All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
Assurance of Salvation
This topic comes up often when discussing other topics. It deserves to be addressed all by itself as it is an important subject.
Are you assured of your salvation? If so, why are you assured?
Lord Bless,
LT
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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He has a hatred for sin and our sinful nature ... the old man/woman. Yet, He died so that we could be changed. Remember salvation has three parts described in Scripture that are past, present and future. At new birth we are justified (the penalty of the law that stood against us has been satisfied) and regenerated (spiritually changed from dead to alive). That is past for those of us who have been saved (born again). Then we move into the sanctification stage. This is where the Holy Spirit is working in us and on us to bring us into Christ likeness. This is a lifelong process and is seen as the present stage. Lastly there is the glorification stage. This is when the old body is done away with and we are given new bodies.
Thus, He loves you so much that He sent His son to die for you paying the penalty of your sin. You see, because God is holy and just He could not just ignore the sin. It had to be atoned (paid) for. Yet He hates sin so much that it pleased Him to bruise His Son in our place. If we reject the offer that has been made by love we remain under His judgment and the penalty will be eternally exercised on us.
So, yes, God hates sin and has a hatred toward the sinner, but that does not stop Him from loving us at the same time. If He operated out of hatred only there would never have been a Cain or Abel. God would have simply destroyed Adam and Even and been done with it, but He couldn't (chose not to) because He loves us.
He loves you and knows what you can become in His hands through His Spirit. He does not ask you to come to Him already perfect with all your issues, or mine, fixed in advance. That will take place over a lifetime, but it starts with trusting Him for your eternal soul and trusting that Jesus' blood paid the penalty for your sin.
Lord Bless,
LT
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Permalink Reply by ribbon on
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I don't know what questions to ask.... but this subject is still very important to me.
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Let me ask. What at this point keeps you from taking the next step and accepting Him today, as you are, trusting Him to complete the work in you?
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I really don't know. I think its the fear. and guilt..... I wish I knew.. I know I want to, I know I have tried. I know when I try its like my past slaps me in the face.. its like the rejection sting from God. Its like the pain of the abused part of me resurfaces and then anger doe also. Its the bad that I have said and done that hits me. I don't dwell on my past but when I try to come to God it comes back. LT I know this is all stupid what I am telling you buts all I know .
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Not stupid. It is one of the enemies favorite tools. He loves to try and keep us captive to our past. You have to believe that Jesus paid for all the JUNK in your past. It is covered by the blood and He will no longer hold it against you. He would say two things to you. 1) it is paid for and thus 2) He would ask what junk you are talking about since it has been washed away by the blood leaving you as white as soon standing before Him as a new born baby, a child of God. He calls and your name is on His lips. Will you take His offer and reject the lie of the enemy. Forgiveness is yours through Jesus Christ ... embrace Him and receive the joy of salvation.
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Doesn't Jesus know our minds before we speak it? If so what if the mind is remembering things of guilt ? Isn't He reminded of the sin then?
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It is not that He remembers or forgets, but that it has been removed because it has been paid for. therefore there is no guilt associated with it. Imagine you received a speeding ticket and you went to the courthouse to pay the ticket. When you get there you feel guilty of speeding and know the penalty has to be paid. As you walk up to the clerk and prepare to pay for the ticket the clerk tells you that someone else has already paid it. You then begin to argue with the clerk telling them that I am guilty and I must pay the ticket. The clerk reminds you that you "were" guilty, but that the ticket has been paid and that there is no further action required, that no one is going to come looking for you regarding this ticket ... it has been marked paid. Now I recognize that in this illustration they keep track even when the ticket is paid, Jesus does not. His blood leaves no residue of guilt to be remembered and brought up later for an action to be taken against us ... it is fully paid.
Another way of viewing it is when we recognize that the Bible says that we are adopted as children and become the children of God. Adoption in Jesus day carried a different meaning than today. In Jesus day when a person, even an adult, was adopted their past was erased. If they had committed a crime prior to being adopted the crime was erased. They were no longer viewed as the old person, but as the new person and they are given a clean slate. Once we are saved then God, as or Father, will apply divine discipline because He loves us. He will discipline us as a Father caring for His children and not as a judge executing a legal sentence.
So when we think of it being forgotten we are saying that there is no actionable offense held against us ... it has been paid and that is one reason we call Jesus our Redeemer, He redeemed us from the penalty by paying the penalty for us.
Lord Bless,
LT
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Permalink Reply by RoyW on
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I love that illustration of adoption. I did not know that. I am very grateful to my Savior for such a thing. Amen.
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Permalink Reply by Seek on
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Here's another take I've seen about adoption....
We could be born unwanted, given over to an orphanage. We own nothing. We have no home, no one loves us, we have no finances, nothing is ours.
When people come along who adopt us, we suddenly have people who love us, even chose us, gave us a home, maybe an allowance. We suddenly have our own room, our own clothes, we are now wanted and no longer orphans.
Yet we still hoard our clothes, toys, etc. because we still remember the times all the other orphans took them from us. We still hoard the food on our plate because we're afraid if we turn our back, someone will grab our food and we will be hungry. We still feel we're unwanted and unloved because it is the mindset we've had for so long.
It may take some time before we overcome those feelings and realize we now belong and are no longer orphans.
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Janie, I'm going to put this out there as what I believe...you ARE saved. You just haven't realized it yet. Just like I have struggled with, and to be honest still have these bouts of moments that I do, I feel God is rejecting me (yet I know the Bible - God's Word - says He will NEVER leave me nor FORSAKE me)...therefore He has not rejected me, but my past, the things around me, those things satan throws back up into my mind, make ME feel like He has. It has nothing to do with God actually have forsaken me, but everything to do with my feeling He has. When the pain and the anger resurfaces, I feel as if God's not healing me from that and therefore, maybe He doesn't hear me, doesn't care or I'm not right with Him. Then I have to remind myself....If I believe in my heart and confess with my mouth, if I repent (and I have done all those numerous times), then I AM saved, not that I will FEEL like I am.
When I start to feel strong and am believing God so deeply, I get hit with these feelings to pull me back down, or I get hit with some circumstances that cause me to question. That's how satan works, and he may be able to keep us feeling down for a time. But I keep coming back up...he can't KEEP me down. Cause he is not CAPABLE of snatching even one of us from the hand of God. All he can really do is cause us to be miserable while we're here on earth, and hinder us from doing as much good as we can for others.
I like LT's analogy of the speeding ticket. We were MADE righteous. God CHOOSES not to see our sins and our past because He knew WE could never be righteous on our own. So He set a plan from the beginning that Christ would pay the penalty for our sins so that He could see us as righteous. He sees our sins as being paid for already. It's not that He doesn't know those things of our past, but He does know that they were already washed away. He remembers the suffering His son did on the cross for it, rather than what WE did in our pasts.
In the OT, they used to take lambs, bulls, rams, doves and sacrifice daily, yearly....I counted them up from the Bible one time and the numbers were so staggering. They had to do this constantly to atone for their sins. Imagine how that had to remind them every time of their past. But Jesus died to atone for the sins once and for all, so we can stop sacrificing and being reminded. But as human beings, we have a really hard time getting to that point. Especially when satan knows he can irritate us and bring us down by reminding us, or having others even remind us. I was speaking to someone just yesterday. I try to forget my past, and my past has even followed me here (best way I can put it). LOL Cause some just want to keep reminding you and following you around taunting. Satan uses people to do that.
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