I grew up in a Christian home from the day I was born. We
attended various churches for the first several years of my life, and then
home-churched for several more. I remember listening to sermons as a family,
reading the Bible, and singing together. Around the age of eight, my family
started attending Grace Baptist Church. In Sunday school class, we were given
the suggestion to read through the Gospels, and being an avid reader, I took on
the task. The gospels were not unfamiliar to me, but this time, when I reached
the end of John, I remember praying and asking God to save me. I don’t remember
many specifics from my childhood, but I do remember understanding that I needed
a Savior and that
Christ was the only one who could cleanse from sin.
During the next several years, we had special speakers and
evangelists in our church, and most of the time when they asked if people
needed to be saved or if they wanted to talk to someone about it, I would raise
my hand. I remember sitting with one pastor’s wife in the Sunday school room
and praying the “sinner’s prayer” because I wanted to make sure that I was
saved. I am unsure as to which prayer was completely genuine, but I know it was
around this time that I was aware of my sin and acknowledged Christ as the only
remedy for that sin.
My testimony doesn’t have a specific lightbulb moment or a drastic
turning point from a past way of life, rather it was a growing knowledge of who
God is and what He has done for me. And I am still in that process today. Many
people’s salvation stories are a one-time event, but even once the moment of
salvation is gone, God is still in the work of saving His people…because we are
sinful and always in need of sanctification.
I think most people struggle with assurance of salvation from
time to time. Assurance isn’t something you hear preached on too often—perhaps
for good reason—but I think most Christians would agree that at some point they
question their salvation. Maybe they’re going through a difficult time or maybe
they are just working through a spiritually dry season. Either way it can be an
incredibly lonely place, and I just wanted to leave you with some encouragement
in that area.
Satan likes to use our own doubts, the world’s criticism, and
the sin of others around us to cause us to question God’s work in our lives.
Often it’s a small seed of doubt, but once it’s planted, it takes root quickly.
At full growth, it can lead to despair, depression, and worse--if we allow it a
hold on our mind. We question if we’re allowing God to sanctify us. We wonder
if that prayer was sincere when we first prayed it. We doubt that we’re bearing
fruit.
And it gets hard to fight, because it seems like we’re fighting
something all the time. There is little time to rest on the battlefield of
life. Soldiers get weary. Some fall. Some die. Some leave. In the constant
fight, we forget to protect our own mind and soul from the doubt that creeps
in. And we forget that saved sinners have a new name: saints.
Ephesians 2:19
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.
Saints are those who are set-apart and holy through faith in
Jesus Christ. Though we live in sin and battle it daily, it holds no dominion
over us. It does not define us. We don’t live to serve it any longer. The
doubts, worries, and questions that plague us, don’t have to take control over
our minds.
Scripture teaches that once saved, always saved—otherwise known
as the doctrine of eternal security. Once
saved, there is nothing you, Satan, or the world can do to destroy your
salvation. Salvation rests on God, and because He is unchanging and
all-powerful, He cannot refuse those who have come to Him. We could not keep
our salvation if we tried, but Christ’s work and God’s covenant cannot be
reversed, and He holds us eternally regardless of our doubts.
So in the weariness of life, remember that the battle you fight
is not for your salvation—that’s already been secured. Amid the doubts and
questions, remember that the war for holiness was conquered at the cross—the
outcome of your salvation is secure. The God-Man who saved you, is still saving
and sanctifying you—He will complete His good work.
Sometimes we dwell so much on the sin and weakness in us that
we forget we are saints. We’re not just saints when we reach heaven, we’re
saints now. We’re created in the image of God, and His deity dwells in us. He
has triumphed over our past, present, and future sin, and it holds dominion
over us no more. Salvation is God’s work. Let us walk as saints because the
victory is already certain. The battle is conquered. The war for salvation’s
security was won at the foot of the cross. Instead, when you question your faith, give thanks for His faithfulness. He will hold you fast.
Philippians 3:9, 12
And be found in him, not
having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes
through faith in Christ, the righteousness form God that depends on faith…Not
that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make
it my own, because Christ Jesus has made
me his own.
I leave you with the words of the second verse of “Before The
Throne of God Above”, a hymn written by Charitie Lees Bancroft, the daughter of
an Irish minister.
When
Satan tempts me to despair,
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look, and see Him there
Who made an end to all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free;
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.
The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. . . . [These] are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams; but God is the sun. These are but streams; but God is the ocean.
