PT-2 “The Believer’s Precious Faith—Part 2: Its Certainty” (2 Peter 1:5-11)

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/05/2025 11:10 PM

My Worship Time                  Focus: PT-2 “The Believer’s Precious Faith—Part 2: Its Certainty”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  2 Peter 1:5-11

            Message of the verses:  “5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”

 

            This has been a very long day as I spent about 4+ hours in the ER with my wife due to things that have happened to her from the chemo treatments she received last Wednesday.  With that said I will not make this too long as I continue to quote from the introduction to this chapter from John MacArthur’s commentary.

 

            “A third reason for lacking assurance is that some do not accurately comprehend the gospel.  They have an erroneous notion (Arminian) that maintaining one’s salvation requires their effort as well as God’s.  Salvation, they think, is secure as long as the believer keeps believing and avoids sinful patterns.  But assurance of eternal salvation can be very elusive for the person who believes it depends partly on His own very elusive for the person who believes it depends partly on his own ‘free will’ cooperation with God.  Such people need a true understanding of the gospel, namely that salvation is an utterly sovereign, divine operation in which sinners’ redemption (from justification to glorification) depends solely on God (John 6:37, 44-45, 64-65; 15:16; Rom. 8:31-39; Phil. 1:6; 1 Thess. 1:4-5; 2 Thess. 2:13-14; 2 Tim. 1:9; Jude 24-25).

 

            “Some believe God forgave only those sins committed until the moment of salvation and that transgressions committed after salvation remain unforgiven unless confessed, which means a person need so to keep self-consciously confessing all through his Christian life to continue receiving forgiveness.  Contrary to such thinking, however, Scripture teaches that God sent His Son into the world to completely pay the price of all sins—past, present and future—for all who believe (Isa. 43:25; 44:22; 53:5, 8, 11; 61:10; John 1:29; Rom. 3:25; 5:8-11; Eph. 1:7; 1 John 1:7; 2:2; 4:10; cf. Isa. 1:18).  Furthermore, Christ’s resurrection affirmed God’s acceptance of that total payment (Rom. 4:15; 8:34; 1 Cor. 15:17).  An accurate understanding of the completeness of forgiveness is foundational to believers’ assurance.

 

            Fourth, some people lack assurance because they cannot remember the exact moment of their salvation.  Evangelicalism and fundamentalism have wrongly placed too much emphasis on a dramatic event—the so-called decision for Christ.  They have so emphasized praying a prayer, raising a hand, walking an aisle, or signing a card, that when people cannot remember such an event they may wonder if their salvation is genuine.  The only legitimate basis for assurance as noting to do with a past event when one ‘made a decision,’ but is based on the reality of present trust in Christ’s atoning work, as evidenced by one’s present pattern of faith, obedience, righteousness, and love for the Lord (cf. 1 John 1:6-7; 2:6).”

 

10/5/2025 11:32 PM