P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

BEING SURE OF THE SUMMIT

I don’t know how many of you recall the name of Doug Hansen, a Washington State postal worker whose name will be forever linked with the Everest tragedy of 1996. If you’ve read Jon Krakauer’s wrenching book, Into Thin Air, or some of the other tell-all stories, or seen the IMAX film, you know that this 46-year-old mountain climber had the dream of getting to the top of the world: 29,028 feet. Just one year earlier, he’d been on an expedition — $65,000 — with premier guide Rob Hall . . . and had come up short: just 330 feet short, to be exact. It had been agony to turn around so close to the top, and now, 12 months later, he was back for a second try.

And as you read these ice-cold stories from the roof of the world, it’s striking how these “client climbers” had to just put their LIVES into the hands of a guide. Rob Hall arranged for the oxygen; he directed the Sherpas in setting up Base Camp, and the four camps on the upper ranges. He called the shots; he scheduled the acclimatization climbs. If you made it to the top of Everest, you did so because Rob Hall or Scott Fischer got you there.

And just past midnight on May 10, 1996, the Adventure Consultants team headed for the peak from Camp Four. But after just a few hours, Doug Hansen, deeply disappointed, stepped out of line. He wasn’t feeling good, he told Rob, and was going to head back down to the tents. Jon Krakauer, watching the exchange, couldn’t hear what the New Zealand guide said to Doug, but the upshot of it all is that Doug Hansen, again, put his trust in Rob . . . and stayed on the mountain. He resumed the climb.

Well, as climbing enthusiasts all know, that decision ended in tragedy. Rob Hall and Doug Hansen got to the summit the next afternoon far, far too late in the day: after four p.m., when two was the standard turn-around time. Doug Hansen was wiped out, totally exhausted. And as the client and his guide struggled to get back down to the tricky Hillary Step and the South Summit where there was more oxygen, he collapsed. He simply could not go on. And that night, as a killer storm blew in, Doug Hansen lost his life. The next evening, Rob Hall, who had heroically stayed with his client instead of saving himself, finally succumbed as well. You’ve probably heard how he got on a satellite phone, way up there in the Death Zone, and said goodbye to his wife, Jan, in Christchurch, New Zealand. Sad, sad story.

And why do I bring it up here, these several years later? We’ve been talking about the delicate balance between faith and obedience, which is a Christian doctrine more slippery than a glacier in the Khumbu Icefall. And today I’d like for you to think with me about the concept of assurance of salvation. Meaning this: once a person commits their life to the Lord Jesus Christ, once they establish a faith relationship with Him based on Calvary, can that person KNOW that they have eternal life? Can they KNOW that they are saved? Or is their survival a case of Everest roulette — maybe you make it and maybe you don’t? Jon Krakauer shares with us the incredible statistic that there is one death on Everest for every four climbers who make it to the top. And once a person commits their life to Jesus, and accepts what we’ve been calling this amazing gift of “justification,” is it like that? A 75% success ratio? Or can the Christian, with total confidence, celebrate by saying: “Praise God I AM saved”?

We’ve been waiting about a week-and-a-half to drop in a marvelous quote from Philip Yancey’s book, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, and it certainly fits right here as we think about assurance. Listen to these bold words:

“Grace makes its appearance in so many forms that I have trouble defining it,” he writes. “I am ready, though, to attempt something like a definition of grace in relation to God. Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more — no amount of spiritual calisthenics and renunciations, no amount of knowledge gained from seminaries and divinity schools, no amount of crusading on behalf of righteous causes.” But now notice Part Two of his stunning proposal. “And grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us LESS — no amount of racism or pride or pornography or adultery or even murder. Grace means that God already loves us as much as an infinite God can possibly love.”

Well, let me ask you . . . because that is certainly a “wow” statement. But do you buy into it? Do our sins and mistakes diminish God’s love for us? Even more important, do they erode or take away salvation, once we’ve made a faith commitment? If we’re climbing high on the mountain of Christian growth, but slip and fall into a few crevasses, are we doomed to be lost? Should we say to the rest of the climbers: “I USED to be saved, but . . . oops! Look out below!”?

Well, let me give you here the standout verse right from the eternal Word of God on this matter. I would encourage you to put this verse in your memory bank and keep it there forever and ever and ever, through all storms and Everest blizzards. I John 5:13, and this is the King James:

“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may KNOW that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”

There it is right there. “That ye may KNOW.” Friend, you and I can KNOW that we have eternal life.

Listen to this same verse from the great Message paraphrase, and see if this doesn’t get you to the top of Everest and safely back down to Kathmandu:

“My purpose in writing is simply this: that you who believe in God’s Son will KNOW BEYOND THE SHADOW OF A DOUBT that you HAVE eternal life, the reality and not the illusion.”

Jesus Himself says, in John 5:24:
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me HAS eternal life and will NOT be condemned; he has CROSSED OVER from death to life.”

We were very thankful, not so long ago, to read a line in that historic document, Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, which was signed by subscribing Lutheran churches and the Roman Catholic Church. Section 4.6 is entitled Assurance of Salvation, and section 34 has this important assertion, agreed to by both faith communities:

“We confess TOGETHER that the faithful can rely on the mercy and promises of God. In spite of their own weakness and the manifold threats to their faith, on the strength of Christ’s death and resurrection they can build on the effective promise of God’s grace in Word and Sacrament AND SO BE SURE OF THIS GRACE.”

And I appreciate the Lutheran “spin” which is added in section 35:

“In trust in God’s promise [believers] are assured of their salvation, but are never secure looking at THEMSELVES.”

Many good theologians have dissected through the years the doctrine of justification as taught by our brothers and sisters in the Catholic religion. And the concern has always been that a model of justification which is, first of all, a lifelong process, and secondly, a process where a person is justified only by COOPERATING, in a lifelong journey, with the Spirit of God — ends up robbing a person of his or her assurance of being saved. One critic described this kind of assurance as “fluctuating,” and observed with real concern:

“It can hardly provide any sense of security of salvation.”

It’s a hard, hard issue, friend. I recall reading in some of the theological writings in my own Adventist community about God’s saints in the last days of time struggling mightily with their emotions and fears because they don’t have the assurance of pardon. What if they should be found unworthy? What if they should lose salvation because they have defects of character? What if some sin should be found in them and they don’t make it through the final times of trouble? Listen, the Bible tells us that we should not have such fears! Notice this from Romans 5:1:

“Therefore,” Paul writes, “since we HAVE BEEN justified through faith, we have PEACE with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.”

Let me close with this. Friend, spiritual life in this world is somewhat like a climb up that treacherous route to the top of Everest. It’s cold and hard and scary. Others have fallen by the way. It doesn’t sound like “peace” at all. But listen. If you’re climbing with Jesus, and allowing Him to totally and completely be your Guide and Protector, you CAN make that climb in perfect peace and assurance. You can say to those you meet along the way — and to yourself — “Praise God, I AM going to get to the top, to the Promised Land.” Those who have Christ as their Savior and Guide can KNOW, they can be SURE, they can have confidence. Not in themselves, never . . . but always in Jesus.