Apostasy doesn't sneak up on people who are keeping faith, God is not in the business of cutting off sincere believers just for kicks. He is not the wanton boy who tortures flies for sport. He does not send faithful believers to hell at the last judgement. He is kind and good, and merciful to those who have even the smallest grain of faith. Those who enter the body of Christ in baptism, trust in and confess Jesus, seek Him in His Word and at His table, serve His people humbly, live in fellowship with brothers and sisters, seek to produce the obedience of faith - these have nothing to fear. They are included within the "us" that Paul says will never be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus, and they are assured of that every time they hear God address them in word, in water, and in bread and wine. If we are doing all the things that Jesus means by "abiding" in Him, we can be sure that we will be in the Vine to the end. Faithful believers will not discover on the day of judgement that they were reprobate after all. Happy marriages do not end in divorce. God doesn't spring divorce on a faithful bride.Have you ever had the conversation with a friend about whether they are saved or not. I have some friends and several family members I regularly discuss the mechanisms of faith with. This past week, a thought occurred to me for the very first time, "Am I one of His covenant children?" Strange thought - I know. Growing up in an evangelical church with a decidedly Armenian bent, I often, maybe daily, asked the question, "Am I saved?" Looking at that some would say that they are entirely the same question - however, they are definitely not, because the second one puts the oness on self and the first, on God.
This is not self-trust, since all these forms of "abiding" in Christ are gift of God that are effective through the work of His Spirit. ...
...But we never come to the place where we mature from trust to works. -Dr. Leithart, "The Baptized Body"
I am, by nature, pretty trusting, I trust God, so I don't really dig up truth to proof text the trust, rather, truth makes my trust in God deepen.
Some people go from trust to truth, to deeper trust to deeper truth, and so on.
Others seem to really distinguish truth and error, from that believe God alone is true truth and therefore put their trust in Him - this then is the process God designs to bring them to trust in Him.
All that to say, I had to laugh audibly when I read this today, trust can never be divorced from the object of that trust (duh!) The more we know of Jesus, we know His kindness and love, we see Him, and His efficacious actions and care of us. At the end of the day, if I asking if I am His child - then it is just one more "it's all about me" moment, instead of glorifying Him. After all, it really is all about Him. Furthermore, the best dreams we can imagine are really just collateral little blessings of glorifying and enjoying Him. Maybe we shouldn't be asking - where do I fit, maybe we should be asking - so, just how Big is GOD?
2 comments:
Well said! Even as a child it occurred to me that all the talk about whether we were "saved" or not seemed to take over the talk of God's glory. It's NOT about us! I believe that even if the offer of eternal life were taken off the table, we should still spend our lives honoring God because he is GOD! It is about Him!
My dad used to say, "If an old boy followed God's law and in the end found it all to be a hoax - he'd still be better off just livin' rightly". He'd have that talk with oil riggers who had a reputation of hell raisin' and wreaking havoc of their lives - in other words, if you aren't going to believe at least enjoy the protection of God's principles.
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