Salvation Certainty is Certainly Comforting

I recently finished Craig Parton’s book, The Defense Never Rests: A Lawyer’s Quest for the Gospel.   Parton’s Christ-focused discussion was refreshing.  He contrasts his anthropocentric, evangelical past to the comforting certainty found only in Christ crucified for our sins.

 

It’s a book I highly recommend. The next time I hear former and current students talking about CRU (Campus Crusade for Christ) I’ll hand them Parton’s book and recommend they read the first three chapters. 

 

A few excerpts from the introduction:

 

At the pure stream of the Lutheran reformation, I found the Gospel at the center once again – not just a polite mention of it.  I found a Christ willing to save even me, a sinful and failing Christian.  For the first time I found the Scripture taught with Christ in His saving office at the center of the sermon, with confidence that the authoritative Word was able to shatter hearts of stone and calm the terrified conscience of the guilty sinner…

 

But, most important, I found Christ crucified at the center and substance of Lutheran worship.  I found a doctrine of the Christian life that flowed out of the forgiveness of sins and that let God do the saving and the sanctifying from start to finish…

 

Lutheranism gets the cross right – why it was necessary, what it accomplished, how I am saved, and how that salvation is delivered to me as still a wretched sinner today.  Lutheran theology, teaching, and worship anchor the life of the redeemed believer in Christ and His cross (10).

 

The certainty of salvation in Christ is certainly comforting.