Secure Salvation by Pete Briscoeعينة

Trusting enough to live

Wouldn’t it be terrible to receive a heart transplant and then be afraid of living? Living in constant trepidation that your new heart might stop working would cause you to miss out on the life that the new heart was inserted to give you.

Some of us do this with our salvation. We have received Christ. We trust Christ. But we are so afraid that our own sin will negate our adoption into God’s eternal family that we stop living.

God can be trusted. We can rest in the presence of God because of the work of Jesus. This is a promise, and this promise comes with an oath:

[Jesus] has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. … For it is declared: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” … And it was not without an oath! (Hebrews 6:20; 7:17,20)

I know what you’re thinking: That doesn’t look like a promise or an oath. But it is. Until Jesus, priests like Melchizedek and the Levites were priests of ancestry. But Jesus was a priest of “indestructible life” (Hebrews 7:16), and His priesthood was accompanied by an oath: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You are a priest forever’” (Hebrews 7:21).

Jesus is our High Priest forever. Forever! He is our hope. Hebrews tells us two things about this hope:

• “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19). We can drop anchor and rest in Christ.
• Our hope “enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf” (Hebrews 6:19-20). We are invited into the presence of God—the holiest of places—when we follow Jesus.

It’s a promise and an oath. Jesus is our High Priest. Every moment of every day, our Forever High Priest applies His blood to us. As long as He lives, we live.

I get it; we sin. But there is no allowance in Scripture for some of us losing our salvation, and some of us keeping it. If such an allowance existed, then salvation would be about us, not Jesus.

Your salvation will be there for you at the end. It’s true. God promised—with an oath. Start living!

Reflection:

What is God saying to me about my trust in Him?

Do I trust God to come through on His promises, including Salvation?

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