The dictionary says that “insurance” is “a practice or arrangement by which a company or government agency provides a guarantee of compensation for specified loss, damage, illness, or death in return for payment of a premium.”  Insurance cannot prevent a problem or a loss; it only attempts to compensate for it financially. 

  For instance, health insurance does not guarantee freedom from illness; it only provides financial assistance in pursuing medical treatment for that given illness when it does occur.  Automobile insurance does not prevent car accidents; it only provides financial assistance when an accident occurs.  Fire insurance doesn’t avert a fire.  It doesn’t keep your house from burning down.  Fire insurance only provides money to help you rebuild.  Finally, life insurance does not guarantee that your life will continue.  Life insurance does not guarantee you will not die.  Life insurance only provides money to your family after you die.  In a nutshell, “insurance” is what man has to offer in a time of catastrophe.  On the other hand, “assurance” is what God makes available to prevent a catastrophe.

  Let’s turn again to the dictionary.  The dictionary says that “assurance” is a promise, pledge, or guarantee of well-being.  Jesus does not give us life insurance; He gives us life assurance.  And there is a tremendous difference.  Jesus assures us that we will have life not death.

  When Lazarus died, Jesus reassured Martha, the sister of Lazarus, by saying in John 11:23-26 (NASB95) , “‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to Him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,  and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?’”

  Jesus was telling Martha that her brother’s death was not what it seemed.  To prove that, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and he walked out of the grave that very day.  But Jesus was also teaching us as believers that when a Christian “dies” he or she doesn’t really die.  The body stops functioning, but the soul is immediately ushered into the presence of the Lord.

  The Apostle Paul put it this way, “to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord.”  2 Corinthians 5:8.  On the day Christ was crucified, He told the repentant thief on a cross next to Him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise”Luke 23:43 (NASB95).

  The Bible calls the believer’s death “sleep” because while the body remains in the ground apparently “asleep”, the spirit rejoices eternally in Heaven.  We read in 1 John 5:12-13 (NASB95), “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.  These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”  John 3:16 (NASB95) says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

  What a difference there is in life insurance and life assurance!  Life insurance says, “when you die your loved ones will receive compensation.”  Life assurance says, “when you die you will be more alive than ever before.”