Yesterday I wrote about the hope of salvation that is ours. If you haven’t read it you should, it will encourage you! But how can we be so certain that we are saved and will be saved when Christ returns? It is because of 3 truths.
“For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5 v 9-11)
How can we be so certain that we are saved and will be saved when Christ returns?
- God appointed us for salvation, v9. It was God’s intention that we wouldn’t be left out in the cold or rejected. God wanted us and He still does. He wanted us to be forgiven through the action of His Son, Jesus Christ. So how can I be certain? God decided that salvation be ours.
- Jesus died for us, v10. This wasn’t an act that simply is a benefit of kind. No. This is that Jesus died in our place, it was our death that He took. So how can I be certain? He was the substitute. So that we will never be in that place of death.
- We have a promise of living with Him, v10. Whether we are awake (it means being alive when He comes) or asleep (having died and immediately with Christ) how can we be certain? we have a promise of life with Jesus.
So the promise of eternal security is based on God’s decision and purpose for our salvation resulting in the Son of God’s death on the cross. It is not based on our performance of holiness for how much holiness would be needed to secure it? It is not based on our feelings for how do quantify feelings? It is all based on God, who He is, what He has said and what He has done!
This is what we should be continuing to encourage one another with, v11.
Missions Paul 