ASSURANCE

I was looking thru my journal and found this entry dated 12/1/03.

Assurance. Jesus saved me. As long as I remember that, nothing can separate me from You (Rom 8:38-39.) David Dykes said that God holds onto us, not the other way around. He used the example of his daughter tripping while he was holding her hand. After that, he held on to her tighter because he didn't want to to fall or be hurt again.

Doubt is another trick Satan tries to use, and unfortunately Christians have turned that into some soft of tactic to question others' salvation, as well as their own. I think that one losing Christ's sacrifice demeans what happened. That means that His sacrifice wasn't enough. That's not right. That can't be right. If we believe His death was enough to save us, then we can't believe that our actions can negate what He did. If we can stop it, then why couldn't we start it? We do have to accept it, but the actual "work" was done by Jesus.

Isiah 53:11 says that God saw the sacrifice and was satisfied. It doesn't say that it was the beginning and then it's up to us humans to finish the work of redemption. Jesus said it is finished (John 19:30.)

The job of a Christian after salvation is to follow God's words for direction to what God has for us. We have the ability to not do what He wants, but that affects our life, not our salvation.

I've always thought that if someone was truly saved, they can't fall away. If we believe in the power of the Cross and of the Holy Spirit, we can't honestly say that our will can overcome His. The Bible is clear about what salvation requires (faith) and what it doesn't (works) Eph. 2:8-9. If works can't gain salvation, how can they lose it?

Heb 10:26- "If you go on willfully sinning after you receive the truth, there is no longer a sacrifice for sins." That doesn't mean that you can lose your salvation, it means that if you are exposed to the Gospel and ignore it, you're doomed.