Can I be sure that my sins are really forgiven and that
the Lord has accepted me as His child? The great men of the Bible enjoyed
assurance. See Psalm 23:4, 2 Timothy 4:7,8, 1 John 3:14.
Assurance strengthens and comforts us. It gives us
confidence, peace of mind, strength in times of trouble and makes us bold.
There is much that we cannot be sure of in life, but we
can be sure of the most important thing of all – our relationship with God.
God is revealed to us in three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit (The Trinity). Our assurance is related to each of them.
Our salvation does not depend on what we do – our good
living, our prayers or our church attendance. It depends on what Jesus Christ
has done for us. He bore our sins and died for us, suffering our penalty and
clearing our debt to God. See 1 Peter 2:24 and 1 John 1:7.
Remember the hymn -
“On Christ the solid rock I stand
All
other ground in sinking sand”
Look away from yourself and look only to Jesus.
The Bible is full of wonderful promises for those who meet God’s conditions. See 2 Peter 1:3,4. Look up these promises – John 6:37, 1 John 1:9, Revelation 3:20. Never depend on your feelings as they can be very unreliable and are affected by so many things (our health, problems, weather and so on). Instead – rely on what God has promised. Remember the value of memorising important verses and underlining them in your Bible. The ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper set forth God’s promises in things we can see and touch. So they deepen our understanding and strengthen our faith. We can say they are addressed to “eye gate” as God’s Word is addressed to “ear gate”.
Every true Christian possesses the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9). He bears witness with our spirit that we are God’s children (Romans 8:16) and He gradually changes us so that we become more like the Lord Jesus (Galatians 5:22,23). We are to be continually filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) and when He works in our lives without hindrance, He deepens our conviction that we are right with God and He causes prayer and Bible reading to become real. We also find that we want to please God and live for Him and we want to love Him, His people, His house and His day and all other people as well. Furthermore, when we fall into sin, we are now upset by it and feel uncomfortable until we have told God that we are sorry. These are all marks of the Spirit’s work in our lives and are further proof that we are new people in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
