Do you perceive that you could ever stop being a Christian? Is your faith so weak that something could come along to shake loose your belief in Jesus Christ? You say you doubt yourself, so, if I hear what you are saying, it sounds like you have not been wholly convinced that you have a valid reason for trusting in Christ and believing in him. Is that really the case?
Because the way I see it, we surrender to Jesus as the true God incarnate, who died for our sins, so that we can be saved. When we sincerely do that, we are not just left high and dry to worry until the day we die that we have a legitimate faith. God goes to work, essentially, by indwelling us with the Holy Spirit and creating within us a new, spirit nature, that IS in evidence. Those that have accepted Christ, receiving him as Savior, ARE different. There IS a transformation that happens where the old "me" no longer wants the bad, it finds no joy in sin. My new nature yearns to know God and to please him in all I do. When the old sin nature flares up and I do wrong, I notice a break in my fellowship with God, I sense a barrier in my relationship with Jesus. I KNOW that I must repent and confess my sin to God and I KNOW he forgives me, cleanses me and restores that link, that fellowship with him. The more trials and temptations I endure, the stronger my faith grows and the closer I move towards Him - because it IS Him within me, living in grace, working on faith. The "old" me had no such activity before I came to Christ. Doing "wrong" only bothered me when I got caught and got punished. The "new" me desires to please God because of all that he has done for Me and because He IS my God and King. Ephesians 2:10 says he created us "unto" good works that he has prepared for us. Our desire is changed towards Him.
Now, I said all that to demonstrate that this change is EVIDENCE that we are HIS. The very purpose of the indwelling Holy Spirit is so that he is the earnest, or guarantee, of our destination. Scripture says we are "sealed" until the day of redemption. No one breaks the seal but God, we cannot do that because we belong to Him now. If God were to send us to Hell after he gave us His Spirit, He would be sending Himself to hell with us. That ain't gonna happen! The presence of the Spirit within us is evidence of our salvation.
There is nothing we can do to undo our adoption into His family. Even in the parable of the Prodigal Son, even when the guy left the family and took all his money with him, he NEVER stopped being the son of the Father. When he came back, he wasn't repelled, he wasn't put to work as a servant - though he sure deserved it - but he was welcomed home, STILL the son, STILL in the family. Jesus told that story for a reason and I believe it is to show us how deep his love is for us, that he will never cast us away, never lose us, never let ANYONE snatch us from His hands. THAT, my FRiend, is the ONLY way that we can KNOW, right now, that we have everlasting life. When we receive Him, he places His mark on us and He will not lose even one of us. That is the only way and the only reason that I can truthfully say that I know I am saved. It's all because of Him. I sincerely pray that you too can know this blessed assurance.
God HAS already paid the penalty of all our sins. When we are found IN Christ, we have HIS righteousness, not our own, so that is why Jesus said, "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son." (John 3:18) When you accepted Jesus, your sins HAVE been forgiven, even the ones you have yet to commit, and He saves you by grace. That is what grace is - undeserved, unmerited, unearned - all because of His mercy and love. Jesus also said, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day." (John 6:37-39) He holds onto us.
“Do you perceive that you could ever stop being a Christian?”
The way I see it is strength in weakness. If that makes a lick of sense. I believe that Christ is more true than anything else we can know or come across. I don’t see that changing. I mean, I’m a historian, that is my background, and I was a physicist for many years.
I look around and see so many questions. There is so little that we know about how things really work out there, that it would stun people if they really stopped to think about it.
I spend time digging through documents in the 4th, 5th century, 6th century and onwards. You can count on one hand the number of people that have come down to us from the 6th century, and we’re supposed to take that number and develop a coherent history?
Then you have Christ. The evidence is just several orders of magnitude greater.
“Is your faith so weak that something could come along to shake loose your belief in Jesus Christ?”
All our faith is weak. That’s the point. We have to be aware of that. We can’t sit down and say, gosh, nothing is going to challenge us, because that’s when we are going to be hit hard. I know. I’ve seen it and been through it. I’ve had those very dark nights when you sit up and just lose hope, that there is anything worthwhile left in the world.
So, no, I can’t go on and say, “oh yes, I’m going to be sure that I’m going to be the same faith at 40”, as I am now.
“You say you doubt yourself, so, if I hear what you are saying, it sounds like you have not been wholly convinced that you have a valid reason for trusting in Christ and believing in him. Is that really the case?”
No, not at all. It’s not so much that the reason itself is not valid, but that you lose hope that things will ever change. Like I said, I’ve had those dark nights. I don’t wish to visit them again.
“If God were to send us to Hell after he gave us His Spirit, He would be sending Himself to hell with us. That ain’t gonna happen! The presence of the Spirit within us is evidence of our salvation.”
But we can choose the other path. That is the point. We can choose to reject his gift, and he will give that what we wish - without him.
“NEVER stopped being the son of the Father.”
Yes, that is true, but the first step still had to be taken by the prodigal son. The son still had to decide to return. God did not force him to go back to his family. If the son had not turned away again, he would have suffered just as he had before.
That is the point. We have to guard ourselves against temptation, and return back to Christ. Get up and return back to him.
“God HAS already paid the penalty of all our sins.”
But we must still repent and turn away from them. We must still ask for forgiveness for the sins that we do commit, turn away from them and go on.
“When you accepted Jesus, your sins HAVE been forgiven, even the ones you have yet to commit, and He saves you by grace.”
But we must still ask for it. We must still ask for forgiveness from him for our sins.
Great post! Inspired for sure.
That’s a keeper for sure.