Here are some sweet, Scripture-based, honey-filled words for the sojourning Christian who is tempted to feel overwhelmed and condemned by the real fight against sin:
"If it is God, the Maker and Judge of all, who passes the justifying sentence--that is, who declares that you have been set right with his law and with himself, and are not now liable to death for your sins, but are accepted in Christ--and if God has passed this sentence in full view of all your shortcomings, justifying you on the explicit basis and understanding that you were not righteous, but ungodly (Rom 4:5), then nobody can ever challenge the verdict, not even 'the accuser of the brethren' himself. Nobody can alter God's decision over his head--there is only one Judge!--and nobody can produce new evidence of your depravity that will make God change his mind. For God justified you with (so to speak) his eyes open. He knew the worst about you at the time when he accepted you for Jesus' sake; and the verdict which he passed then was, and is final."
"For it is the privilege of all Christians to know for certain that God loves us immutably, and that nothing can at any time part us from that love or come between us and the final enjoyment of its fruits."
"Christians 'are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation' (1 Pet 1:5 KJV), and the power of God keeps them believing as well as keeping them safe through believing. Your faith will not fail while God sustains it; you are not strong enough to fall away while God is resolved to hold you."
-From Knowing God by J.I. Packer (emphasis mine)
No comments:
Post a Comment