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Where does assurance come from?
By Pastor Fred Greco | August 25, 2007
I was given a link this week to a very interesting story about Mother Teresa, the late Roman Catholic nun who was known around the world for her compassionate service to children, invalids and lepers in India. Mother Teresa (born Agnes Bojaxhiu) served in the most difficult of circumstances. Those she served were beyond the margins of Indian society - they were “Untouchables” most of whom society would have been very pleased to forget about completely. 
Their needs were extreme. The filth, sickness and disease that were a part of Mother Teresa’s everyday life were overwhelming. For such service, she was admired (from a great distance) by the world, even given the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. If ever there was a person who deserved the title “saint,” many thought, surely it was Mother Teresa. How could anyone be so selfless? How could anyone be so humble? Surely it was only a vibrant, effectual, unique relationship with God that enabled her to live the life that she did. If anyone would be certain of going to heaven, it must be her — for she could plead years of selfless service in the worst of conditions with no compensation, comfort or reward. When God asked Teresa “Why should I let you into My heaven?” the answer could take weeks to complete.
But there is a problem. Just recently, private letters and journals written by Mother Teresa have been published, titled Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (by Doubleday). There is a Time Magazine article about the book that you can read here. The letters reveal a very different picture of the life of Mother Teresa. It was a life filled with doubt, emptiness and spiritual dryness. Brian Kolodiejchuk, the compiler/editor of the book is not an atheist of the Richard Dawkins/Stephen Hawking school. He is a senior member of the Missionaries of Charity, the organization founded by Mother Teresa. He is not intending to “discredit” her. And yet it is very difficult to read passages such as:
“Jesus has a very special love for you, as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, - Listen and do not hear - the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak … I want you to pray for me - that I let Him have [a] free hand.”
“So many unanswered questions live within me afraid to uncover them — because of the blasphemy — If there be God — please forgive me — When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven — there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives & hurt my very soul. — I am told God loves me — and yet the reality of darkness & coldness & emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul. Did I make a mistake in surrendering blindly to the Call of the Sacred Heart?” — addressed to Jesus, at the suggestion of a confessor, undated”
“Lord, my God, who am I that You should forsake me? The Child of your Love — and now become as the most hated one — the one — You have thrown away as unwanted — unloved. I call, I cling, I want — and there is no One to answer — no One on Whom I can cling — no, No One. — Alone … Where is my Faith — even deep down right in there is nothing, but emptiness & darkness — My God — how painful is this unknown pain — I have no Faith — I dare not utter the words & thoughts that crowd in my heart — & make me suffer untold agony.”
How do we, as evangelical Protestants, understand this apparent contradiction? The answer, I think, is an important one. Without going into the discussion about salvation and Roman Catholics in general, or Mother Teresa’s eternal fate in specific (although there is a very interesting article by Reformed blogger Tim Challies here), I believe we must face up to the fact in our own lives that we cannot get assurance from our works. Not even if we perform the most selfless actions possible - like Mother Teresa. Not from our church membership. Not from our baptism (as so many today in “Reformed” circles want to do). Not even from other’s opinions of us.
Perhaps you today struggle with assurance. Or perhaps you are struggling with whether you are “arrogant” for having assurance. Rather than psychoanalyze Mother Teresa, I invite you to get nourishment for your soul from a brief editorial written by a friend of mine and a gift to Christ’s Church, Rev. Chris Hutchinson, the pastor of the PCA church in Blacksburg, Virginia. He appropriately concludes:
It is neither arrogant nor narrow to lay hold of that free grace God offers to all who know they need it. Indeed, the Scriptures tell us that the multitude in heaven will consist of people from every nation, tribe and tongue, and will be so many that it cannot be counted. Yet each of us can surely know that we will be counted in that number — because of Christ’s life and death on behalf of all who believe.
May you know that assurance today.
Topics: Christian Life, Faith |
August 27th, 2007 at 6:06 am
Hello Sir! It is good to read the reality. And I do agree the salvation compeletly depends not on good works, No matte how good they are, but compeleltly on the work of Christ on the cross.
God bless.