Matt’s third book is now available for purchase. If you struggle to know the importance of your God-given identity, To Identity and Beyond is a must read.
Insights
Guarantee of Inheritance
This post is part of a series on eternal security. If you’d like some background, you can read the introductory post: eternal-security-why-or-why-not.
God gives the believer His Holy Spirit. A genuine believer can know he or she is eternally secure because of Ephesian 1:14. You become a genuine believer by hearing the word truth, which is the gospel, and believing the truth. This provides you eternal salvation.
As soon as you believe, God seals you with His Holy Spirit so you can feel secure. God personally guarantees your inheritance until you receive it. If God is the guarantor, can there be any doubt He will keep His promise?
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
—Ephesians 1:11-14
Eternal Security – Why or Why Not
I believe all born-again Christians have eternal security. I know this can be a subject for debate. I welcome your comments so we can have a lively, in-depth discussion.
When interpreting the Bible, it is important to look broadly (across many scriptures) and narrowly (in the immediate context of a verse). Also, everything written has an intended audience. The Bible has two main audiences: the Christian and the non-Christian. The Christian should approach the Bible as someone who is already saved and interpret every verse from this perspective. For the true believer, there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1). I wrote about this several weeks ago: Interpret The Bible With Your Christian Identity. The non-Christian should feel conviction for their sin and need for the Savior.
The question of eternal security is a positional one. Whether you believe you can lose your salvation or not, we should all be able to agree on what it takes to become a Christian. Then you should be able to evaluate whether or not you are saved at the present moment. If you’re saved today, then let’s not worry right now if you weren’t saved yesterday.
The process of gaining salvation requires putting your faith (actively believing) in Christ’s work on your behalf. You can’t provide any “work” other than your faithful belief. Salvation is a gift. Gifts are received not earned.
Ephesians 2:8-9 makes this clear:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
If someone can lose their salvation, there must be an equally clear procedure of how that happens. I suppose someone could return the gift, but I’m not sure why anyone would want to do that. Otherwise, I can’t think of any other way to lose salvation. If you can lose salvation by not working hard enough at it, then this makes salvation sound like a trap: it’s easy to step in, but once you’re in, you have to work increasingly harder to stay in, otherwise, you’ll be kicked out. But then is it easy or hard to get back in again? Besides being confusing, this seems to go against the Gospel message and many Bible passages.
I plan to explore this topic for several weeks and maybe even months. For now consider Jesus’s words:
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
—Matthew 11:28-30
Jesus is saying that salvation is process of finding rest for your soul.
Whether you agree or disagree with my belief, please share your comments and ask questions.
Does God Need Us?
To fully answer this question, we need to have a clear picture of the God who made us. God is almighty—eternally self-sufficient. In this sense, God doesn’t need anyone. But the enemy twists this fact to attempt to make us dull, despondent, and defeated. You don’t really matter to God; you’re on our own. While God is able to carry on and enact His will without us, He chooses not to. He desires to take our shame, self-pity, and self-deprecation and make us His sons and daughters.
Until you see yourself as worthwhile, you’ll underestimate your significance and limit your contribution to God’s kingdom. You must throw off your worthlessness and fully embrace the reality and identity God has for you.
God has a specific purpose for your existence. You’re a unique creation, so your active participation is essential. He chose to make you a vital part of His plans, part of the body of Christ. In the reality that God has created, each of us is irreplaceable. He desires fellowship with us and wants to see us thrive. In this sense, God needs us. If none of us were to rise up to do His bidding, He could make the rocks cry out, but that’s not going to happen. God made us to praise Him and praise Him we will.
God has great plans for you, but you can’t accomplish anything apart from God. We need God’s strength and determination to work in and through us, just as Jesus relied on His Father throughout His life. When we participate by faith, God empowers us. Instead of passively waiting for God to topple the giants in your life, consider that He may be calling you to fight, as David did, with the strength of God’s Spirit within you.
Since God has committed to partnering with us to the very end, don’t hesitate to step out in faith to discover who you are and to seek to advance God’s kingdom. To this end, I invite you To Identity and Beyond (the title of my upcoming book).
How to Feel Closer to God
Does God seem distant to you? Are you struggling to believe God cares? Do you like yourself?
Wait. What does liking yourself have to do with God? It has everything to do with God.
Jesus didn’t have to command us to love ourselves like He did to love others. He expects that you’ll automatically love and care for yourself.
The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
—Mark 12:31
Despite this being a simple truth, most people struggle to genuinely feel good about who they are. This is a problem because when you’re negative on what God made, how can you be positive about God? When you can’t see God as positive, you can’t believe He’s got your best interest in mind.
If you want to feel close to God, you have to feel positive about yourself. If you don’t like yourself, then the you you don’t like is probably not the real you God has in mind. Your identity is who God says you are, while your self-image is who you think you are. When you get the two mixed up, you can’t like yourself.
Not liking yourself is ultimately the inability to see yourself as God really sees you. Putting this all together, if you want to be closer to God, you need to see what He sees. Who does God see when He looks at you? Spend time thanking God for how He made you. Ask Him to see yourself through His eyes.
You Have a Purpose at All Times
Your identity is inseparable from your purpose. If God intentionally created you as distinct from others, your uniqueness must have a purpose. While you can’t expect to discover your purpose overnight, you can be sure you have one at all times.
If you always have a purpose, here are some things that are true:
- Your life isn’t random.
- Your life has meaning.
- You’re not an accident; there are no coincidences.
- Even when you’re doing nothing, you’re doing something.
- You have significant work to do.
- You have a destiny to fulfill.
- You’re needed.
Can you think of any others?
How does knowing you have a purpose at all times help you live each day? Are you able to wake up excited about your day?
What’s your purpose?
Destiny follows identity. Claim your destiny by recognizing you have a purpose because of your identity. If you know your identity, then you will know your purpose. If you don’t know your purpose, then you must not know your identity all that well.
