Dear Church Family.
Given our ongoing struggle with sin, it’s not unusual for Christians to wonder and doubt if, and how, God’s grace and forgiveness can continue to be apply to them.
And, during the times when the depth of our sin and the hardness of our hearts is revealed, it’s not unusual for Christians to wonder if they are actually Christians at all.
Can you identify with that? I think most all Christians can and do. God knows and sees that our ongoing struggle with guilt and shame often leads to doubting his grace and love – and even our salvation. That’s why God, in his Word, so often seeks to reassure us that his grace is sufficient for sinners like us. This biblical truth is one that our Reformed and Presbyterian tradition historically sought to recover and continues to proclaim: Salvation is by God’s grace alone – from beginning to end. Those who Christ died for, even though they continue to struggle with sin, cannot lose their salvation.
But what about all the people we know who have fallen away from Christ? The people you grew up in Church with? The friends who no longer go to church? The people who once sang with us and professed faith, who no longer do either?
Our struggles with sin, our doubts and fears about God’s grace, and our clinging to God’s assurances about our salvation can make some Bible passages difficult for us – like the ones we are considering this Sunday and next week in our Daily Worship Devotions.
God tells us in 1 Samuel 10:9-10 that Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit and that God gave him another heart. Saul, filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesied. But God’s Word also tells us about Saul’s ongoing sin, faithlessness, and disobedience culminating in the Holy Spirit departing/leaving Saul. Before taking his own life, the last we hear of King Saul is his consulting a Witch, seeking spiritual advice, because God would not speak to him (1 Samuel 28). So, was Saul a Christian or not?
And then there are chilling warnings of Jesus, such as Matthew 7:21-23:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
So, how do you know if you are actually a Christian? In our struggle with sin, is there a line that we can cross where we will end up like King Saul or the people Jesus speaks of in Matthew 7? What about those people we know who once followed Jesus, but no longer do? How do we understand that?
Take some time to reflect and consider these things as you read and reflect on the texts we will turn to this Sunday: 1 Samuel 15:22-31 & 1 Samuel 16:14-23.
I look forward to worshipping together with you this Sunday.
Yours in Christ’s love,
Pastor Ewan
