A few years ago I was in a dating relationship with my first boyfriend. We spent a lot of time in the car and one of these times, I was in the passenger seat as he was telling me, “You're not a Christian. God doesn't love you. You can't be saved. You're not one of God's elect.”
These are harsh words - cruel words that no one should ever say to another because no one can know for sure who belongs to God.
There have been times where I've doubted that I belong to our Father but it’s not another person's place to tell us that there would be no way for us to be saved, for Christ died for all sin (John 3:16, John 11:25, Rom. 5:8, Rom. 6:10, 2 Cor. 5:15, 1 John 2:2, 2 Pet. 3:9).
Romans 5:8 says, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” It's true that we will never be good enough to be saved because there is no amount of good work that can right all the wrongs that we have done. That’s why we need a Saviour and his name is Jesus!
We know our sins, we know our shortcomings, we know that we shouldn't be thinking or doing the things that we do in secret but we do them anyway.
The Lord sees and knows it all and still he does not condemn those who are in Christ.
He has mercy and grace on those who confess and repent of their sin. In the book Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund, he conveys the message that your very sins are what qualifies you for salvation through Jesus. Isn’t that amazing? We don’t have to be good and to do all the right things to be saved. What we have to do is to recognize our sin and our need for Jesus - that and only that qualifies us for salvation in Him.
In Luke 9:22, Jesus says, “...those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” This is who Jesus calls to him as his righteousness - all those who confess and repent. Christ died on the cross while we were still sinners. He was never surprised that we were going to choose or sin again and again. Yet Jesus wanted to love and give us a way out. He wanted to save us in the most beautiful way anyone could ever do. By laying down his life for us that we may believe and trust in him.
It was hard to know what the truth was when I was in that dating relationship constantly being fed lies. Now I know I have a choice of what to believe and the Holy Spirit has led me to the truth (Praise God!).
Though my boyfriend at the time tried to convince me that I did not belong to God, His Word in the Bible says otherwise and I’ll choose to believe in that.
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