Tag: redemption

Is it ever a bad idea to make sure that you know where you stand with the Lord? Yes and no. While on the one hand it IS good to be sure of your salvation it is never good to doubt it once you have appropriated the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem you to your life. Our salvation after all, though it is processed in our minds is NOT solely academic; we hear the word, receive the word and believe the word but believing is not merely intellectual assent, in other words, we are not saved simply because we agree with the word of God concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ – we are saved when we not only agree but apply the word to our own life specifically.

Jesus did not die for us in general – He died for you specifically (see John 3:16).

This is why the question He asked Martha in (John 11:25-26) is not only important for her to answer but for us as well. Consider it as we read it:

“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?‘”

Do you believe that Jesus is enough?

The message series begun at church today was titled “GreaterThan” and today our youth pastor, Russel spoke to Jesus being greater “not equal to or less than” but greater than anything we have faced, are facing or ever will face; to that I would add that the works which He performed to make our redemption and eternal life possible are greater than any effort you could ever make on your own behalf. When we doubt our salvation or fear we have lost it, it is because we have forgotten that it was “not by works of righteousness which we have done,” (Titus 3:5) “but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.”

Can you lose what you did not labor to gain? Can you lose what you could not obtain by your own effort? No and no but can you lose a gift? You can lose a gift but you cannot lose the gift the Jesus Christ gave you because – “eternal life IS eternal.” He said in (John 6:37) “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” His work of redemption on your behalf never becomes less than enough to save and KEEP YOU SAVED!

Still we struggle – we sin, we fail to live up to our high calling in Christ Jesus and in those moments when what is closer to us seems more apparent we forget the fact that we are saved (Hebrews 7:25) “to the utter most.”

In my years of Christian life, being one myself who more than a few times has failed to live up to my calling, I have found myself in terror as I gazed into the warnings we find in Hebrews to those who (Hebrews 10:29) “treated the blood of the covenant by which (we) are sanctified” (the covenant made between us and God through the blood of Jesus) “as a common thing” and in their backsliding put the Lord (Hebrews 6:6) “to an open shame.” I thought either I had lost my salvation or that I never had it because of my sinfulness. I lived in doubt, confusion and fear – is THAT what the Lord has called us to? Didn’t John write all that he wrote so that we could “KNOW that we” (1 John 5:13) “have eternal life“?!

Words like those found in the thirteenth chapter of Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians where he wrote in (v.5): “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified;” had me in a constant state of self-examination to the point of self-condemnation. Word’s pulled out of context can do that…

Let me give you the gist of his rhetoric in that section – Paul was being harassed by some who called his calling and apostleship into question; his second letter addressed that issue in some detail and there was perhaps a concern that some of the weaker brethren might be overtaken by the false teachers pushing that narrative about him. As it happens to men of great passion and zeal, Paul’s exasperation and irritation may have found a vent with words like those found in (v.5) where he seems to turn the table on those who would question his relationship with the Lord saying – “take a look at your own life” or “are you hearing yourselves?” But whether it was a rebuke or a sincere call on Paul’s part for the Corinthians to see if there was either evidence of conversion or ongoing relationship with the Lord, the believers at Corinth were the PROOF – they were (2 Cor. 3:3) “an epistle of Christ, ministered by us” (by Paul and team)…”written by the Spirit of God“…”on tablets“…”of the heart.“

Paul was NOT calling their salvation into question – He was trying to get them to do likewise concerning him.

In a round-about way, my hope for this post is simply this: that each of us would come to fully know WHO we are in Christ, understanding that we are who we are based not on anything we have done but on everything which Jesus has done for us. Today you are either a non-believer who has yet to come to trust in Jesus for salvation or you are a believer who has trusted in the Lord’s finished work on your behalf but you can NEVER lose what the Lord has granted you eternally.

(Next week we will consider the danger of making the above truth a license to sin…)