Tag Archives: backslide

Bible Gleanings, devotions

Landing on Grace | Bible Gleanings – November 12-13, 2022

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He was left dangling and fearing for his life. The young man was being hazed by his college fraternity, and he was carried to a secluded spot in the woods where he was lowered by a greasy rope into an abandoned murky well. He figured his friends would fetch him after a few minutes, but he was mistaken. His bones shook as he saw that they tied their end of the rope over a bar at the top of the well, leaving him hanging in mid-air. After a half-hour of shoulder-burning torture, he let go of the slippery rope and plummeted into the well—until he planted safely on the dirt two inches beneath his feet!

Solid ground caught him when he let go, and sovereign grace is always there to catch believers in Christ when they “let go” of the rope of obedience to God. When we sin against the Lord and let go of Him, we will never plummet all the way to spiritual death (cf. John 5:24; 2 Tim. 4:18). However, that doesn’t mean the fall to His sod of steadfast love will be pleasant. When sin loosens our grip on God, we will be bruised on the way down by His loving discipline and the charitable rebuke of our faithful brethren (Heb. 3:13; 12:11). And we may fall as far as Peter did, even denying that we know Christ (Luke 22:54-62), but if we truly belong to God, we will always land on His sovereign grace. 

Christian, sometimes you will lose your way, but Christ will never lose you. He promised, “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day” (John 6:39). Sin may slick your hands and relax your hold on grace, but Christ’s nail-scarred hands will never let go of you. “I give them eternal life,” Jesus assured, “and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (John 10:28-29).

Of course, this is not an incentive to let go of the Lord. May God forbid that we view His sustaining grace as liberty to let go! To the contrary, the Lord calls us to “continue in the faith” and continue no longer in sinful ways (cf. Romans 6:1-4; Col. 1:21-23). Instead, this heartening truth is a holy rationale to wholly rely on God’s relentless grace to catch us when we fall. Therefore, all believers in the grip of grace may exclaim with the psalmist David, “Even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me” (Psalm 139:10, KJV).

The words of the hymn He Will Hold Me Fast perfectly capture the believer’s assurance of sovereign grace, saying:

“When I fear my faith will fail,

Christ will hold me fast;

When the tempter would prevail,

He can hold me fast!

Refrain:

He will hold me fast,

He will hold me fast;

For my Savior loves me so,

He will hold me fast.

2 I could never keep my hold,

He must hold me fast;

For my love is often cold,

He must hold me fast.

3 I am precious in His sight,

He will hold me fast;

Those He saves are His delight,

He will hold me fast. 

4 He’ll not let my soul be lost,

Christ will hold me fast;

Bought by Him at such a cost,

He will hold me fast.”1

  1. Habershon, Ada R. “He Will Hold Me Fast.” The New National Baptist Hymnal, 2001. Hymn published in 1906.
Bible Gleanings is a widely-read weekend devotional column, written for the Murray Ledger & Times in Calloway County, Kentucky.

Brandon is the founder and main contributor to Brandon’s Desk, the blog with biblical resources from his ministry. He is proud to be the pastor of the family of believers at Locust Grove Baptist Church in Murray, Kentucky. He and his wife Dakota live there with their three dogs, Susie (Jack Russell), Aries (English Shepherd), and Dot (Bluetick Beagle).

Bible Gleanings, devotions

Drifting | Bible Gleanings – November 5-6, 2022

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After a short stretch of swimming in the salty sea, I realized how swiftly one may drift away from the shore. I distinctly remember being yanked back at least fifty feet in less than five minutes while scouring for seashells underwater. Even when I stood still on the soggy sand, the slow tide seized my ankles like ropes dragging me backwards. This is because the waves that slam the sandy beaches rapidly retreat back to the abysmal ocean, sweeping you away with their aquatic claws. And unfortunately, many people are unaware of how far they’ve drifted until it is fatally too late.

Many times, we drift from God in the same way. God knows that we like to splash in the waters of carelessness and float away from Him (cf. Heb. 2:1). Slowly but surely, we sail away from the coast of closeness to God, until eventually we can no longer make out His distant form. The invitingly warm waters of temptation, the drowning waves of busyness, and the relaxing ocean of spiritual lethargy all drag us away from the Lord and down into a suffocating ocean of disobedience (cf. Matt. 26:41; 2 Thess. 3:11; Rev. 3:15-16). And tragically, some drift so far that they sink the ship of their faith beyond all hope of rescue:

“Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked” (1 Timothy 1:19, NLT).

If you are slowly drifting from the Lord, swim back to Him in repentance, get out of sin’s soothing sea, and don’t look back. Return to the God who beckons you from the shore of mercy. “Return to the LORD your God,” commanded Joel, “for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster” (Joel 2:13b). Wandering believer, you may be far from Him, but He is actually not far from you: “Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away?” (Jer. 23:23). Return to Him and He will return to you: “Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts” (Zech. 1:3b; cf. James 4:8). 

The Lord will raise you from the choking waters of iniquity when you cry out to Him for help (cf. Psalm 130:1-4). It is no wonder, then, that hymn-writer James Rowe (1865-1933) was inspired to pen the humility-producing words of Love Lifted Me which begins like this:

“I was sinking deep in sin,

Far from the peaceful shore,

Very deeply stained within,

Sinking to rise no more;

But the Master of the sea

Heard my despairing cry,

From the waters lifted me–

Now safe am I.”

Bible Gleanings is a widely-read weekend devotional column, written for the Murray Ledger & Times in Calloway County, Kentucky.

Brandon is the founder and main contributor to Brandon’s Desk, the blog with biblical resources from his ministry. He is proud to be the pastor of the family of believers at Locust Grove Baptist Church in Murray, Kentucky. He and his wife Dakota live there with their three dogs, Susie (Jack Russell), Aries (English Shepherd), and Dot (Bluetick Beagle).

Bible Questions, Practical Helps

QUESTION: Is it a sin to doubt your salvation?

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A few years ago, a young man in our youth ministry asked me a stunning question. It was stunning because it just wasn’t a question I had prepared for. It wasn’t controversial, hotly debated, or impossible to answer – it was just different. I believe it was after our Wednesday night Bible study, and we were talking about spiritual matters when he asked me, “Is it a sin to doubt your salvation?”

He struggled with the assurance of his salvation at the time, and so he asked me if it was a sin to doubt your salvation or to have no assurance of salvation. You may have wondered about this as well. So, is it a sin to doubt your salvation, or to struggle with assurance? 

The answer: It depends. It really depends on what brought about the doubt in the first place. What places doubt into the category of being a sin is dependent on what is causing the doubt itself. In other words, to determine the sinfulness of doubt, you need to find out where the doubt is coming from. The Scripture does command and imply that we should seek out assurance of our own salvation, and to rest in that assurance (John 3:36; 5:24; 8:31-32; 10:28; Hebrews 6:4-6; 1 John 5:11-13). If we are not discovering and believing those truths, we are being blatantly ignorant of the word of God. So in that sense, it would be sinful to doubt salvation which you already have because you are failing to seek out those Scriptures which concern assurance, and then gain assurance by reading and believing them.

However, if your doubt arises from a noticeable contradiction in your Christian life—then that is a good doubt to have! That is, if you see no evidence of salvation in your life whatsoever, then that’s a logical and good doubt to have. If you are doubting whether or not you are truly saved because you see no evidence from your life of salvation, then truly your doubt is good! If there is apparently no life change, then you have great reason to doubt your salvation. Why would you believe you are healthy when your body demonstrates that you are sick? And why would you believe you are saved when your life demonstrates that you are not?

Consider what the apostle Peter says in his second letter. In the first chapter, he lists off a range of godly qualities that should be present in our lives, if we are true believers. He names things such as “self-control, godliness, brotherly affection, love,” and many others (vv. 5-7). And listen to this—Peter says that the reason we should see these godly qualities in our lives is “to make your calling and election [salvation] sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall” (v. 10, KJV). In light of this, I then said to the inquiring young man, “The life you’re living should be enough evidence to confirm your salvation. If you see no transformation, you never had salvation.”

Keep it in mind that sometimes true believers do backslide – true believers fall into a backslidden state time and time again, but never totally nor finally. For those that believe, they will persevere until the end, never losing their salvation (John 6:37-47; 10:27-30; Rom. 8:28-39; Eph. 1:13-14; Phil. 1:6). And just as true is the fact that believers lapse in and out of certain sins from time to time, which may cause a true believer to have doubt or lack assurance. Thankfully, God will give us grace to move forward on His path as we seek His strength and power to do just that. But if you don’t see any transformation in your life, if you see no evidence that you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8), then you can be sure you have no salvation.

Assuredly, it is no such sin to doubt a salvation which you do not have – perhaps it is the Holy Spirit convicting you of what is your own reality. It is a good thing to doubt a salvation if you have no reason to believe you have it! But it is certainly sinful to doubt a salvation which you do have. If you are a true believer, your life will demonstrate that. If you are doubting, endeavor to discover the reason for your doubt. Is it personal sin causing doubt? Is it lack of time with the Lord which is causing doubt? Is it ignorance of Scripture’s teaching on assurance?