LifeWay Bible Studies for Life Series for July 29: Confident

Our world doesn’t afford us much confidence things will endure. Several years ago, our 17-year-old washing machine had agitated its last load of clothes. The delivery man from the appliance store asked how old the machine was. When we told him, his reply was “Well, this new one certainly won’t last that long!”

When we really begin to examine everything from products to relationships, we have a difficult time discovering something that gives us confidence in a lasting role of usefulness or connection. Too frequently, we experience the new car that breaks down before it is paid off or the marriage of 40-plus years that ends in divorce. We all ask the question: “Of what might we be confident?”

The Apostle Paul directs us away from the temporary of our world and points us to the permanency of God’s promises. In Ephesians 1:13-14, he writes to the believers at Ephesus a reminder of the process they experienced in coming to faith in Christ.

First, they heard the gospel; second, they believed in Jesus; and finally, they were sealed with the Holy Spirit. If we only had the first two steps of this process, we might have reason to doubt our salvation. Since those first two steps involve my participation in hearing and believing, it might be possible I got it wrong. Maybe I didn’t hear correctly, or maybe I didn’t really believe. But the third step is of God’s doing alone. He sealed me with his Holy Spirit. Sealed means secured or branded or claimed as his.  

Paul wrote these words to the Roman believers about their security in Christ: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).  

We have confidence in our redemption because following our belief in Jesus, God sealed us, not with wax or the latest reusable plastic container, but with the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

For thought: If you, or a friend of yours, have doubts about your salvation, can you narrow in on the basis of your doubt? Is it confusion about what you did, or is it a lack of awareness of what God does? When we trust Christ, the Holy Spirit indwells our lives as an assurance of God’s promised eternal life to all who believe in Jesus.

Our relationship to God is not tied to performance or usefulness as a slave-master relationship might be. Rather, the Scripture in Romans 8:14-17 tells us by our faith in Christ we have become adopted sons of God. As an adopted son of God, we also have become heirs of God meaning that we will enjoy the presence of God in heaven for all eternity.

Can we really be certain of this? Part of the indwelling role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers is to testify with the believer’s spirit that we are God’s children. One evidence of this testimony is the Holy Spirit enabling you to hear God’s call or direction for your life; to experience the guilt that comes as a result of sin; and to obey God’s commands, not just by human effort but by the power of the Holy Spirit in you.

For thought: What has God said to you or done in your life recently that reminds you of his presence in your life in the form of the Holy Spirit? How did that give you confidence in your relationship to Christ?

None of us knows how long we will live on this earth. There are days when we long to be free from the constraints and pain of this world and replace it with the beauty and peace of heaven.  

Scripture is clear that for believers this world is not our ultimate home. This is the place where we live only temporarily.  Our ultimate home is in the presence of God in heaven. Paul offered encouragement to the believers at Corinth by reminding them our earthly bodies only are temporary dwelling places for us. When this body dies, we will receive a new, glorified body as we enter into God’s presence.  

Just as Paul had written in Ephesians 1:14, he also writes in 2 Corinthians 5:5 that the Holy Spirit is God’s down payment to us to remind us all He promised us in his word is true and will happen. The Holy Spirit helps us through this life by helping us to see in part the future with God.  

For thought: I was struggling to find a way to write what I believe about life here and the timing of death and going to heaven. I believe the Holy Spirit revealed this thought. Many in our military are serving in harm’s way. Most would prefer to be home with their families, but they have an assignment that must be completed, and then they will return home. We are on this earth with varying assignments from God. When our part of those assignments are completed, he will call us home. I don’t know when that will be because I don’t know what all the assignments are, and I don’t want to fail to complete the tasks he has for me. But I do look forward to that day.