Death on a Friday Afternoon - more

More from Chapter 2.

As the letter to the Hebrews puts it, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

"Assurance" means conviction, confidence, trust. Assurance is not cognitive certitude; it is not the certain knowledge that it is impossible that what I am confident will happen will not happen. If I had such certitude, we would not be instructed to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Faith as hope is confidence in God's faithfulness. We do not presumptuously stride up to the judgment throne confident of being handed the Good Servant Award. Rather, we throw ourselves upon the mercy of God and plead his promises in Christ. It is not like getting a diploma at graduation exercises, the deserved and expected reward for being the good Christians that we are. Least of all it is the expected reward for being the kind of good Christians who are indifferent to the reward.

The last point is pertinent to those Christians who make so much of being saved, or justified, by faith alone. What should one say in response? I can only give my testimony. When I come before the judgment throne, I will plead the promise of God in the shed the blood of Jesus Christ. I will not lead to any work that I have done, although I will thank God that he has enabled me to do some good. I will plead no merits other than the merits of Christ, knowing that the merits of Mary and the Saints are all from him; and for their company, their example, and their prayers throughout my earthly life I will give everlasting thanks. I will not plead that I had faith, for some times I was unsure of my faith, and in any event that would be to turn faith into a meritorious work of my own. I will not plead that I held the correct understanding of "justification by faith alone," although I will thank God that he led me to know ever more fully the great truth that much misunderstood the formulation was intended to protect. Whatever little growth in holiness I have experienced, whatever strength I have received from the company of the Saints, whatever understanding I have attained of God and his ways -- these and all other gifts received I will bring gratefully to the throne. But in seeking entry into that heavenly kingdom, I will, with Dysmas, look to Christ and Christ alone.
Then I hope to hear him say, "Today you will be with me in paradise," as I hope with all my being... he will say to all.