Words of Grace – July 16, 2015

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” The apostle Paul asks, in Romans 8:35. He himself was 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 creatures, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (vs. 38, 39).

Because Paul was persuaded of this love: “the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” and because, as he wrote, “I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus,” he tried to persuade others to believe.

King Agrippa was almost persuaded to believe. He said to Paul, “Almost thou persuade me to be a Christian” (Acts 26:28). Paul wished that he would have been “both almost and altogether” persuaded. Philip Bliss wrote of Agrippa’s experience.

“Almost persuaded not to believe;
Almost persuaded Christ to receive;
Seems now some soul to say,
Go, Spirit, go Thy way,
Some more convenient day
On Thee I’ll call.”

What a difference there is between being almost persuaded and being altogether persuaded. Paul testified:
“I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded” (Second Timothy 1:12).