3794 — How May We Know?
By Editor
How may God's people reach the spot where they know they will be saved if they were to die?
A Subscriber. We know only by His Word. We know by faith, and faith lays hold of God's Word. Here is one passage of Scripture which ought to be an assurance to every soul: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9. If we are cleansed from all unrighteousness, we certainly would be saved, if we should die the next moment. It does not depend upon our feelings. It does not depend upon our past condition. It does not depend upon the condition we are in when we come to God. The only hope of every sinner in this world, in any age or any time, is in the forgiveness of God assured by His Word—"if we confess our sins;" and the Spirit will always reprove us for our sins if we are sincere. God will graciously forgive them if they are sincerely repented of. If they are all laid at His feet in the name of Christ, we can take away, not the mourning of the lost, but the joy of the saved, and can praise Him for the salvation which He gives, and we can do that every day and all the time to the very last.