In a Love which cannot cease, I am His & He is Mine

by Tiffany S.
from Virtuous Daughters, June 2012~Volume 12, Number 3

“Ah, what a mercy that it is not
your hold of Christ that saves you,
but His hold of you! What a sweet fact
that it is not how you grasp His hand,
but His grasp of yours that saves you.”
 
“Trust all your concerns with Him
Who can never be taken from thee,
Who will never leave thee, and
Who will never let thee leave Him.”
~Charles Spurgeon~

Dear Sisters,
               
Recently the Lord impressed it upon my heart to share some thoughts concerning assurance of salvation. In my own personal walk with Christ, doubts have at times assailed me, and I realize that this is true of other Christians also. Though it can be difficult to broach this concern, nothing is of greater significance than the eternal future of our soul! Therefore, it is vital that we get to the root of this issue. Blessed assurance, Jesus is Mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God. Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood!
               
First of all, is it wise to examine ourselves? Absolutely! In fact, II Peter 1 gives this admonition: “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall” (verse 10) God’s Word was written that we could know we are saved (I John 5:13). We must be positive that we are cleansed through the blood of Christ.
               
Do you know what it means to be genuinely saved? Christian family, a likeminded church, baptism, even strict adherence to biblical principles—none of these things can redeem our soul. Isaiah 64:6 says that our righteousness—the very best that we can muster—is as filthy rags. We fall sadly short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23) and in our own efforts cannot by any means attain salvation. This gift (Ephesians 2:8–9) is truly the grace of God, lest any man should boast! Jesus alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6); no one can have access to the Father except through Him. The only work that can save us is Jesus’ finished work on the cross. Praise be to God for His merciful grace!
               
However, even for those who are genuinely saved and are walking strong with the Lord, doubts sometimes intrude. Perhaps you have thought something like this: “I still fall short of God’s righteousness—He is so pure and holy, and I am such a sinner.” I have noticed that the closer I grow to Christ, the more majestic and glorious God appears to me, and the more despicable my flesh seems! Though I see much spiritual growth since I was saved, as I mature in Him my perception of myself and my heavenly Father is refined.
               
We must realize that just as our “righteousness” did not save us, it also does not keep us saved. Psalm 22:29 says that “none can keep alive his own soul.” Jesus’ redemptive power is what keeps us eternally secure in His hands, where we can never be plucked out (John 10:27–30). Because of the precious imputed righteousness of our Savior, when God looks at us, He sees His Son! We are complete in Christ. This is an amazing, incomprehensible fact, but it is true! Get your Bible and read it for yourself!
               
Sometimes, when we fail the Lord in some specific area, Satan enjoys using our defeat (he is the father of lies and the great accuser) as an opportunity to drag us down further. He may plant doubts and lies in our minds, causing us to question our own salvation. During moments like these, we must flee to the Lord in prayer and His Word. This is an incredible comfort and brings blessed assurance during struggles. God will speak to us through His Word. I have been awed at the ways my gracious Lord has given me precious promises and truths from His Word!
               
In John 13, Peter was eager to follow Jesus—he claimed that he’d even lay down his life for Christ’s sake. But Jesus surprised Peter with the startling revelation that in a short while he would actually deny his Lord three times. What heartbreaking news! If I were Peter, I would probably begin to wonder if I was even saved in the first place. But read what our Savior speaks immediately following that stunning conversation: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.”—John 14:1–4
               
If ever there were a need for assurance, I am sure it was then. And Jesus gave it. He offers this assurance to us too, as followers who, like Peter, have many failures and struggles and cannot understand everything. If we seek Him, we will find Him.
               
Another thought some people have is: “Would God really accept me?” Dear sister, the Scriptures are replete with reminders that He accepts all who call upon Him—He will not turn any away. (See Acts 10:43, Romans 10:13, and John 6:37.) Do not fear rejection from the Lord Jesus Christ, for to do so is to not believe His Word. No sinner is beyond His saving grace. One verse the Lord has graciously given me regarding this area is Psalm 86:5: “For Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon Thee.” Praise be to His glorious name!
               
It has been said that lack of assurance of salvation is a common problem. Many great Christians have struggled in this area. However, as believers, the Holy Spirit should bear witness with our spirit that we are saved. Therefore, it is important to pray through and overcome any doubt we may have concerning our salvation. Following are some reasons that people experience doubts:
               
Sometimes a person doubts his salvation because he is not actually saved. The Lord uses these struggles to draw the person to Himself. Martin Luther is one such example. His “good deeds” seemed insufficient to satisfy the wrath of a righteous, holy God. Though Luther followed the Roman church in every particular, he still experienced deep guilt and condemnation. After a close call with death in 1505, Martin Luther surrendered his life to monasticism in an effort to earn his salvation. Through starvation, sleepless nights, and continuous confession of his sins, Luther endeavored to make himself acceptable to God. Yet the more he attempted to please the Lord, the stronger his personal hatred for God increased, because he was realizing that there was nothing he could do to justify himself in God’s sight.
               
God’s grace was truly at work in Luther’s life, however, as the man continued his search for hope and assurance of salvation. In 1515, amidst serious Bible study, Martin Luther finally understood salvation through the lens of Romans 1:16–17: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth . . . For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”
               
It was at this point that Martin Luther came to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross. Finally, he was able to experience the blessed assurance of salvation. As we know, God used this man mightily to bring Christians to the true light—it was through Luther’s influence that the Protestant Reformation began. In The Freedom of the Christian Man, he wrote: “One thing and one thing alone is necessary for life, justification, and Christian liberty: and that is the most holy Word of God, the Gospel of Christ.”
               
If you have been trusting your own goodness to save you, or if you have been living in unbelief toward God, delay no longer! If you have been experiencing inner turmoil, guilt, and condemnation because of unforgiven sin, you are not out of the reach of God’s saving grace. He longs to see you come to salvation in Him! He is full of mercy to all who call upon His name. But He is also a just God, and we have no promise of tomorrow. Therefore, now is the time to repent and place your faith in Jesus Christ. God’s strong, mighty hand of grace is extended. Will you stretch forth the hand of faith and place it in His? When this exchange takes place, you become His child—for now and eternity! May you experience the peace that passes understanding when you are justified by faith.
               
Having said that, doubts do not always indicate a lost condition. Many tender-hearted believers who are sincerely concerned about their eternal welfare have questions. Many cannot remember the details of their conversion if they were saved at a young age. As they grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, this lack of remembrance poses questions: “Did I understand what I was doing? Did I really believe? When did Jesus save me?” Others struggle because for years they have known a professing Christian who they considered to be a strong man or woman of God. Suddenly that person confesses that in actuality, he was never saved—but now he is a believer. Uncertainty can also be a result of straying from God. A Christian may have lost his joy, zeal for Christ, and sweet fellowship with the Savior. Thus the feeling of distance from God causes him to wonder if he was ever saved in the first place. Lack of baptism could be another reason. Although baptism does not save us, many Christians who have been disobedient in this area cannot help doubting their dedication to Christ. Some tender-hearted believers who are naturally sensitive to spiritual things often feel convicted upon hearing messages of hell, salvation, or Christ’s sacrifice. 
               
Seek the Lord. Whoever calls upon His name shall be saved (Romans 10). If unsure of your salvation, definitely settle it by placing your faith in Christ right now.
               
What are some tests of God’s Word, to know that we are daughters of the King?
               
Desire to obey our Lord. I John 2 declares that “And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in Him. . . . He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” A genuine Christian strives to do what is right.
               
Inner conflict. Christians have two natures. The unsaved do not. They can willfully sin without being sorrowful, whereas humble Christians are often grieved and penitent upon recognition of their sins. 
               
The Lord speaking through His Word. 1 Corinthians 2:14 reminds us that the natural man (non-believer) is unable to comprehend the Bible because he does not have the Holy Spirit to guide him. The Christian, however, should understand wisdom as the Lord imparts it to him.
               
The witness of the Holy Spirit. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”—Romans 8:14–16 I used to wonder what the “witness of the Spirit” was. I felt concern that perhaps I had not experienced it and therefore was not genuinely saved. But then the Lord revealed to me that indeed, I had experienced this blessed thing! Anytime the enemy would try to plague me with doubts and fears, Scripture would fill my mind, or I would effortlessly flip to fitting verses! This was clearly from the Lord, the Holy Spirit. As Christians, we will receive a special peace that we belong to Him, even amidst Satan’s attacks.
               
Sometimes doubts are caused because a Christian’s testimony seems “boring” compared to a radical testimony they have heard or seen. A speaker once explained that he had a “boring” testimony. Saved at a young age, he had not been living in mortifying sin before his conversion. (I suspect that many of us have “boring” testimonies, as well! :) That is a reason to rejoice!) However, he encouraged his audience that these testimonies are not to be frowned upon. On the contrary, it is wonderful to walk with the Lord from your youth! Those who are saved at a young age may not experience as much radical “change” after conversion, simply because there were not great deeds of wickedness from which to turn. But this certainly does not dampen their testimony to the world! Indeed, they can be a shining light in a very dark world (Matthew 5:16). As Philippians 2:13–16 exhorts, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings: that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.”
               
God does not value the conversion of a young, “innocent” child any less than He does that of a former alcoholic or criminal. Jesus said in Luke 15:10, “I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” When you asked Jesus to save you, there was rejoicing in heaven! Your name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. God’s work in your heart and life began, to be performed until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).
               
In Mark 10, young children were brought to Jesus. Upon noticing this, the disciples began to rebuke the people who had brought them. Christ was displeased with this reaction and said to them, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.” Then Jesus “took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them.” Everyone who comes to salvation in Christ must exercise the same faith that is demonstrated by a young child when he asks Jesus to save him from his sins. It is a wonderful joy when a child becomes a Christian, because he is forever secure in the everlasting arms of His precious Savior!
               
There are many examples of men and women who had been living in severe sin prior to salvation, and of course, the victory and power found in Jesus Christ changed their lives dramatically. However, there are also stories of those who began living for the Lord at a very young age. Though they had their moments of failure, they never strayed from Him in rebellion. One such example from God’s Word is Josiah. II Kings 22 tells us: “Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. . . . And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.” This is a demonstration of endurance as one begins living for the Lord and never deviates from that focus (Proverbs 4:23–27). Other biblical examples of those who began walking with God at a young age include David, Joseph, Moses, Daniel, Timothy, Samuel, and Mary.
               
If you are a second-, third-, or fourth-generation Christian, you may have never experienced brokenness in the same way that your neighbor, who was saved at age fifty, experienced. This does not indicate a lost state spiritually. Remember, when you asked in true, sincere faith for Jesus Christ to save you, He did! Your eternal destiny was secured at salvation. However, as we grow in the Lord, we mature, bear spiritual fruit, and our walk with Christ deepens. We begin to realize the fullness of His mercy and grace in a way that we might not have understood as young children. It is important that we continue to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14) all our days! “Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ”—Philippians 1:6
               
No testimony is boring, for it is another soul that has been redeemed and purchased by the cleansing blood of the Lamb! Thank You, Jesus!
               
Expand your understanding of salvation through prayer and study of the Word. Someone said that Ephesians 2:8–9 was her favorite Scripture because it gave her assurance of her salvation: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” God’s love for us is not based on our performance; He loved us enough to give His only Son to die for us while we were yet sinners (John 3:16; Romans 5:8). In our own righteousness, we could never save ourselves. Nothing we have done or will do is “good enough” (Romans 3:23). It is purely Christ’s righteousness that justifies us.               
               
We must trust Jesus completely to be our Savior. “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. . . . That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (from Romans 10) I often scrutinize my spiritual life in a discouraging tone, sensing my passionate longing to know Christ better, yet admitting obvious failures along the way. However, I realize with immense gratitude that my salvation is not based on my actions. I was saved by grace through faith and nothing can change that. Jesus did it all—He saved me; He even gave me the faith to believe. The Lord has begun a good work in my life and will continue it until the day of Christ. If my salvation were dependent on my own endeavor for good works, it would be discouraging indeed, because I could never live up to God’s perfect standard and save myself. How thankful I am to be justified by the righteousness of Christ and that He paid the price for my sins! Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift of salvation! “O give thanks unto the LORD, for He is good: for His mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;”—Psalm 107:1–2
               
One memorable growing period in my spiritual walk was when I began to seriously reflect on the plan of salvation. I searched the Bible (especially Romans) for truths about this doctrine. It was then that I more thoroughly understood God’s great plan of redemption for all who believe in Him (Psalm 86:5). I was saved at age six, but twelve years later I would discover that my understanding of salvation had barely begun—and it will continue to increase as I grow in the Lord! As a young child I had indeed called upon the name of the Lord to save me, but through walking with God, I would come to a deeper appreciation for His saving grace. Jesus is constantly interceding on our behalf, and as He grows us and draws us closer to Him, we learn more about His unconditional love. We grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ.
               
My dear sisters, as believers, we have been bought with a price—the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ! May we continually “show forth Thy lovingkindness in the morning, and Thy faithfulness every night” (Psalm 92:2). Truly, His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:21–26)! May we never become callous to our salvation testimony, for no story can be sweeter to us than that of our redemption.
               
I pray these thoughts and Scriptures have blessed you in some way. Much could be added, but allow the Lord to teach you precious truths from His infallible Word. It contains all that is needed for life and godliness. May you experience the peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ that comes from truly knowing Him (Romans 5)!
 
Additional Support: Romans 4:3,5–9; Romans 4:20–25; Romans 5; Romans 8:1; 1 John 5; John 20:24–31; Acts 13:38–39; Acts 16:31; Ephesians 2; Philippians 1:6; Colossians 2:6–10; Hebrews 9-10;1 Timothy 1:15; 2 Timothy 1:7–10; Titus 3:3–7; John 17; Isaiah 45:22; Isaiah 43:1–2,5,7,11,25; Luke 12:32; Matthew 9:22; 1 John 1:7; Romans 10:1–13; John 3:16–21; Romans 3:28; Galatians 1:6; Galatians 2:21; Galatians 3:1–3; Acts 20:21; Acts 10:43; Acts 10:35; Acts 8:37; John 10:27–30; John 11:25–26; John 6:37–40; 2 Peter 3:9; Luke 22:31–32; Mark 9:23–24; Revelation 7:9–12; Revelation 12:10–11; Luke 17:5; Luke 18:24–27; Isaiah 53:5; Hebrews 2:9; John 20:31; Deuteronomy 33:27; Luke 15:31; Acts 13:38–39; Hebrews 7:24–27