Is Your Faith Strong Enough To Save You?

I even received a phone call yesterday, John, from someone in ministry, pastoral ministry, and they have a cancer diagnosis, a terminal diagnosis, and they're struggling not only with that, but also assurance.

Assurance in the Face of Terminal Illness

And it's interesting, as I've told people in the past, I get the prostate cancer diagnosis a long time ago, and I think, am I really a Christian? And I'm laying there in the hospital one day thinking, if I die, and this was when I had COVID, I'm sending the passwords to my wife for the checking account, here's where the life insurance is, here's what went through my mind.

I know God is holy, I know he's a creator, I know I'm sinful, and I'm going to soon be in the presence of God, and then what? And my only hope is to have a mediator. But then the insidious things start happening.

Faith, Faithfulness, and the Object of Trust

I know Jesus is the only savior. I believe that at death, burial, resurrection, I believe in act of obedience, I believe in all these things, I've written books about them. But is my faith strong enough?

Is my faith good enough? And I begin to conflate, as you guys teach excellently, faith and faithfulness. How faithful am I? And faithful talks about who I am and subjectively what I do, and it comes and goes, and then faith is in the object.

And so a little faith in the right object. And so pushing people back to the Lord Jesus is what I really try to do. I'm laying there thinking, it's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living God.

Am I really a believer? And I remember getting a phone call from Scott Clark, and he said, Mike, Jesus loves you. Jesus died for you. Jesus keeps his promises. Jesus is alive. You can trust him because he's faithful.

And it just settled my heart right down to be reminded of those truths. And this is in the midst of COVID when I had no one come into the room except someone to give me a blood draw. And I needed to be reminded.

Remembering God's Word and Luther's Comfort

Matter of fact, I still have in my possession, right here I keep on my desk, a little note from my son that he snuck in. I will never leave you nor forsake you. I need that truth, and then I could just fall asleep.

And so when you're a Christian and you struggle with cancer, it is very, very difficult because you realize I don't do what I want to do, but I'd like to. I think someplace maybe in Romans 7, Paul might have a similar thought, but I just want it not to terminate on us.

I don't want us to go on feelings. Remember Luther said, feelings come and feelings go, and feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the word of God. Nothing else is worth believing. And when you open the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, you see the Lord's goodness.

Christ's Suffering and the Hope of Scripture

You actually see the Lord's suffering. It's actually good to know the Lord suffers because he knows what it's like to be partaking of flesh and blood, sharing in that and suffering.