If once pardoned thou will be always pardoned. For the first pardon Christ paid his blood; for the continuance he does but plead his blood, and we cannot be without a pardon till Christ be without a plea.
Stephen Charnock
I believe it’s common for all believers to experience times of doubts. We go through different seasons in life, some great and some not so great. Seasons of great joy, seasons of distress, seasons where our sanctification seems to increase and seasons where it feels like our spiritual life is going completely backwards. These low times can make a person wonder about their salvation.
When we get in these difficult seasons of life and doubts start to control our thoughts we sometimes tend to base our salvation, or lack of it, on the works currently present in our life. We can see others on high mountain tops with hands raised praising God, and we see ourself in the gutter of the deepest valley. Comparing ourself to others we can think that maybe we haven’t done enough. We have skipped out on our daily prayers, maybe got busy and put the reading of scripture aside for a time. Maybe our thoughts and actions have been less than “christian” and everything seems to be slipping away. We haven’t gave up, but we gave up trying…
Thankfully our salvation doesn’t rest on the works we produce in life. We don’t remain saved by praying or reading scripture. We don’t lose our pardon from sin by committing sin.
Jesus Christ secured our pardon. I couldn’t pay for my sins and neither could you. In my place condemned Christ stood. My sin was placed on Him and He canceled my debt on the cross. He didn’t temporarily cancel it “if” my works stay righteous and carry me through. He canceled it forever.
And not only did Jesus secure our pardon, he also makes intercession for his people. He didn’t ascend into heaven and just forget about us.
Romans 8:34 states “who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, but rather, was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”
1 John 2:1 “And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”
Hebrews 7:25 “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
When Jesus intercedes for believers it means that he is constantly pleading our case before God the Father, just like a defense lawyer does for their client. Satan stands accusing us, and Jesus stands victorious defending us.
The work was finished on the cross but the love of the Savior continues. His death secured the pardon and He is alive forevermore and is able to keep us. He is our mediator and the only person who is able to intercede for us before the throne of heaven 1 Timothy 2:5.
So we all come up short during our christian journey. Satan will always stand as our accuser, seeds of doubt will always find their way into our daily life. But look to Christ, remember His perfect sacrifice, understand what He actually accomplished. And when those hard seasons of life role around, know Christ is interceding for you just as He does in the good, prosperous seasons of life. He will never leave you or forsake you (Heb 13:5) and no one can snatch you from His loving hand (John 10:28).
Dear God let us see Christ in our troubles. Let His finished work be a constant reminder that our work will get us nowhere. When the accuser stands before us let us rest knowing that Christ intercedes for us. When we are troubled with doubts help us remember that our pardon was secured and our sin debt was canceled and nailed to the cross. Amen.
No King but Christ 