Was saved, am being saved, will be saved (II) Was saved

As a boy I loved CS Forrester's Hornblower stories. There is a story that I think illustrates well what I want to say this morning. In it captain Hornblower is tasked with recovering gold from a sunken galleon. The whole mission relied on a Filipino pearl diver who could hold his breath for up to five minutes. On the way to the location Hornblower’s hotheaded surgeon challenged the diver to a duel and shot him. In a rage Hornblower told the surgeon that if the diver died, so would he (the surgeon). Several days later, the surgeon went to Hornblower saying that if the diver was to live, he needed to operate to take the bullet out, and Hornblower repeated his threat.

The diver pleads to be released saying that if, at the most important part of the surgery, he (the surgeon) remembered the threat, it could cause his hand to tremble and what could be the very thing that sabotaged the operation. In his wisdom, Hornblower withdrew the threat. If Hornblower was wise, surely God is wiser still. In particular, He knows that the threat of hell, if we don’t measure up to His standards, could be the very thing that causes us to fail. We might not even try, knowing that we can never measure up to His standards. After all “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). What I’m saying, is that God gives us eternal life as a free gift (Ephesians 2: 8, 9). And like Hornblower, He does so in order to release us to do our best. And if we are sincere in our repentance, then surely it is absolutely unthinkable that we should “continue to sin that grace may abound” (Romans 6:1,2). More on this tomorrow.

It is God’s very clear intention that we know the security of this aspect of our salvation, and to know it in our spirit, and not just in our heads. John tells us for example, that the the very reason he wrote to believers is so that “you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). Jesus himself tells us that the one who hears His Word, and believe on the the Father, has (present tense) eternal life, shall not come into judgment, but has passed (past tense) from death into life (John 5:24). To put it another way, He has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints (believers) in the light (Colossians 1:12). And we are not only saints, we are sons and daughters, and the Father is our Abba, our daddy! Now God shows no favouritism (is no respecter of persons Acts 10:34). So then as brothers and sisters of Christ (Hebrews 2:11) we hear Him say to us what He said to Christ “You are my beloved son (daughter) in whom I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11).

Father, you invite us to see (meditate on and carefully consider) what manner of love You have bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God, and that is what we are! Now the world doesn’t know us because the world does not know You. And the Evil One will come and causes to doubt our sonship, our adoption. I mean he tried to tempt Jesus with “if you are the son of God…” (Matthew 4:3). So this morning Lord I choose to believe who You say I am. And I thank You for the assurance that I will be with You for ever in paradise. So please inhabit my praises this morning Lord, and I will give You the glory in Jesus Name Amen