THE TRENTON BULLETIN

THE TRENTON BULLETIN

Trenton Church of Christ, Trenton, Florida

Can I know that I am saved? It appears to be a simple question, and one that I am sure many Christians would be quick to answer with an astounding, “YES!” But dig a little deeper, and ask how do you know that you’re saved? Then, it can be a little challenging for those who learned the first principles of becoming a Christian but have failed to mature spiritually. Those of us who have put on Christ through baptism should understand that this is the beginning point of the journey in the life of a Christian, and from that point forward each of us individually chooses how we live our life, whether in service to God, or to ourselves. So how can I know that I am saved? Here are a few points that can help us answer that question. .

I can know that I am saved when I understand the need to love God. In Luke 10:25-28, the lawyer asked Jesus, “What must he do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus asked him what is written in the law, and the lawyer replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, love your neighbor as yourself,” to which Jesus said, “you have answered correctly,” and then proceeded to give the account of the good Samaritan. It requires more than just saying, “I love you.” It requires a total commitment of oneself to God, and to treat EVERYONE as you would treat yourself. .

I can know that I am saved when I understand that love requires action on my part. In John 14:15-18, Jesus said, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” This is not a set of tasks that we check off to earn our salvation, but a willingness to do whatever God asks us to do because we love him. In 1 John 3: 11-24, John tells us that if we love God we will love each other, and to let us not love with word or with tongue but in deed and truth. .

I can know that I am saved when I understand that I must not love the world or the things in it more than I love God. In 1 John 2:15-17, John warns us not to love the world and the things of the world, because if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. If we love to participate in the things of the world, which is contrary to the true nature of the Father, how can we have fellowship with Him? .

I can know that I am saved when I understand that I can not be saved by doing it by myself. In John 15:1-8, Jesus uses the illustration of the vine and the branches. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. The branches can not bear fruit on it’s own, but has to be part of the vine. We as Christians need to understand that we are a part of the body (the church), and when we recognize that we are doing this for God’s glory, and not our own self interest, then the bearing of fruit will take care of itself. .

I can know that I am saved when I understand that I can not give up and that I need to keep trying by drawing nearer to God, by encouraging others, by loving my brothers and sisters, and by doing good works. In Hebrews 10:19-31, the writer encourages the brethren to draw nearer to God by being an active participant, and not a passive participant. A relationship requires active participation to grow and nurture a relationship. We accomplish this one step at a time. If we become passive or stagnant we will tend to fall back into the world, which will result in a fearful expectation of the judgment..

These are only a few practical illustrations that will help us answer the question “how can I know that I am saved.” The challenge is to not only understand these things, but to put them into action.

"Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge; and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness; and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love" (2 Peter 1:5-7).

One of the greatest heresies of all is the notion that life is supposed to be easy. Our society has made us believe the path of least resistance is best. We think the most important pursuit in life is the pursuit of happiness. We ought to have learned by now that the only way to get happiness is to forget it, and that the most unhappy people in the world are the people who are trying the hardest to be happy.

We do ourselves and our young people a disservice by failing to tell them that life is difficult. Young people will choose a curriculum in school primarily because it is easy, but will repeatedly avoid the difficult. Many of us choose our careers for the same reason. Such an approach is softening to society and weakening to one's character.

Spiritual growth, more than any other pursuit, is hindered by the notion that it comes easily. The apostle Peter's text uses two words that tell us that real growth requires great effort. The first is "diligence," from spoudé, which denotes earnestness, zeal, or sometimes haste. The second is the verb "supply," from epichoregéo, to supply fully or equip. The latter term was derived from the idea of a chorus leader in ancient Greece, who also took on the responsibility of collecting, maintaining, training, and equipping such choruses. Peter uses these two terms to say we must bend all our energies to equip ourselves with great qualities. We must not be content with anything less than the highest virtues we can add to our characters.

D. Elton Trueblood once illustrated the worthlessness of the undisciplined life. "A human life that goes in the path of least resistance will give no more usable power than will the stream that flows all over the bottom land. The only way to make a stream produce power is to put it between sharp high banks, run it through a man-made gorge where it is controlled, and, because it is controlled, the implicit power is available." Peter teaches further along in his text that our lives can be fruitful and productive when discipline is applied (v. 8). The course of ease and lack of effort will not only result in a lack of any real growth, but leads to blindness and short-sightedness (v. 9). Those with a real vision in life are those who know the value of discipline and hard work.

How do we learn such discipline? Perhaps the greatest motivation comes from observing it in someone else. A good teacher is one who instills discipline in his students through a demonstration of it in his own life. And in the pursuit of godliness and virtue, Christians can look to the perfect demonstration and example in the life of Christ. In Peter's text, the challenge to add the virtues is given in the context of "the true knowledge of Jesus Christ" and His magnificent promises (vs. 3-4).

Years ago it was considered an impossibility for human being to run a mile in less than four minutes. People were told it would never be done. Then it was done. And in the next few years after that, many people began to do it. Why the sudden change? The only way to account for it is expectancy. The rest of the world came to realize that it could be done. Jesus is not only our example, He has shown us what we can be.

What a tragedy for a person to be less than he might be! What a shame it is for us to waste our opportunities to become what God wants in us. We were made in His image. Peter says we have the potential to become "partakers of the divine nature" (v. 4). But the road to greatness is long and difficult.

A poet once said, "The one thing that I most want to say to the young is, 'Learn to love the difficult.'" Life will not necessarily be easy. Being a Christian will not be without its difficulties. But then nothing of importance is easy.

Jesus was a remarkable man. Beyond the obvious recognition of His deity and Sonship with the Father, Jesus is an example of humility. No where is this more clearly seen than the many times He healed great multitudes and individuals. Matthew writes, “Many followed him, and he healed them all, and warned them not to tell who he was. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: Behold my servant whom I have chosen; my beloved in whom my soul is well-pleased; I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel, nor cry out; nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A battered reed he will not break off, and a smoldering wick he will not put out, until he leads justice to victory. And in his name the Gentiles will hope" (Matthew 12:15-21). It would be very difficult to be healed of leprosy and not tell anyone. How could you not proclaim the praises of the one who gave you sight or made your legs walk again? How could Lazarus not say something (John 11)?

Jesus found it difficult to restrain those he healed to be quiet. Jesus told the leper in Matthew 8 to “tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them” (v4). Luke tells us the “news about Him was spreading even farther, and large crowds were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses” (Luke 5:15). How do you not tell others that Jesus raised your daughter from the dead (Luke 8:49-56)?

The explanation Matthew gives for Jesus asking those he healed not to make it known is found in Isaiah 42:1-4. Paul T. Butler writes about this passage: “The nature of the Servant of Jehovah will be diametrically opposed to all human concepts of saviourhood or messiahship. He will not put on a huge show and make a lot of noise. He will not advertise nor hire a public relations man to create for him a popular image. He will not call attention to himself merely for his own satisfaction. He will not seek his own glory. He comes humbly. He comes to save, not to win the acclaim of men. He comes to serve, not to be served.” [Bible Study Textbook Series; Isaiah Volume III; College Press, Joplin, Missouri]

Jesus proclaimed of himself, "I do not receive glory from men … I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks and judges” (John 5:41; 8:50). The people wanted to make Jesus a king after he fed five thousand (John 6:15). The work of the Lord was not about the accolades of men. When Satan left Christ following the temptation recorded in Luke it says that the devil “departed from him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). Satan did not cease to tempt Jesus. The old serpent tried again and again to tempt Jesus to fall down and worship him. Jesus lived daily with the temptation of the devil.

What fame Jesus would be able to attain because of his healing; what power to feed the masses and how so many would flock to him to be fed; through miracles Jesus could defeat all the armies that marched on the face of the earth. Yet, the humble servant knew that his work was not about fading glory but the glory of the Father. Many today need to follow in the footsteps of Jesus as we all possess the “mind of Christ” (Philippians 2:1-11). The “Me-Me-Me” religion of today is not in harmony with the character of Jesus Christ. “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time” (1 Peter 5:6).

§ Abraham Lincoln once told of a farmer trying to teach his son how to plow a straight furrow. In the time-honored tradition, he told the boy to keep his eyes on some object at the other end of the field and plow straight for it. The boy started plowing and the farmer went about his chores. When he returned after several hours to check on the boy’s progress, he was shocked to find instead of straight rows something that looked like a question mark. The boy had obeyed his father’s instructions. He had fixed his eyes on something at the other side of the field – a cow. Unfortunately, the cow had moved. Evidently, that father forgot to tell his son to look for a stable object, one that would not shift or move around. That is one mistake we do not have to make. We can fix our eyes on Jesus who never changes. (Matthew 14:23-33)

§ While campaigning for the presidency in August 1928, Herbert Hoover said, “We are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land. The poorhouse is vanishing from among us. We have not yet reached the goal, but we shall soon be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation.” There seemed little reason then for Americans to disagree with this rosy appraisal of the nation’s future, and Hoover was elected by a landslide. Less than a year later, however, the stock market crashed, beginning the Great Depression. (1 Timothy 6:6-10)

§ A nation which does not remember what is was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about. (Woodrow Wilson)

§ During the night of July 31, 1976 a 19-foot wall of water roared through the mountain-rimmed canyon linking Estes Park and Loveland, Colorado. Earlier in the day, campers had walked along the babbling brook which flowed through the canyon. But mountain thunderstorms turned it into a raging killer which took 129 lives. One woman survived because she heeded her husband’s warning. He sensed they were in danger when he saw the rapidly rising waters in the narrow canyon. While he went to warn others, she scaled the canyon walls to safety. Sadly, not everyone heeded her husband. Some people simply close their eyes and ears to a warning, whether in the physical world or in the spiritual. (2 Peter 3:1-13)

§ Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently. (Henry Ford, automaker, who failed and went broke five times before finally succeeding.)