The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
(Friends: this is a bit longer than usual, primarily because of the preponderance of Scriptures included at the conclusion that confirm believers can "know ye have eternal life" because we trust not in ourselves for salvation, but completely in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks, Glen).
"According To His Mercy" - Salvation and Assurance
A friend recently discussed her joy at the prospect of Heaven with a fellow believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. A bystander heard her comments and chimed in, "Oh, you can't know if you're going to Heaven until you die!"
As a preacher one said, "Boy, that's a fine time to find out!" Even more importantly, the Apostle John squelched any notion that believers cannot be sure of God's saving and eternal grace in the Lord Jesus regarding our salvation:
"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life" (I John 5:13).
Those who don't know know they "have eternal life" trust in themselves and their own works rather than the perfectly redemptive working of the Lord Jesus on our behalf. Nothing we do or don't do has anything to do with the reception and maintaining of salvation in the Lord Jesus. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us…. You, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation (Titus 3:5; I Peter 1:3-4). The issue involves what He has done, is doing, and what He will do forevermore: "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2). Our only role in the matter involves the reception of faith by believing with our hearts the truth of a completely Christ-centered and saturated Gospel. Numerous affirmations and confirmations, plainly stated, grace the pages of Scripture, revealing the freest gift ever given - salvation in the Lord Jesus - purchased by the highest cost ever remitted - His life. The following are but a few.
"As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name" (John 1:12).
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31).
"By the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life" (Romans 5:18).
"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:1-2).
"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ" (Galatians 2:16).
"The Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe" (Galatians 3:22).
"For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (II Corinthians 5:21).
"For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3).
"Jesus… delivered us from the wrath to come" (I Thessalonians 1:10).
"We are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" (II Thessaonians 2:13).
"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all" (I Timothy 2:5-6).
"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:5-7).
"He that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His" (Hebrews 4:10).
"By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins, but this man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God" (Hebrews 10:10-13).
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (I Peter 1:3-5).
"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (I Peter 3:18).
"His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue" (I Peter 1:3).
"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (I John 4:10-11).
Weekly Memory Verse
And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.
(Colossians 1:17)
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