Are You Fully Persuaded?
When it comes to your eternal destiny and your daily walk with God, there is one issue beneath every other issue. It is not intelligence. It is not sincerity. It is not religious activity. It is persuasion.
Are you fully persuaded of what God has said?
The greatest need for every person is to trust entirely in what the Bible declares God has accomplished through Jesus Christ. Eternal life, justification, peace with God, your identity in Christ, and your strength to walk under grace are all rooted in whether you believe what God has spoken.
Biblical faith is not blind. It is believing what God has said. It has substance and evidence in the very words of God, carrying certainty because of the power and character of the One who spoke them (Heb 11:1-3, Rom 10:17).
In Romans 4, the Apostle Paul points us to Abraham as a pattern of faith:
"He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform." - Romans 4:20-21
Abraham’s body was as good as dead. Sarah’s womb was barren. Yet those realities did not govern his belief. He did not allow visible impossibility to define what he trusted. He was fully persuaded that what God had promised, God was able also to perform.
That is the issue for every one of us. Will we allow circumstances, tradition, feelings, or the opinions of men to shape what we believe about God? Or will we rest entirely in what God has said and accomplished through Jesus Christ?
To walk in this same strength of faith today as Abraham, there are several things of which you must be fully persuaded.
Persuaded in the Authority of God’s Word
Everything begins here. While our faith ultimately rests in the Lord Jesus Christ, everything we know about who He is, what He has done, and what He is doing comes from the Bible alone. If you do not believe what the Bible says, then none of its claims will hold weight in your life.
If you do not know what God has said, it is an ignorance problem. If you find yourself doubting what God has said, it is an authority problem. You cannot write off the Bible as the mere words of men, nor can you assume it contains errors and only believe it when it is convenient for your lifestyle or current worldview. Its internal testimony about its own origin, purity, and authority don’t allow that. If you are not persuaded of the authority of the Bible, you cannot be fully persuaded of anything it claims.
As Paul instructed the Thessalonian church, we must receive it "not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe" (1Th 2:13). Only when you establish the Bible as your first and final authority can its truths begin to effectually work in your life. Church and family tradition, academic scholarship, and "experts" can be wrong. God’s word is not.
If you are uncertain why you can trust every word of the Bible, I urge you to study the issue. It will change your life when you believe the Bible without error. Check out this video playlist to learn more.
Persuaded of the Gospel
Building upon the authority of the scriptures, you must be fully persuaded of the gospel truths that save.
First, you must be persuaded of the reality of your sin, your impending judgment, and your complete inability to save yourself from hell. The law stops every mouth and declares all the world guilty before God (Rom 3:19). By the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in His sight. No one is righteous (Rom 3:10, 23).
Second, you must be persuaded of who Jesus Christ is and what He accomplished. He is the eternal Son, fully God and fully man, who lived without sin, died on a cross as a sacrifice for your sins, and rose from the dead.
"For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.
"Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification" Romans 4:25.
Third, you must be persuaded that salvation today requires faith alone in this gospel message. It is the only way to be saved. It is entirely sufficient to save you without any of your own works or righteous deeds to earn or keep salvation. Righteousness is imputed by faith without works:
"Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" - Romans 4:4-5.
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast"- Ephesians 2:8-9.
"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us" - Titus 3:5.
Are you fully persuaded that what God promised concerning salvation, He has already completely performed in Christ?
Persuaded of Your Identity
Once you have trusted the gospel, you must be persuaded of who you are in Christ. Many believers struggle because they fail to understand this new identity. The scripture declares that you are "complete in him" (Col 2:10). The very moment you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit until the day of your bodily redemption (Eph 1:13-14). This means your salvation and position are eternally secure.
You are infinitely loved by God, and nothing "shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom8:39). You are not accepted because of your performance; rather, He hath made us "accepted in the beloved" (Eph 1:6). Your standing does not rise and fall with your behavior, for you were neither saved nor are you maintained by your own works. If you could lose your salvation based upon a lack of good works, then Christ died in vain (Gal 2:21). Instead, your identity remains permanently settled because it is firmly grounded in His imputed righteousness and grace.
Furthermore, you must be persuaded of the heavenly vocation and opportunity that you now possess. As a saint, you are called to serve God in love and truth, performing the good works which God ordained that we should walk in (Eph 2:10). When you are persuaded of the amazing grace you stand in by faith (Rom 5:1-2), you no longer have to serve God out of a spirit of bondage or a fear of condemnation (Rom 8:1-13). This grace completely frees you from pride and despair, empowering you to "walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called" (Eph 4:1) and to experience the true life found only in Christ.
Are you fully persuaded of your secure identity and heavenly vocation in Christ?
Persuaded In The Details
Full persuasion of God’s truth does not stop at salvation. It should filter down into the very details of your daily life, transforming how you think, how you pray, and how you act. To see this govern your life, you must continually renew your mind in the word of God. We are instructed to be “not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (Romans 12:2).
When we understand and believe the details of our new identity, and consistently reflect on them, it changes how we see ourselves, our responsibilities, and our lives (Col 3:10, Eph 4:23-25). By consistently studying the Bible, we remind ourselves of what God has done, who we are in Him, and what He wants us to care about and do. While there are countless truths to be persuaded of, here are a few that are crucially important:
Are you persuaded to pray without ceasing, in thanksgiving, without wrath or doubting? God's will for you in Christ Jesus is that you "Pray without ceasing" and "In every thing give thanks" (1 Th 5:17-18, 1Ti 2:8).
When you bring your requests to God in prayer with thanksgiving, are you persuaded that His peace will keep your heart and mind through Christ? (Php 4:6-9)
When you pray, are you persuaded that the Spirit intercedes for you? Romans 8:26-28 reminds us that when we pray, the Spirit helps our infirmities, making intercession for the saints according to the will of God. When you believe and reflect on that, your faith and willingness to pray will increase.
Are you persuaded that God is able to strengthen you with might by His Spirit in the inner man? Are you persuaded that knowing the dimensions of God’s love fills you with His fullness? Are you persuaded that He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us (Eph 3:14-21)?
Are you persuaded that in every circumstance His grace is sufficient? Whether abased or abounding, full or hungry, weak or strong, His grace is more than enough for your situation, no matter how impossible it may seem to your flesh (2Co 12:9-10). When you are fully persuaded in these details, you can confidently proclaim, on the merits of Christ, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Php 4:11-13).
Conclusion
If you were not persuaded of these truths before reading this, perhaps you were simply unaware of them. However, if you are not persuaded of them now, the issue is not clarity but belief. It is an authority problem regarding God's words.
Abraham did not allow physical impossibility to define what he believed. We must not allow circumstances, man’s opinions, emotions, weakness, or visible limitations to override what God has said. God speaks. We believe. God performs.
I urge you to choose to receive God’s words today with final authority over your life. When you stop staggering at the promises of God through unbelief, you can watch His truth save your soul, renew your mind, and completely transform you from the inside out (Rom 12:1-2).
The question remains: Are you fully persuaded?
