true, we all need to grow in this area. There is no standing still. A Christian is either growing or sliding backwards. And I want all of you to be growing. And that’s why I want to talk about this area of making your calling and election sure.
Let’s start with the ‘what’ question. Peter wrote to the saints, ‘… brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure…’ What is that? What does that mean? Let’s be clear about what it does not mean. Peter is not calling the saints to work at convincing God to like them so that He would call them and choose them to be rescued by Jesus. Rather, this is Peter’s way of saying, ‘Make sure that Jesus has actually saved you, that the Spirit has given you life, that the Father has set His electing love on you. Make sure that you are a Christian.’ Now, please note that this is actually very encouraging. According to Peter, it is possible to know, with certainty, that you are one of God’s children. It is possible to know in such a way that all the doubts are silenced. You can be sure. And that gives hope. It gives hope to those who struggle so with knowing. There are times that these folk get so tired of the battle that they all but give up trying. ‘It’s no use. Knowing that I belong to Jesus, really knowing, it’s just impossible. I’ll just have to live with the nagging doubts.’ Peter disagrees. You can know and be at rest. That’s why he urges those saints to work at making sure. It’s an attainable goal. So, be encouraged. You can know.
So, how do we do this? What needs to happen so that we can make our calling and election sure? Listen again: ‘Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.’ Peter ties being sure to the practice of ‘these qualities’. What qualities is he talking about? It’s the list of qualities that he referred to earlier. ‘For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours…’ Peter has supplied us with a list of qualities which lead to assurance.
The Bible is filled with lists. It has lists of names, of sins, of blessings and more. Here, we have a list of character traits. Like many of the other lists, this one is not a complete list. It is intended to give you some examples. Peter could have added more, just as Paul could have added more to his list of the fruit of the Spirit.
So, we have Peter’s list: faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, Godliness, brotherly affection, love. Let me mention just a couple of things here. First, the list assumes that faith is already in place. ‘…make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue…’ The list is for Christians, those who have already entrusted themselves to Jesus. So, this list isn’t about how to make things right with God. It’s not about changing what God thinks about you. Jesus has already taken care of that. You are His loved child. The list isn’t about changing Him. It’s about changing you so that you will know that you are His child.
Did you notice that the list begins with faith, and it ends with love. Just as faith is critical, so is love. These are like two bookends holding everything else in place. If you think about it, just as faith encompasses all the other qualities, so does love. If developing these character traits isn’t an expression of your faith in Jesus, then all you’re doing is trying to save yourself by showing God how good you are. The basis of true growth is always repentance and faith. And if developing these character traits isn’t an expression of love – first to God and then to others – then what you’ll end up with is pride or despair or being driven or something else like that. The reason for true growth is always love. These two bookends explain much about Peter’s list of qualities. They show how to develop these traits.
I’m not going to comment on all of the traits in Peter’s list, but I will comment on one more: knowledge. If you would be sure that you are saved, add knowledge. But knowledge of what? Peter tells us. In verse 2 Peter writes about, ‘the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord’. In verse 3 it’s ‘the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence…’ Then there’s verse 8: ‘For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Peter writes about the knowledge of Jesus. And that’s why he ends his letter with this: ‘But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.’ Do you want to be sure that you are one of God’s children? Grow in your knowledge of Jesus.
Let me mention two ways to mess up here. The first way is for someone to assume that he knows Jesus well enough already. Since that’s the case he doesn’t need to add knowledge. For someone to think like this is simply amazing. Consider a husband and wife in a great marriage for fifty years. After that long they know a lot about each other. There are the silly little things: she likes rocky road and he likes French vanilla. But there are also some very profound things. And yet, even after fifty years of a shared life, there are still things for them to discover about each other. If that’s true of a really good marriage, how much more so when it comes to knowing Jesus? Can anyone say that he has nothing more to know about Jesus?
The other way to mess up is to make this knowledge of Jesus something that is academic information about some historical person. Is that what Peter is calling us to, knowing Jesus in the same sense that we know George Washington? Clearly not. Knowledge of Jesus is all about a closeness with Him that defines the rest of life. A good word to use here is ‘intimacy’.
I have been thinking lately about being Reformed. I am convinced that Reformed theology has a good handle of some very important aspects of the Gospel. We have much more to learn, to be sure, but we also have something to offer, something very helpful. But, sadly, Reformed churches have gained a reputation of being bookish and dry. The Christian faith reduced to having correct doctrine. The Bible becomes the text book that you need to study so you can pass the test. That’s what many think of Reformed types. And they’re not very wrong. It’s hard to develop intimacy when one’s understanding of the Christian life is so dry. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Reformed theology can be warm and inviting. It can encourage intimacy with Jesus. As proof of that let me quote something from a Reformed creed that is quite familiar to you.
What is your only comfort in life and death?
That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.
Now, that is warm and inviting. It encourages intimacy with Jesus. It’s the kind of thing that Peter was writing about.
And that leads to this. What do you do to grow in the knowledge of Jesus? For one thing, you’re going to need to know your Bible. A growing knowledge of the Bible, gained by faith and love, results in a growing knowledge of Jesus. Here, I could mention all the familiar methods of growing in knowledge of the Bible. But instead, I want to mention one you might not have considered lately: other people. We need other people sharing with us what they’re learning from the Bible. When that happens, we can get a different perspective on some of the life issues we are dealing with. And, of course, we can aid others by sharing what we’re learning. Doing this sort of thing is a great aid in getting to know the Bible better and thus getting to know Jesus better. And let me throw this in here: sometimes the other people we need to listen to are dead. Some of the saints of old knew Jesus really well. And you can still benefit from them by reading the books that they wrote.
There are, of course, difficulties in doing these sorts of things, in developing these qualities. And that leads to something else in our text. Notice Peter’s language when he is exhorting the saints. He writes, ‘make every effort’. Another translation has, ‘exert yourself’. The point here is that this will be hard. Pursuing a growing knowledge of Jesus, pursuing any of these qualities so that you can be sure, has its difficulties. Most of you already know that. But, again, if we flip this around it is actually an encouragement. That you have a hard time adding this or that quality does not have to mean that you are doing something wrong. Some of you have been tripped up by this. Peter’s assumption is that we all will have a hard time of it. That’s why it will require effort and exertion. So, if you struggle here, take heart. You’re normal. You’re doing something right. For some reason or other, we think that it’s supposed to get easier at some point. Did Jesus ever promise that? That myth is cast aside when you remember that you live on a battlefield. You are fighting in a war and this war will not be over until Jesus returns. It’s not supposed to be easy, and it will never become easy, not in this life. So, do you find it difficult, especially at times, being a faithful disciple? Is developing an intimate relationship with Jesus harder than what you thought? Good. You’re probably on the right track. If you never have difficulties with these things you should be concerned.
And that leaves one last thought. Verse 8: ‘For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Assurance and fruitfulness are tied together. The point of assurance is not about our comfort as Christians. It’s about a life lived well making Jesus look as good as He really is. Being sure that Jesus is yours and you are His will result in confidence. As a result, you will face life fearlessly because you will know that the Gospel is real, not just true but real. You will know that Jesus is all that He says that He is and that He is all of that for you. And you’ll know these things not just in your head. You will know them as a way of life. So, regardless of all the ups and downs of life and all of its confusing and painful twists and turns, you will know, ‘The Father loves me. He is for me and that will never change.’ You will be assured that, ‘It doesn’t matter what I am called to do as Jesus’ disciple. I have the Spirit. He gives me whatever I need to obey Jesus’ commands.’ These things will be utterly clear to you because you will know, without a doubt, ‘Jesus is mine and I am His.’
This is the solid foundation of the Gospel, and the Christian who is assured of it, who knows without hesitation that this is really true, will live differently. He will not be timid in the face of an evil world and difficult situations. He will be confident. He will live well and be a means by which Jesus will change the world.
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