” (2 Timothy 1:12; 4:8).
“Faith is Life . How great the blessing! Who can tell the gulf between life and death? And yet life may be weak, sickly, unhealthy, painful, trying, anxious, worn, burdensome, joyless, smileless, to the very end.
“Assurance is more than life . It is health, strength, power, vigor, activity, energy, manliness, beauty.”
A minister once pronounced the benediction in this way:
“The heart of God to make us welcome; the blood of Christ to make us clean, and the Holy Spirit to make us certain.”
The security of the believer is the result of the operation of the Spirit of God.
Another writer says:
“I have seen shrubs and trees grow out of the rocks, and overhang fearful precipices, roaring cataracts, and deep running waters; but they maintained their position, and threw out their foliage and branches as much as if they had been in the midst of a dense forest.”
It was their hold on the rock that made them secure; and the influences of nature that sustained their life. So believers are oftentimes exposed to the most horrible dangers in their journey to heaven; but, so long as they are “rooted and grounded” in the Rock of Ages, they are perfectly secure.
Their hold of Him is their guarantee; and the blessings of His grace give them life and sustain them in life. And as the tree must die, or the rock fall, before a dissolution can be effected between them , so either the believer must lose his spiritual life, or the Rock must crumble, ere their union can be dissolved.