Assurance of Salvation

Oh, how blessed to be able to point heavenward and say, "It is mine!” – To point to the Throne, and say, “He is mine who sitteth there!” – To look back and find your name in the Book of Everlasting Love! – To look forward to the opening of the Book of Life, knowing that your name is in it!

We are ever meeting (in Scripture) with such words as these, spoken in the name of all disciples, “We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God” (2 Cor 5:1). “We know that we have passed from death unto life” (1 Jn 3:14). “We know that we are of God” (1 Jn 5:19). “I know whom I have believed” (2 Tim 1:12).

I sit down and meditate on such a passage as John 3:16, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish but have everlasting life.” The Spirit enables me to see in these words that God is testifying that no more is needed for my acceptance with God than what is found in Christ: and that all that Christ has done becomes mine upon my believing in him. Relying on God’s testimony, I ask no questions, I wait for nothing in myself (such as love, sorrow, or other feeling), but I think on what is in Christ, as the ground of my peace. And when I so muse, the fire burns – my soul is at rest.

Suppose a nobleman condemned for high treason, and the day has come when he must die. But that morning, a document is put into his hand; it is a pardon from the king, on no other terms than that he accept it. He reads; as he reads, his countenance is flushed, his eyes glisten, and in a moment he is full of joy. What think you of anyone arresting the current of his joy by the suggestion, “Are you quite sure you are accepting the pardon? Is your act of repentance complete and thorough?” No; the man is engrossed with the certainties presented to his thoughts: that is, what the king freely gives to him; and these certainties convey their own impression to his soul, - the certainty of his pardon.