Assurance of Salvation!

For Friday, October 18, 2024:

1 John 5:13 NLT: “I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.”

Many of the world’s religions teach about a life after this life. Let’s call it Paradise. People live their lives trying to be good and to follow the teachings of their religion, hoping to gain more Paradise Points. But anger, violence and disobedience can subtract Paradise Points. Your qualification for the hereafter can increase or decrease, but their Higher Power never allows anyone to see the scoreboard. A person could live their entire life not knowing if they “made it” or not.

Christianity is different. We have a Savior, Jesus. He took the sin of the world to the place of the dead, leaving forgiven believers forever qualified to take up residence in God’s heaven. Christians have “Assurance of Salvation,” not from anything we did but from what Jesus did in removing the record of our sin from the Book of life. We then try to do good out of gratitude for what Jesus did for us, not to earn Heaven Points.

By the way, heaven isn’t our final destination. In God’s time, he will restore the New Heaven and the New Earth, put back to original specifications the way it was all designed before sin entered the world. Yes, believers will find themselves living in a perfect world! That’s what the Bible says!

Now as a reminder, go sing a chorus of “Blessed Assurance!” (This is my story...)

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship