In agreement with Moses I say “Soul, be still, and SEE the SALVATION of the LORD.” For the Lord Himself has fought for me and given me His peace (Exodus 14:113-14). I want to encourage the weary soul that may be trying to work for salvation by saying, only as you set your eyes on Jesus (who is both our savior and salvation) shall you rest and walk in peace. Consider the old man Simeon who when he took the baby Jesus in His arms blessed God and said, “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples (Luke 2:29-31).”
To avoid confusion and the deception of the enemy it is crucial that we not separate the gift of salvation from the Son of the Father. I say this because I have heard of a good many people speak of being saved while confessing to not being current followers of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not come to give sinners salvation in the form of neatly wrapped packages just for the fun of it. He was sent IN the Love (John 3:16), Will (Galatians 1:4), and Good Pleasure (Ephesians 1:5) of the Father to give us eternal intimacy with Himself and the Father (John 17:3) thus saving us from the wrath to come.
“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life (1 Tim 1:15-16).” “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have Eternal life (John 3:16).” As I understand the scriptures, Jesus does not save sinners and then give them eternal life but He saves sinners as they believe in Him for eternal life. We were saved from wrath unto intimacy. Therefore, to claim salvation in conjunction with eternal security while admitting to not being His follower is very dangerous position to be in.
Let us not ever think of salvation without thinking of Jesus. May we never separate the two. As we saw above, Jesus is the embodiment of our salvation and eternal life is intimacy with Himself. If we think we can have the gift without the giver then perhaps we should examine our hearts to see whether or not we have either.
The Lord has caused me to see that our eternal assurance should never be thought of apart from Himself. For it is in Him that we have believed, in Him that we have been saved, in Him that we have died, been buried, and raised again, and in Him that we now sit at the right hand of the Father. Our life and assurance of it is certain in Him.
I have heard preachers preach sermons that give theological propositions for eternal security/assurance as if all someone needs to do is believe a scripture to be true and then you shall never have any doubts. I believe that the revelation of eternal security can only come by the revelation of what eternal life (intimacy with God) is all about. In my own life eternal security has come as a deeply personal revelation as I have sought the Lord intimately. For a preacher to deliver a theology of eternal security without a theology of intimacy with God, can be, and has been, a dangerous thing.
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