You can never really know?
Charles Colson, whom I love, says the following as he is interviewed about his recent book The Good Life.
JUBILEE: You start the book with Private Ryan asking his wife whether he has lived a good life. How do you answer that question for yourself?
COLSON: I don’t think you’re ever going to be sure. At least a Christian won’t be. Because one day you’ll face God and you’re going to account for yourself. But I know what I’ve asked to be put on my tombstone, and that is the apostle Paul’s words, that I’ve finished the course, I’ve kept the faith, I’ve fought the good fight. Yes, if God called me home tomorrow, I would believe I have finished the course and kept the faith and fought the good fight. That’s a good life.
Can you lead the good life and know for sure you are doing so? Read the whole interview.
posted by Matt Friedeman @ 3:33 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I like this comment:
"Most of us behave like pagans! Either Christianity is a veneer or it is something we think applies only on Sunday mornings."
After 34 years in Christianity I came to the conclusion that it was nothing more than a social club. I think that Colson, after losing his White House power trip, simply found a substitute in the Great Social Club.
And why does he imply at the end of the article that a Christian can never really be sure of his/her salvation?
Colson's "social club" is of the prison variety; I have been impressed enough with that club as to join it (as a minister) myself. Other clubs of which I attend as a church devotee: nursing homes and abortion clinics (the latter trying to convince women not to hurt their bodies and their babies).
You can be sure of your salvation. I think Colson is of his. His branch of the church has told him to be "humble" in saying that one can never be sure.
Be assured, you can be sure. And you can still be humble in such surety - it is Jesus Christ that saves us by grace through faith. Not we ourselves.
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