Do you know the hymn, “Blessed Assurance”? You can read the lyrics to this hymn at Blessed Assurance | Hymnary.org if you haven’t. While the normal lesson for the Sunday School class that I often teach was from the book of Song of Songs for a month (a good book of the Bible, but one that was less likely to resonate with my particular audience), I had the opportunity to select my own material. So, during one week of that month, we went through this classic hymn.
Blessed Assurance was written by Fanny Crosby, who also wrote a lot of hymns that those who have been in the church for a while would probably recognize. According to Wikipedia, Fanny Crosby wrote “more than 8,000 hymns and gospel songs,”, and she did so despite having been blind since infancy (!) Her songs include: “ “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour”, “Blessed Assurance”, “Jesus Is Tenderly Calling You Home”, “Praise Him, Praise Him”, “Rescue the Perishing”, and “To God Be the Glory”.” In fact, Wikipedia also notes that, “Some publishers were hesitant to have so many hymns by one person in their hymnals, so Crosby used nearly 200 different pseudonyms during her career.”
To be clear, though, I do not intend to treat a hymn as Scripture. However, when a wise author shares topics from the Bible (whether by quotation or by principle), we can use her framework as a means to visit and discuss various Bible passages, and then perhaps return to the hymn with a fresh understanding of its Biblical context.
Let’s start with the first verse of this hymn:
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
First, let’s consider what “blessed” means. For a lot of us, when we think about parts of the Bible where someone talks about those who are “blessed”, we probably think of a lesson from Jesus that is sometimes known as the “Beatitudes”. Recorded in Matthew 5:3-12, Jesus pronounced a number of people “blessed” (despite these people being in groups that didn’t seem to be in very good situations), and explained the blessings that they would receive.
Still, while those are examples of blessings, I’m not sure that examples fully tell us what “blessed” means. Some might say that this is a state of being happy or joyful. Talking about the Beatitudes, a website says, “This blessedness is a spiritual state of well-being and prosperity—a deep, joy-filled contentment that cannot be shaken by poverty, grief, famine, persecution, war, or any other trial or tragedy we face in life. In human terms, the situations depicted in the Beatitudes are far from blessings, but because God is present with us through these difficult times, we are actually blessed by Him in them.” (What does it mean to be blessed? | GotQuestions.org)
And, if we understand what blessed means, how about “assurance”? Let’s read Hebrews 11:1.
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Hebrews 11:1 NIV
It’s good to remember that the “hope” of a Christian isn’t just wishful thinking, but confidence in what we know will happen, because we are certain of the character of the God that we serve.
For those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ, we are happy in the blessings that come from the assurance we have in God, through our faith. And, these blessings are true because, “Jesus is mine”.
If “Jesus is mine”, though, what is Jesus to you? That is, what is His relationship to you? Going back to an earlier article and lesson from Acts 2, for followers of Jesus, He is our Lord, our Savior, our God, and many other things. The faith of a Christian allows us to have “blessed assurance”, because Jesus is our Lord and our Savior. When we know who Jesus is (as well as who God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are), we not only understand the truth about our place in the universe, but we also understand enough about the nature of God to know that He is righteous, holy, loving, and gracious. This allows us to have “blessed assurance”, indeed.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for September 10, 2023
References:
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation.
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