What does "Salvation" mean (in the Bible)
Are you saved?
Are you being saved?
Were you saved?
Are you sure?
This thread is really about the ASSURANCE (or lack thereof) of salvation,
but I am cool with digging into anything to do with salvation really!
Let it be a blessing to the body of Christ.
What a nice topic for a thread! Made me bounce with happiness right away!
I can do nothing but rely on the promises of God:
Romans 8:
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What other hope can there possibly be if you don't put your full trust in God?
Despite this trust and hope, though, there are some issues where assurance is an issue:
1. Since I live in a free and prosperous country, I am more blessed in terms of the quality of life on this earth than the vast majority of people. So is this a gift from God that I should humbly enjoy, or does it give me a huge, proportionately greater responsibility to help others? If the latter is true, then I am falling down in my responsibility, and need
assurance that I am not letting God down.
2. Despite repentance and the forgiveness that comes through Jesus Christ, I am acutely aware that as a human being, I continue to sin, and need to ask for forgiveness time and time again. So I feel the need for
assurance that despite my on-going sin, God is patient and merciful and will continue time and time again to forgive me and maintain a place for me in heaven.
3. I encounter many homeless people when I go to the city and feel guilty at times not helping them. I justify this by believing that if I just give a person on the street a small bit of loose change or a hamburger, I am chaining them to the street- giving them just enough to sustain their lifestyle, without ever helping them to get out of their situation. To make matters worse, there are many agencies out there who have well-developed programs that are truly trying to wean people out of inappropriate life styles- so should I not support them instead? So I need
assurance that I am doing the right thing in God's eyes- using tough love at times, instead of trying to reduce guilt.