Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
From a sermon by Preacher Clark in Louisville Kentucky, late 1960’s
It is unwise for any of God’s children to claim to already have salvation. There is no case in the Bible of anyone, even the apostles, speaking of “the day I got saved”, as so many people do now. Salvation is our hope, not our present possession.
On one occasion, Preacher Clark was trying to explain to a congregation in Louisville that no one is “saved” until the end. Over the years of his labor for the Lord, he had tried many different methods of getting that simple truth across, but this night he tried humor. Looking over the congregation, he said, “Why, we can just look around in here and see that none of us are saved yet. Don’t you remember what the Bible said: ‘He will BEAUTIFY the meek with salvation’?”
Nobody was insulted, thankfully. Everyone laughed, apparently understanding that we mortals live in bodies that grow old and decay but that when we are saved, we will have new, eternal bodies that have an everlasting beauty, the beauty of God’s radiant holiness.
So, another way to know when you’re saved is when you have a body that is forever adorned with God’s beauty and does not grow old, tired, dirty, damaged, wrinkled, or otherwise ugly. Until that time, we are not saved because we have no lasting beauty.