The greatest confidence a believer can have about God is that He never rejects him. Once we are saved by grace God never rejects or leaves us. We may lose His presence for sometime owing to our sin or foolishness, but we are never rejected. For through Christ Jesus He has acquired us perpetually. While in foolishness we may still witness His miracles and hear Him speak, yet His presence that makes us fearless will be missing. By realizing our foolishness and turning to Him, we again obtain His precious presence that constantly avails peace, joy and comfort. As well it is He who makes us realize it through various avenues and in many steps so that we gain the purity and holiness we set aside. He does it, because He has chosen us to be His people. Hence, He never rejects us. Paul makes a point concerning this. “I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin” (Rom. 11:1).
The witness that Paul bears concerning him and all Israel is quite educational. As an Israelite he was already a chosen person of God. He had all the credentials to be His choice. And as per the law and his heritage he is God’s choice. Yet, since the arrival of Christ fulfilled the law and it is necessitated that all must no longer look to the law but the cross that avails salvation, it became necessary that Paul too is chosen through Christ. All Israel to this day are chosen of God, but that choice is fulfilled only in accepting Christ as their Savior, as one sent from God. For it is for Christ that God has chosen them in the first place. So, when Paul accepted Christ as his personal Savior, he knew that God did not reject him, though for sometime he was under ignorance and foolishness. The point is God does not reject His people whom He has chosen in, for and through Christ. For all become priests and Israel to God in Christ. Though we may not be able to claim a lineage as Paul, God has set His sight on us even before we believed in His Son; and He taught us to believe in Him. And if we are saved in Christ, it is all the more a reason for Him to never reject us.
Our heritage lies in Christ. God has linked us with Him so that we are not eternally lost. He does not remember us as descendants of Adam, but as those who through His Son have become His sons. When He killed His Son on the cross, He deliberately chose to separate Himself from Him so that man who believes in Him is not perpetually lost. God has never separated Himself from Christ, but did it on the cross for the sake of man only to reunite with Him after His death. With such gravity of cause present in God’s purpose for man He does not reject His people.
So, what does it mean if God never rejects us, whom He chose?
- Soften our hearts. Since we learned that God does not reject us forever, we ought not to take undue advantage of it. For the Scripture says, “DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS” (Heb. 3:8). There is every danger of provoking Him, if we are not attentive. Satan will seize any opportunity presented by us through lack of resolve. In the case of Israel, while God was determined to carry them through, they continued to test Him. But if we are willing to listen, though we slip and fall, we rise up.
- Do not trust in ourselves. Though we have our hearts softened to listen to God’s voice and carry His will, we ought not to consider ourselves as the reason for standing strong. For it is He who enables us to walk in Him and provide us to escape so that we are not trapped by the schemes of the devil. “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior…” (Jude 1:24-25). By this we know that He never rejects us. By God’s strength we eventually stand in the presence of His glory.
- Never doubt our salvation. It is a problem for many believers. When something goes wrong or they go under a cloud of foolishness, they fear for their salvation. They make every effort with the hope of getting it back while forgetting that salvation is not by efforts, but a gift of God. They fall for Satan’s ploy. The reason for it is that they have not been building on their salvation by faith and grace. Satan makes every attempt that we doubt our salvation and thereby lose confidence in God. But the Spirit says, “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3). Christ had made purification of sins by His death. There’s not a sin that was left out by Him that is not atoned for on the cross. The evidence for it is Him sitting at the right hand of the Father. God made Him sit at His right hand, because He died for all our sins and not some. So, on the cross God and Christ foresaw us completely, and when we believed in Christ, God saved us by grace. Because Christ died for all our sins – the present, past and the future – God does not reject us.
- Holding on to God’s purpose. We know that anything we do does not avail us eternal life. But that He does not reject us means He has chosen us for a purpose. This is the realization He wants us to have. As long as we have it, we will not fail Him. We can always take a cue from the apostles. “So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, ‘It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables’” (Acts 6:2).
- God has been good to us. He did not consider our stature, greatness, quality or nobility when He visited us in Christ. He received us knowing we are sinners and continues to dwell in us so that the blood of His Son has not been shed in vain. While some have not liked it, we who are undeserving of heaven have a perfect reason to rejoice. “Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them’” (Luke 15:2). He received us to keep us.
- God’s promise stands forever. “Then say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Behold, a man whose name is Branch, for He will branch out from where He is; and He will build the temple of the LORD’’” (Zech. 6:12). What God is building through Christ He will never destroy nor allow anyone to destroy it. So, we do not have to lose the confidence we have about God, i.e. He never rejects us.