Now and Always Introduction

So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come. Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you? (Psalm 71:18–19)

Nail this down. Write it across the forehead of your heart. Remember it for your own soul and then tell it to others: God will never, ever regret saving you.

If you’re his then you’re his, and there’s no turning back, no changing his mind, no wishing things were different. When we are truly united to Jesus by faith, having turned from our sins and embraced him by faith, we are sealed with his Holy Spirit and made God’s children forever. This is a glorious ground for our eternal security, but it goes even deeper than that. It gets down to how God feels about us.

The Gladness of Our God

Because we are sealed by the Spirit and united to Christ, it means that all of Christ’s benefits become our own. His sin-defeating death was where the guilt and power of our sin were defeated (Romans 6:3). His death-defeating resurrection was where the power and sting of our graves were overcome (Romans 6:4). His vindication as God’s Son is a vindication in which we now share. In Jesus, as the Spirit himself bears witness, we are God’s children (Romans 8:16–17). We are fellow-heirs with Christ — beloved of the Father like he is. And this kind of love from this kind of Father is not begrudging.

Because we are united to Christ, and the bond of that union is God the Holy Spirit, then even in our worst moments, in our lowest lows, in our deepest darkness, God has never regretted saving us. Never. God is irrevocably glad that you are his, now and always.

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

The glory of this truth is out of this world, literally. Our salvation is not transitory. God is not flakey. Our yesterdays are covered in grace, and our tomorrows are hedged in hope, even in this life.

The psalmist David tells us that God — the same God who knit him together in his mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13) — will not forsake him even into his old age (Psalm 71:18). We don’t naturally think about our lives as elderly people. The urgencies of today can give us tunnel vision, driving us to only consider what’s right around the corner. But, for a moment, imagine your life as an old woman or an old woman, many years from now. Imagine that. And know that after years have passed, after a thousand things have changed and troubles have come and gone, there is still one constant, one thing to bank everything on: God is there and his love endures.

From the beginning of time to all of eternity, God is there, and his love endures. You are his, by grace, and he is glad about it. Now and always. And therefore our hearts and souls will sing, for all our days and the days to come, a song of praise to the Lord Almighty.

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