When I called to find out the schedule, I was given a time and a location for departure and a time and location for arrival. I knew exactly where I had to be when to get on the bus, and my sister knew where and when to pick us up. If either had not happened, we would both have been shocked.
Some of my poor brothers and sisters need to think about that in relation to their salvation. The Hebrew writer says, And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end (Heb 6:11). Do you see that? Hope and full assurance in the same sentence! Hope is needing a bus, finding the closest bus stop, knowing the schedule and going there to wait for the bus that you know will arrive. Instead, we have a tendency to treat our hope as someone who needs the bus, guesses where it might be stopping, and going there to stand, not knowing whether it is even the right place or the right time—just "hoping" it is.
No matter how many times we hear preachers tell us the definition for the Greek word for hope (confident expectation), we force our culture's definition on the word. We have fought so many battles over the perseverance of the saints ("once saved, always saved") that we scold anyone for saying exactly what John tells us we ought to be able to say. "I know I am saved" (1 John 5:13). Don't be so arrogant, we tell them. You can always be lost. Well, so can we—in this case for discouraging people to the point of severe anxiety and even giving up altogether. Shame on us!
Everywhere I find the word hope, I find words like assurance, confidence, rejoice, power, boldness, courage, steadfastness, and faith. Does that sound like someone constantly afraid that if he dies unexpectedly he won't be saved? No. It does not. In fact, questioning that hope seems to be a signal of weak faith: But Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope (Heb 3:6). And notice this too: we can boast in our hope. There is nothing arrogant about it!
Christ did not die so that we would lie in our beds at night, a quivering mass of fears and doubts, almost too frightened to even go to sleep. He died to give us confidence. It isn't that we know we are saved because we did so well. We know we are saved because he said he would save us if we devoted our lives to him—not because we did it to absolute perfection. Do you do that? Then get on the bus to Heaven. There is no question at all about where it will pick you up and where you will arrive. The bus stops where Jesus is. Just make sure you are with him.
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful (Heb 10:22-23).
Dene Ward