Assurance & Atonement
“Before the Throne of God Above” is one of my favorite hymns. The second stanza starts with a rather common fear that Christians face: “when Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within.” Frequently, as Christians we have a deep sense of our moral failure that leads us to doubt whether we will be saved. Our sin leads us to doubt our salvation, and that God really forgives us. But should it? Can we be assured of salvation even when we sin? On what grounds?
The good news is that we can have assurance of salvation. But such assurance is not grounded in what we do – in our moral performance. Assurance of salvation is grounded in the finished work of Christ on the cross – in the atonement. In this article, we consider the meaning of the atonement and its implications for our assurance of salvation.
What is Atonement?
In simple terms, the atonement refers to Jesus bearing our sin in our place. On the cross, Christ takes the punishment we deserve on our behalf, so that we can be reconciled to God. The doctrine is central in discussing salvation, because it helps us understand the “great exchange” that took place when Christ died, as he bore our sins and imputed to us his righteousness. Even more so, the atonement helps us to understand the assurance that we have in Christ.
The Nature of Atonement
The atonement is substitutionary in nature. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul tells us “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” On the cross, Christ took the place of guilty sinners, substituting himself with us, so that he might bear God’s wrath on our behalf. But not only does Christ bear our sins on the cross, through the cross he grants sinners his perfect righteousness. This is the “great exchange” that took place. We unworthy sinners have been given Christ’s righteousness, whereas the King of Glory who committed no sin bore all of our sins himself.
Because of Christ’s perfection, His sacrifice is sufficient. Compared to the blood of goats and sheep in the Old Covenant, Hebrews tells us that Christ’s sacrifice was better and sufficient. Our sins are nothing compared to the perfect sacrifice of our Savior, whose blood is more than able to atone for all our sin.
13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
~ Hebrews 9:13-14
The atonement is also an accomplished work performed by Christ on the cross. It is not a mere potential or possibility where our sins could be placed on him. Christ’s death effectively dealt with our sin at the point he bore the Father’s wrath (Matthew 27:46). Jesus’ last words “it is finished” (John 19:30), confirm that Christ’s work of atonement was competed. All our sins – past, present and future – were placed on Him. Atonement has been accomplished.
Assurance
What implications does this understanding of the atonement have for our assurance? We have seen that Christ died as our substitute, offering a sufficient sacrifice for sin that accomplished our salvation. This is the objective grounds or basis for our assurance. In other words, the reason that we can be assured of salvation is not our moral performance, but Christ’s accomplished work. Assurance is the result of our faith in Christ and all that He has done for us.
As we live the Christian life, we are prone to fall short in sin time and again. Often these failures will lead us to question our salvation. Thus, as long as we live in this flesh, we need to be constantly reminded of the cross. When we look within, and gaze at our failures, despair is sure to follow. Instead, we must continue to look outside of ourselves to the one who died for us and rose again. Whenever we sin, we must look in faith to who Christ whose sacrifice was sufficient. We must remember Christ’s death was enough to accomplish our salvation. He has done what we could not. He has lived the perfect life we have not and died the sin-bearing death we deserve. As we look to him in faith, we find assurance.
Conclusion
In the end, the difference between assurance and despair lies in where we place our faith: in our own works or in Christ’s perfect sacrifice. Stanza 2 of the hymn quoted above continues: “upward I look and see Him there, who made an end to all my sin.” The hymn wonderfully reminds us of the teaching of Scripture – that Christ has dealt with all our sin, fully and completely, on the cross.
How then should we live in the light of Christ’s atoning work on the cross? We must constantly ensure we place our faith in Christ and not our own efforts. Many times, instead of going the cross for forgiveness, we seek to make up for our failures with our own good works. Instead of trusting Christ to deal with our sins through his death, we trick ourselves into feeling better by doing “right things”. But this offers little consolation in the long term, and often leads us only to greater despair. Our works can never match up to the perfect sacrifice of our Saviour or cleanse our guilty conscience.
Instead, John reminds us we can confess our sins knowing that God is faithful to forgive our sins (1 John 1:9). All this is possible, because Christ is our advocate who has accomplished our salvation through the cross.
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
~ 1 John 2:1-2
Let us not place our faith in ourselves to right the wrongs. Instead, let us run to Christ in faith, trusting in his perfect sacrifice and his finished work on the cross. This is the proper grounds of our assurance.
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Hon Sir Neng is currently planting a church named CityLight. He is passionate about theology, apologetics and discipleship. He loves to help people see how theology is more than just head knowledge, but it is applicable in our daily lives.
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