Confidence is a funny and fickle thing. A person characterized by a lack of confidence is thought to have low self-esteem. It describes a person that worries a lot, struggles to accept a compliment and has marked people-pleasing tendencies. While that may be true of some, what is not widely understood is that, at times, everyone struggles with confidence. There are some who appear to lack the burden of insecurity, but it’s not true. It’s there. Everyone asks themselves questions like, “Am I good enough?” or “What if I fail again?” or “Why am I not better?” Everyone is fighting the battle of self-doubt.
The Bible is a book of promises, but it does not affirm that you will, in fact, be good enough at your job or that you will never fail at an assignment. It does not certify that you will continue to improve at a task. What it provides is something far better than a promise of improved outcomes. It guarantees benefits that nothing in this world can take away. They are benefits that are enjoyed now, at death and at resurrection.
The now benefits include peace with God. Regardless of your performance on the job or what your neighbor thinks of you, you are justified by faith before an Almighty God. You are assured that you have obtained access to His grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:1-2). Because of what Jesus did for you, you enjoy the “free gift of righteousness” (Rom. 5:17). What’s more, you have the confidence that the sovereign God of the universe hears you when you pray (1 Jn. 14).
That’s a game changing perspective! You have been declared righteous before the God that can destroy both soul and body in hell, not to mention, you have personal access to the King. If you live in light of that now assurance, then doubts will be decimated, second thoughts smashed and apprehensions annihilated. You can live with a sense of freedom that breeds God-honoring confidence.
Your at-death benefits include the assurance that you will be made perfect in holiness (Heb. 12:23-24). In fact, that Hebrews passage says that you are “enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus.” There is no fear in death because the Christian’s name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life—an enrollment that can never be withdrawn. At death you are ushered into glory and the presence of the Lord because you have been joined to Christ. And you won’t just “squeak in,” you belong there. In fact, Jesus has prepared a place for you.
In the midst of his internal and external pain, Job was comforted by reminding himself of his at-death benefits.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! (Job 19:26–27)
Job didn’t long for the day that his discomfort would be removed, but eagerly anticipated the day that his eyes would see God. You have the assurance that Job had—the assurance that’s captured in the lyrics of In Christ Alone where it says, “No guilt in life, no fear in death, this is the power of Christ in me.”
Your at-resurrection assurance includes the benefits received on the day of Jesus’ return. On the Day of Judgment you will be acquitted of all sins and gain a spiritual body in glory and in power.
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (1 Jn. 3:2–3)
The knowledge that hoping in God purifies you, that in some unknown and spectacular way you will be like Him because you will see Him as He is, yields an unassailable confidence. Add to that the promise of living in perfect holiness for an eternity.
Right now you are counted righteous and have direct access to the King. At death you will be in the presence of God, where you belong. And at the resurrection you will receive a glorified spiritual body along with all believers. With guarantees like that, Christians can be the most confident people in the world! Thank God for each of His assurances and then live like you believe them.