Full Assurance of HOPE
By Dr. H. A. Ironside
fecting of Christian character. It is therefore a great mistake to shrink from trouble, or to pray to be kept free from tribulation. Praying for Patience The story has often been told of the younger Christian who sought the counsel and help of an older brother, a minister of Christ. “ Pray for me,” he entreated, “ that I may be given more patience.” Down on their knees they dropped and the minister pleaded with God, “ 0 Lord, send this brother more tribulations and trials!” “ Hold,” exclaimed the other, “ I did not ask you to pray that I might have tribulations but patience.” “ I understood you,” was the reply, “ but we are told in the Word that ‘tribulation worketh patience.’ ” It is a lesson most of us are slow to learn. But note the steps as given in the passage above: tribulation, patience; experience, hope; and so the soul is unashamed, basking in the enjoyment of the divine love shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit who dwells within. With this before us, it ought to be easy to understand what is meant when in Hebrews 6:10-12 we read of the “ full assurance of hope.” “ For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” As one walks with God, and learns to suffer and endure as seeing Him who is invisible, eternal things become more real than the things of time and sense, which are everything to the merely natural man. Thus there comes to the heart a trustful calm, a full assurance, based not alone upon the revealed Word but upon a personal knowl edge of communion with God, which gives implicit con fidence as to this present life and all that lies ahead. One was once asked, “ How do you know that Jesus lives — that He has actually been raised from the dead?” “Why,” was the answer, “ I have just come from a half- hour’s interview with Him. I know I cannot be mistaken. And this testimony might be multiplied by millions who, through all the Christian centuries, have borne witness to the reality of the personal companionship of Christ Jesus by the Spirit, drawing out the heart in love and devotion, and answering prayer in such a way as to make it impossible to doubt His tender care.
kNE of the writers of this world has told us that “ hope springs eternal in the human breast.” Regarding some phases of life this may be true, but concerning the eternal future the Word of God tells us that in our unregenerate state we were in a hopeless condition. In Ephesians 2:11, 12, we read: “Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” But when one trusts in Christ all this is changed. From that moment on, the believer has a “ good hope through grace.” In Romans 8:24, 25, we are told: “ For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” Note, this does not say we hope to be saved, but we are saved by, or perhaps more properly, in hope. He who has the full assurance of faith and of understanding, and knows on the authority of the word of Him who cannot lie that he is already justified and eternally saved now, has the hope set before him of the redemption of his body at the return of the Lord Jesus, when he will be conformed fully to the image of God’s Son. This hope buoys him up as he faces the manifold trials and vicissitudes of life, and gives him courage to endure as seeing Him who is invisible. The opening section of the fifth chapter of Romans may be pertinently quoted here (verses 1-5): “ Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribu lations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” We have already seen that our assurance is not based upon an emotional experience, but on a “ Thus saith the Lord.” But we should by no means belittle experience. The renewed man enjoys true Christian experience which is produced by the knowledge of Christ as the One who undertakes for him in all the varied trials of the way. These are designed by God to work together for the per
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FEBRUARY, 1961
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