"Thanks be to God..."

Ray Ortlund, this morning:

My dad used to say to me, when I was a kid, “Listen, son. Half-hearted Christians are the most miserable people of all. They know enough to feel guilty, but they haven’t gone far enough with Christ to be happy. Be wholehearted for him!”

I used to roll my eyes when you said that. I don’t any more.

And, also this morning, from Luke Stamps, "'My Christ': Finding Objective Assurance in the Gospel":

Sooner or later, most Christians will struggle with assurance of salvation. For some of us, the struggle takes the form of an agonizing spiritual depression. We wander in the wilderness of doubt, questioning our salvation or even questioning the love and grace of God. For others, the struggle is more mundane. We live daily with perpetual guilt feelings because of some past sin or some present battle with the flesh. Though we claim to believe the gospel of free grace, we operate in our Christian lives as if God were weighing our actions moment-by-moment in order to see if we are worthy of his acceptance. And even among those who struggle with self-righteous legalism, which seems to be at the other end of the spectrum, few can persist long in such a course without some nagging doubt about their own performance before God. [....]

The ultimate ground of our assurance does not lie inside of us but outside of us—indeed, above us, seated at the right hand of the Father. So, when death and hell tempt us to doubt our salvation or to live in perpetual guilt over forgiven sin, our answer to the enemy’s accusations is never, “My righteousness,” but always, “My Christ.”

Wholehearted – Ray Ortlund, “My Christ”: Finding Objective Assurance in the Gospel