Wednesday, September 9
Read 1 John 5:11-13; Hebrews 10:19-22; and 1 Corinthians 15:1, 2. What assurance of eternal life do the Scriptures give us that allows us to testify of our salvation in Christ with certainty?
If we do not have the personal assurance of salvation in Jesus, it is not possible to share it with someone else. We cannot share what we do not have ourselves. There are conscientious Christians who live in a state of perpetual uncertainty, wondering whether they will ever be good enough to be saved. As a wise, old preacher once said, “When I look at myself, I see no possibility of being saved. When I look at Jesus, I see no possibility of being lost”. The Lord’s words ring with certainty down through the ages, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: For I am God, and there is none else.” (Isaiah 45:22).
Our Lord wants each one of us to rejoice in the salvation that He so freely offers. He longs for us to experience what it means to be justified by His grace and be free from the condemnation that the guilt of sin brings. As Paul says in Romans 5, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). He adds that we can have the assurance that “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). The apostle John confirms that “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1 John 5:12).
If by faith we have accepted Jesus, and He lives in our hearts through His Holy Spirit, the gift of eternal life is ours today. This is not to say that, once we have experienced the grace of God and salvation in Christ, we can never lose it (2 Peter 2:18-22, Hebrews 3:6, Revelation 3:5). We always have the free choice to walk away from Him, but once we have experienced His love and understood the depths of His sacrifice, we should never choose to walk away from One who loves us so much. Day by day we will look for opportunities to share with others the grace given us in Jesus.
Do you have assurance of salvation in Jesus? If so, on what do you base it? Why do you have that assurance? Where is it found? On the other hand, if you are not sure, why are you not sure? How can you find that assurance?
