How God Is for Us

As a believer in Jesus Christ, rest assured that God is for you. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31). The answer to that question is obvious. If God is for you, it matters not who else should be against you. God, who rules over all, is for you in Christ. He has forever proven it at the cross, where Jesus died for your sins (Romans 8:33).

God is for us during all the trials, temptations, and problems of life. No matter what you face in life, God is always for you. Therefore, you can depend upon His grace sufficient for every need (2 Corinthians 12:9). Even when you have failed God, you confess and repent of your sins, knowing that He will forgive you (1 John 1:9).

God is for us in any and every problem of life. "In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us" (Romans 8:37). As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are more than a conqueror. Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

God is for us, so we can pray with confidence. That should relieve our reluctance to ask God for help. Come with confidence to God's throne of grace, because God is for us. "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). 

How Christ Is In You

If Christ is in you now, and you can know for sure. Three simple questions will tell you the truth. First, do you have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ? Secondly, do you have the hope of eternal life in Christ? Most importantly, do you know the love of Christ in your heart, causing you to love the Lord and others?

The abiding gifts of the Holy Spirit are working in all who have a personal relationship with God in Christ. That's how you know the Holy Spirit is in you now. "And now abide faith, hope, and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Christ is in you now through the Holy Spirit. You can know for sure through the abiding gifts of the Spirit in you. God's Spirit enables your faith in Christ. He gives you hope in Christ for the future. He fills you with the love of Christ. His love works in your heart, that is your mind, will, and emotions.

Faith, hope, and love in Jesus Christ is sure evidence that the abiding gifts of the Spirit are in your life. Abiding faith is your bond with Christ. Hope in Christ is your assurance of eternal life. The love of Christ in you is the greatest evidence of all, because "God is love" (1 John 4:8, 16). 

Christ is in every believer through the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9). You can know for sure that the abiding gifts of the Spirit are in you. The Holy Spirit enables your faith in Christ. He gives you hope in Christ for the future. He fills you with the love of Christ. His love works in your heart, that is your mind, will, and emotions.

Those Who Will Perish

Jesus said, "Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:5). He made it clear. There are no exceptions, repent or perish. Those who are saved have come to repentance. Those who will perish are all who refuse to repent.

God's command to all people everywhere is to repent. "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30). Those who will perish disobey God's command to repent. That includes all who do not repent.

The word repent (metanoeo) means to have a change of mind that leads to a change of direction in a person's life. It's a change of mind toward God about our sin, and a change of direction in life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

God's command for all people to repent is clear. He saves all who repent. Let us always remember that our responsibility is to repent and believe in Christ (Acts 17:30; John 1:12). God's will "that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9) is His will of command to all people everywhere (Acts 17:30).

What God commands, God gives to us in Christ. That includes our repentance, "if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth" (2 Timothy 2:25). God's goodness in our Lord Jesus Christ leads us to repentance (Acts 2:38; Romans 2:4). Those who will perish reject God's goodness in Christ.

God Revealed to All

God is revealed to all through creation and conscience. Reason concludes from creation, there must be a Creator. Conscience convicts us when we have done wrong. Even though God is revealed to all, still we may resist and refuse to believe. Therefore, we are without excuse before God.

Let no reasonable person say there is no God. Creation declares the glory and wisdom of God in the created order (Romans 1:19-21). If there is no God, then the irrational conclusion is simple. Nothing made everything. What a foolish conclusion. That's God's common grace resisted. God is revealed to all.

God is revealed to all not only through the created order, but also through our conscience (Romans 2:15). We are created as responsible moral agents. However, when we ignore conscience in our sin, we would like to think that we are not accountable to God. Yet, God's common grace resisted leaves no excuse.

Mankind, in the corruption of sin, willfully chooses to reject common grace. We don't want to be accountable to God, because of our own natural bias to sin. If there really is a Creator and conscience is true, we need an excuse. However, God revealed to all gives no excuse. 

Believe God's Promises

Charles H. Spurgeon wrote, "The whole burden of our salvation rests upon the faithfulness of our covenant God. The whole matter of salvation is centered on the attribute of God's great faithfulness."

Believe God's promises according to the everlasting covenant (Hebrews 13:20-21). God's covenant promises are for every believer (Hebrews 8:10-13). He is faithful to keep his covenant promises. God has bound himself to his people forever with his oath of covenant promises.

Believe God's promises for you in the gospel. Jesus died on the cross as the everlasting covenant sacrifice. God is faithful to forgive and cleanse you from all sin, through the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7-9). The power of God's covenant promises are proven forever through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Believe all God's promises in Christ. They are Yes and Amen for you (2 Corinthians 1:20). God will not break his covenant word. He has sworn with an oath. Your faith stands upon God's covenant promises. That's God's oath of promise. To doubt God's word in the Bible is to doubt his great faithfulness.

Believe God's promises found in your Bible. That's the assurance of your salvation based upon God's covenant promises. Your assurance is faith in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, as your covenant surety (Hebrews 7:20-22). God's covenant promises makes your salvation sure in Christ.

God's Saving Grace

God shows common grace to all. For example, common grace gives us rain with fruitful seasons, providing for the natural needs of all mankind. God's goodness to all is common grace. Yet, common grace is not saving grace.

God's saving grace is in Christ. The only way that you can have a personal relationship with God is through grace alone in Christ alone. He must reveal himself to you and in you. That has been appropriately called amazing grace. It's not what you do for God. It's what God has done for you in Christ. All that you are or ever hope to be is by the grace of God.

God's saving grace is to believers through the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Every believer's testimony echoes the words of the apostle Paul, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain" (First Corinthians 15:10). Grace gives all the glory to God. That's because grace is always God's gift to you, that you never merit nor earn. 

God's saving grace is freely given. There is no way you can merit nor earn the favor of God. It comes to you only as a gift to be freely received (Ephesians 2:8-9). Faith in Jesus Christ receives the grace of God. Don't fall for the idea that you can somehow be good enough to merit God's gift. Grace is not for good people. Grace in Christ is offered to sinners, and that includes all of us (Romans 3:23).