But although you may be born again, it will require time to become a full-grown Christian. Justification is instantaneous; but sanctification is a life-work. We are to grow in wisdom. Peter says "Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. iii. 18); and in the first chapter of his Second Epistle, "Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you and abound they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." So that we are to add grace to grace. A tree may be perfect in its first year of growth; but it does not attain its maturity. So with the Christian: he may be a true child of God, but not a matured Christian. The eighth of Romans is very important, and we should be very familiar with it. In the fourteenth verse the apostle says: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God." Just as the soldier is led by his captain, the pupil by his teacher, or the traveller by his guide; so the Holy Spirit will be the guide of every true child of God.
Then let me call your attention to another fact. All Paul's teaching in nearly every Epistle rings out the doctrine of assurance. He says in 2 Corinthians v. 1: "For we _know_ that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." He had a title to the mansions above, and he says--_I know it_. He was not living in uncertainty. He said: "I have a desire to depart and be with Christ" (Phil. i. 23); and if he had been uncertain he would not have said that. Then in Colossians iii. 4, he says: "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." I am told that Dr. Watts' tombstone bears this same passage of Scripture. There is no doubt there.
Then turn to Colossians i. 12: "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; who _hath_ delivered us from the power of darkness, and _hath_ translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son."
Three _haths_: "hath made us meet;" "hath delivered us;" and "hath translated us." It does not say that He is going to make us meet; that He is going to deliver; that He is going to translate.
Then again in verse 14th: "In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." We are either forgiven or we are not, we should not give ourselves any rest until we get into the kingdom of God; nor until we can each look up and say, "I know that if my earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, I have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Cor. v. 1).
Look at Romans viii. 32: "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" If He gave us His Son, will He not give us the certainty that He is ours. I have heard this illustration. There was a man who owed $10,000, and would have been made a bankrupt, but a friend came forward and paid the sum. It was found afterwards that he owed a few dollars more; but he did not for a moment entertain a doubt that, as his friend had paid the larger amount, he would also pay the smaller. And we have high warrant for saying that if God has given us His Son He will with Him also freely give us all things; and if we want to realize our salvation beyond controversy He will not leave us in darkness.
Again in the 33d verse: "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
That has the right ring in it. There is Assurance for you. "I Know." Do you think that the God who has justified me will condemn me? That is quite an absurdity. God is going to save us so that neither men, angels, nor devils, can bring any charge against us or Him. He will have the work complete.
Job lived in a darker day than we do; but we read in Job xix. 25: "I _know_ that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand in the latter day upon the earth."