A lady called last week.
She wanted to know how one could really know one was saved. I know the modern and post-modern answers that use Biblical
principal to bring comfort; And some of it is false comfort. Some of it is so oppressively rigid and systematic it makes
God out to be cruel robot with no heart. Some take one character trait of God and ignore the other, either giving
false security or total hopelessness.
Yes, Scriptures teach that salvation is a process where we have
been saved, are being saved and will be saved. And yes, it is driven by His faithfulness and love, as well as His hatred of
sin. But too many of us communicate that process like a scientist looking in from the outside; Quite impersonal. Probably
because it is. It doesn't seem real, perhaps because it really hasn't happened in our hearts like we'd love to believe. Parrotting the
sinners prayer and having faith in having parroted that prayer is not salvation. Why are so many church goers able to
tell others about their preachers, their churches, the programs and even correct doctrine, but so few able to introduce another
to their Best Friend. Maybe so few pray for the lost because so few are actually saved.
Which is in keeping with Billy Graham's guess that 9 out of 10 average pew-sitters today are actually
lost themselves; Severly impaired by a haughty head knowledge of the Gospel.
But my answer to her went along these lines: Once you have been brought to a place where you come to
see that it is you who have murdered Jesus and that while you were doing the deed He was humbly pleading your case in real
time as you nailed His arms and feet to a cross; Once you see a love so humble and know that you are in His view and are counted
as a reward of His suffering by Him, life can never be the same. Your heart moves from sadness and guilt for one's self to
compassion for His heart and suffering. You cease from proudly worshipping your own heart's wounds and succumb the magnitude
of His and are unaccidently healed:-)
Something changes within: Rebirth. A person, with no proud ability of his or her own, becomes
captive to His heart and love. One cannot help but be amazed by His love and your heart goes beyond wanting to experience
God, but pleasing Him. And the truth of His heart just grows within over time, saving us from this fading world, a hell
deeply deserved and greatest of all, from ourselves.
There is no one with a heart like His. His heart convicts, comforts, inspires and haunts depending
on the choice of attitude in any given moment. But the truth of it can't help but take over our hearts during the course of our
lives. My short answer to her question: Jesus. You can't stare at Him and not be saved. You can't look at Jesus and not
become His prisoner.
Keep
staring. The more you stare, the more freedom that comes to your soul. Of course, being brought to that place requires God-inspired
prayers by others to open our own eyes. Salvation is rare today because Spirit-filled
prayer is rare and vice versa.
Then I asked her a question: What moves your heart the most? Him
saving our sorry selves from a Hell so deserved or the suffering heart which is His? Salvation is not fire insurance; That
is merely a by-product. Salvation is the gift of His heart to us.
John 3:14
