It looks so easy.  And every parent is an expert, coaching their 8-year-old up the beginner’s wall at the climbing gym.  On belay? Belay on. Climb on! And they are off.  Reach right.  Left foot up.  A little higher.  Stretch for it.  They get stuck and then with youthful flexibility and balance find a path and surge to the top to ring the bell.  You are so proud. 

Then comes the dread invitation.  “Your turn Daddy!”  And quickly you learn that what looked simple from observation is suddenly stymied from the get-go as you struggle to just to stay close to the wall, find the first handhold and stretch for the first leg up.  Knowing where to start the climb is daunting.  But a believer’s climb to navigate assurance of faith and Christian community can also be overwhelming. 

No dimension of our Christian journey may be more challenging to navigate than ‘assurance.”  Our Westminster Confession of Faith acknowledges that,

…infallible assurance doth not so belong to the essence of faith but that a true believer may wait long and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it.   …True believers may have the assurance of their salvation divers ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted. –WCF 18.3-4, Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation

And yet it also teaches that,

… faith is different in degrees, weak or strong; may be often and many ways assailed and weakened but gets the victory; growing up in many to the attainment of a full assurance through Christ, who is both the author and finisher of our faith.  –WCF 14.3, Of Saving Faith

So, what is the first handhold on the climb to assurance? To be sure there are many false first steps.  Trusting in our own righteousness or good works.  Boasting in our spiritual progress.  Triaging sin to appear less sinful.  Resting in outward piety.  Simply trying our best.  Or tethering our assurance to the people we follow or the teachers we love.  But these are all false handholds. 

Even during the lifetimes of the apostles, the churches we read about in the New Testament struggled with all these same false handholds.  ‘Fierce wolves, deceivers, false prophets and false teachers’ supplanted the simplicity of the gospel with speculative philosophy, rigorous asceticism, and both rigid legalism and permissive liberality.   And these crises are not limited to the First Century.

In the little letter of 1 John, the beloved disciple writes as a seasoned pastor to distressed congregations he has shepherded.  More like a sermon than an epistle, John unmasks false teaching and shows his ‘little children’ how to navigate the path to assurance of faith and authentic Christian community.   And this is instruction we desperately need today.

Join us as we begin an examination of 1 John and consider the source, character, and impact of a believer’s growing assurance of faith.  We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join our livestream on YouTube.