Assurance of Salvation (3)

That we may maintain our assurance of salvation, see the grounds of it. It is not in our perfection, for then the poor disciples, where had they been? Alas! They had dealt unfaithfully with Christ. But the ground of assurance is on God's side, the certainty is on God's part, not ours. Though we make breaches every day God breaks not, as Malachi 3:6, 'Verily, I the Lord am not changeable; and therefore, you are not consumed.' We change, ebb and flow, are to and fro, up and down every day, varying in our dispositions. Though there be some root and seed of grace in us always, yet there is a change in our dispositions every day; but it holds on God's part. Christ names not any qualification in them to build comfort on but that God will yet maintain the relation of a Father to you. So that we maintain not our assurance on any part in us, but on God's love. ‘Whom he loves, he loves to the end' (John 13:1). Our God unchangeably loves us, in whom there is not so much as a shadow of change. In the last of the Hebrews it is called an 'everlasting covenant.' 'The God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant' (Heb. 13:20). By the blood of Christ there is an everlasting covenant. God will be our God to death, and in death, and forever. For this relation being on God's part, extends itself from forgiveness of sins to life everlasting. It is always. The blood of Christ is the blood of an everlasting covenant. 'I will marry you to me forever' (Hos. 2:19). It holds sure on God's part.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
A Heavenly Conference, pp. 155-56
Banner of Truth has granted permission for the use of this material.