Certainty a Danger?
God's grace. This certainty is and will always be a certainty of faith, very distinct in source and nature from scientific certainty, but no less fixed and unshakable for that. It doesn't rest on human reasoning, but on the Word, the promises of God, the gospel, which poses no conditions but only proclaims that everything has been accomplished. All we have to do is enter into that accomplished work and rest in it for eternity.
Certainty a Danger?
Often the Christian church has not dared to proclaim this rich, free gospel and has tailored it to man's opinions. Already in Paul's day many were afraid grace would be abused and made an occasion for the flesh, that people would begin to sin more so grace might abound. In numerous ways the gospel has often been transformed into a law, God's gift turned into a demand, and His promises made into conditions. In the Roman Catholic Church good works had to come first, and in the protestant churches many kinds of experiences were necessary before one could truly believe and appropriate this rich gospel of God's grace. The priests or the guardians of the spiritual life only granted believers the right and the freedom of spirit to believe as the end product, the fruit of a series of good works or genuine inner experiences. Faith was separated from its object— the grace of God in Christ—by a long list of activities, and it was duty-bound to constant examination of and reflection on its own development. Seeking in vain within itself and in the tossing waves of experience that which it could only find outside of itself in Christ, faith lost its certainty.
By its very nature and essence faith can find rest in nothing but a word from God, a promise from the Lord. Any other ground makes it shaky, because it is human and therefore shifting and unreliable.
Only a word from God can give life to our souls and provide an