To be VERY CLEAR, at first, ALL SCRIPTURE is BEST to know. 😉
But ladies, there’s this word that I want to encourage you to read, to reflect on, to praise the Lord for, and to memorize. Lucky for us all, it is a short word, an easy word to remember and to bring up in any and every moment of doubt, concern, and fear.
Are you ready for it?
NOW.
Now. Yep. That’s the word. Now, let’s see why it’s so important for us to know.
There is therefore NOW no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. – Romans 8:1
Read it again. Even the most educated Theologian should be encouraged to read this verse, cling to it, recall it, and express deep gratitude to Christ for it.
Ladies, my sin has been great. GREAT. But we know all sin is serious and worthy of God’s wrath. We deserve hell. We deserve punishment. This is just. This is righteous.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. – Romans 3:23-24
All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. – Ephesians 2:3-5
And even though we know Christ has saved us by grace, through faith, SATAN CONTINUES TO ACCUSE. The grief over our sin grows in our sanctification. This is a gift of grace in itself – that we would no longer be hostile to God (in the flesh) and are now united to Jesus, sealed with the Spirit for eternity.
Sometimes we can revisit our sins, OUR FORGIVEN SINS, and start drowning in them. We can become scared or worried that the Bible doesn’t mean what we read it means, that our sin is actually far too evil for Jesus to forgive, and that we are still in danger of God’s wrath.
This is all an act of our enemy – satan, the Accuser and our own flesh, which is easily swayed to distrust God.
The truth is, when we are saved…there is NOW no condemnation. NOW. Present tense. NOW. Today. This moment. This very moment you’re reading this – THERE IS NO CONDEMNATION FOR YOU.
IT IS FINISHED. DONE. OVER.
We don’t have to wait to get to eternity and find out if we’re condemned. WE CAN KNOW NOW. When we’re truly in Christ, we are JUSTIFIED FULLY AND PERFECTLY RIGHT NOW.
NOW.
Isn’t it the best word?! NOW. We are saved! We can walk in freedom. We can know we have eternal life.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. – 1 John 5:1-3
WE DO NOT NEED TO DOUBT OUR SALVATION. IT IS ASSURED.
Now, there is a difference between questioning Jesus’ propitiation and atonement on the cross for His sheep AND examining yourself to see if you’re truly in Christ.
We shouldn’t doubt scripture – It is perfect, THE AUTHORITY, without error, and TRUE. We SHOULD examine ourselves to see if we’re truly in JESUS. This comes from Paul in 2 Corinthians. This is wise for every believer to do, for we know there are false converts everywhere.
What I am trying to encourage you ladies to do is rest in NOW.
Every sin you’ve ever committed has been paid for by Jesus. EVERY SINGLE ONE. TODAY YOU WALK IN FREEDOM – IN JUSTIFICATION. YOU ARE UNITED WITH CHRIST AND ARE NOW HEIRS WITH HIM.
So that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. – Titus 3:7
And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. – 1 Corinthians 6:11
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. … – Romans 5:1-21
And be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith – Philippians 3:9
Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. – Romans 5:18
6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. – Romans 6
The continual journey of sanctification for the Christian is repentance. This is also an evidence of Jesus in you – that you continually grow in brokenness over your sin and repent for it. You’re not broken in fear of hell but broken in the fact that you’ve sinned against your Holy Father – THE KING, THE LORD.
REST IN NOW. Memorize these passages and recall them daily. It will bring about JOY, PEACE, and ASSURANCE; ALL gifts of God for us.
“To make it quite practical I have a very simple test. After I have explained the way of Christ to somebody I say “Now, are you ready to say that you are a Christian?” And they hesitate. And then I say, “What’s the matter? Why are you hesitating?” And so often people say, “I don’t feel like I’m good enough yet. I don’t think I’m ready to say I’m a Christian now.” And at once I know that I have been wasting my breath. They are still thinking in terms of themselves. They have to do it. It sounds very modest to say, “Well, I don’t think I’ good enough,” but it’s a very denial of the faith. The very essence of the Christian faith is to say that He is good enough and I am in Him. As long as you go on thinking about yourself like that and saying, “I’m not good enough; Oh, I’m not good enough,” you are denying God – you are denying the gospel – you are denying the very essence of the faith and you will never be happy. You think you’re better at times and then again you will find you are not as good at other times than you thought you were. You will be up and down forever. How can I put it plainly? It doesn’t matter if you have almost entered into the depths of hell. It does not matter if you are guilty of murder as well as every other vile sin. It does not matter from the standpoint of being justified before God at all. You are no more hopeless than the most moral and respectable person in the world.”
― Martyn Lloyd-Jones
“The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“I’m afraid that in the United States of America today the prevailing doctrine of justification is not justification by faith alone. It is not even justification by good works or by a combination of faith and works. The prevailing notion of justification in our culture today is justification by death. All one has to do to be received into the everlasting arms of God is to die.”
― R. C. Sproul
https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/sanct_just_ryle.html
In what, then, are justification and sanctification alike?
(a) Both proceed originally from the free grace of God. It is of His gift alone that believers are justified or sanctified at all.
(b) Both are part of that great work of salvation which Christ, in the eternal covenant, has undertaken on behalf of His people. Christ is the fountain of life, from which pardon and holiness both flow. The root of each is Christ.
(c) Both are to be found in the same persons. Those who are justified are always sanctified, and those who are sanctified are always justified. God has joined them together, and they cannot be put asunder.
(d) Both begin at the same time. The moment a person begins to be a justified person; he also begins to be a sanctified person. He may not feel it, but it is a fact.
(e) Both are alike necessary to salvation. No one ever reached heaven without a renewed heart as well as forgiveness, without the Spirit’s grace as well as the blood of Christ, without a meetness for eternal glory as well as a title. The one is just as necessary as the other.
Such are the points on which justification and sanctification agree. Let us now reverse the picture, and see wherein they differ.
(a) Justification is the reckoning and counting a man to be righteous for the sake of another, even Jesus Christ the Lord. Sanctification is the actual making a man inwardly righteous, though it may be in a very feeble degree.
(b) The righteousness we have by our justification is not our own, but the everlasting perfect righteousness of our great Mediator Christ, imputed to us, and made our own by faith. The righteousness we have by sanctification is our own righteousness, imparted, inherent, and wrought in us by the Holy Spirit, but mingled with much infirmity and imperfection.
(c) In justification our own works have no place at all, and simple faith in Christ is the one thing needful.
(d) In sanctification our own works are of vast importance and God bids us fight, and watch, and pray, and strive, and take pains, and labour Justification is a finished and complete work, and a man is perfectly justified the moment he believes. Sanctification is an imperfect work, comparatively, and will never be perfected until we reach heaven.
(e) Justification admits of no growth or increase: a man is as much justified the hour he first comes to Christ by faith as he will be to all eternity. Sanctification is eminently a progressive work, and admits of continual growth and enlargement so long as a man lives.
(f) Justification has special reference to our persons, our standing in God’s sight, and our deliverance from guilt. Sanctification has special reference to our natures, and the moral renewal of our hearts.
(g) Justification gives us our title to heaven, and boldness to enter in. Sanctification gives us our meetness for heaven, and prepares us to enjoy it when we dwell there.
(h) Justification is the act of God about us, and is not easily discerned by others. Sanctification is the work of God within us, and cannot be hid in its outward manifestation from the eyes of men.
WITH LOVE JILLIAN 