The Holy Spirit is a means of knowing you are saved.
“We know that we live in Him and He in us, because He has given
us of His Spirit” (1 John 4:13).
“The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are
God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and
co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may
also share in his glory” (Romans 8:16-17).
God’s Spirit talks to our spirit to tell us that we belong
to Him. We are His children. I cannot explain it, but to those to whom this has
happened it does not need explaining.
The Holy Spirit is the present guarantee of our final
salvation, the resurrection of our bodies:
“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the
word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked
in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our
inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the
praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14).
“Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has
given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Corinthians
5:5).
We either have the Spirit or we do not have the Spirit.
Whoever does not have the Spirit does not belong to Christ. He is not a
Christian. He is not saved.
“You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but
by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have
the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” (Romans 8:9).
“Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans
8:14).
Have you been led by the Spirit? That is supernatural
guidance. If you have not been led by the Spirit or if you have and do not
recognize it, you should wonder if you are saved.
“For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the
man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God
except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the
Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.
This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words
taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man
without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they
are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things,
but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: ‘For who has known the
mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (1
Corinthians 2:11-16).
The natural man may be a genius, but unless he has the
Spirit of God, the Word of God is foolishness to him.
To be continued on Monday.
Excerpted from Assurances of
Salvation, available at ccmbooks.org and Amazon.com.
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