Assurance: What Is Your Persuasion?

Here is the object of faith's assurance: "I know whom I have believed," says the apostle. I know this Christ who dwells in me, and I live in Him. What else does he say?: "And am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." I don't know that I can illustrate that any better than by this incident. When I was in a city in Wisconsin, one afternoon a brother came in, and said he had been to see a sick man, and that he asked the sick man if he was a Christian. "I am." "What church do you belong to?" said he. "I belong to the church of Christ." "Yes I know, but what persuasion are you of?" "Well, I am persuaded that neither death, no life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, shall be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." I think that is about the same kind of persuasion that the apostle had in mind here when he said, "I am persuaded that He is able." That is, Jesus is able "to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." --Albert P. Graves