Salvation, Sanctification, and Struggle

10/26/22 – 11/03/22

Salvation Guarantees (Part 2)

By Michael Youssef, Ph D.  10/28/22

Read Romans 5:3-11.

Let’s look at the final three guarantees we receive from God:

Suffering for Christ (vv. 3-4). If you take a stand for Christ at work, in school, or even within your own family or community, you will be persecuted—but your suffering is not meaningless.

God uses our suffering to produce perseverance, and it is by learning perseverance that we are prepared for even greater Kingdom purposes. Suffering for Christ produces character, and character cannot be learned from a book. Therefore, we “glory in our sufferings,” enduring the pain in hope of the joy to come (v. 3).

God’s overwhelming love (vv. 5-10). Many believe that the love of God is dependent upon our performance, but this could not be further from the Truth. When we were totally enslaved to Satan, sin, and death, God sent His Son to die for us. And if He so loved us while we were His enemies, how much more can we be assured of His love now that we are His children?

And finally, overwhelming joy (v. 11). Any time your circumstances threaten to bring you down, remember all that you have been given in Christ. As you do, His supernatural joy will bear you up and renew your hope.

Have you been rejected for Christ or maligned for doing good? How can these salvation guarantees help you persevere?

Prayer: Father, thank You for the amazing guarantees You have given me through Jesus Christ. May Your love and peace sustain me with overwhelming joy and perseverance whatever trials come. I pray that my endurance and hope would glorify Your name, for it all flows from You. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Romans 5:10).