ASSURANCE OF SALVATION

CHRISTIAN CONFIDENCE

The letter to the Hebrews was written to Jews who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Being Christians exposed them to persecution, from both the Romans and non-Christian Jews. Their lives would have been far easier if they simply gave in to the pressure and gave up on Jesus Christ.

To strengthen their faith, to encourage them not to give up, the writer reminds them of the utter superiority of Jesus Christ – both of his person, and of the salvation he obtained through his sacrificial, sin-bearing death. His point, repeated over and over, is that no one who really knows who Jesus is and what he accomplished, would ever stop believing in him.

Because Jesus Christ is who he is (eternal God and real human being), and did what he did (secured our salvation once-for-all-time), the writer assures us of the complete confidence we can have in Jesus Christ:

The salvation we have in Christ was announced by the Lord, confirmed by those who had personally heard him (the apostles), and attested by God himself by various miraculous signs – Hebrews 2:1 – 4.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is our great high priest, who represents us and mediates for us in the very presence of God in heaven. Therefore, we can always approach God’s throne with confidence; it is always, for those who believe in Jesus Christ, a throne of grace, not a throne of judgement. There, because of Jesus Christ, we will always find mercy and grace – Hebrews 4:14 – 16.

Jesus is the source of eternal salvation – Hebrews 5:9.

God’s promise is certain. He cannot lie. We can be greatly encouraged, because the hope offered to us in the gospel is ‘an anchor for the soul, firm and secure’ because it is fixed on Jesus, who is already in the presence of God on our behalf – Hebrews 6:13 – 20.

Jesus Christ is ‘the guarantee of a better covenant …because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he ever lives to intercede for them’ – Hebrews 7:22 – 25.

That Jesus Christ ‘entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence’ having ‘appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself’ – Hebrews 9:24, 26.

That Jesus Christ came to do the will of God, ‘And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all’ – Hebrews 10:7,10. ‘… by that one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy’ – verse 14.

That under this new covenant established on the basis of the blood of Christ, God no longer remembers our sins and lawless acts – Hebrews 10:17.

On the basis of all that he has told us about Jesus Christ – his priestly mediation and his sin-bearing death – the writer exhorts us:

‘Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith …Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful’ – Hebrews 10:19 – 23.

© Rosemary Bardsley 2026