Mike,

That was very powerful.

Thank you for sharing that.

About a month ago, I had written down an account of what had happened, when speaking to my daughter, some years back.

It wasn't a doctrinal study of the subject, like you posted, but of an actual question poised to me, on the spur of the moment:

"

(I've mentioned this before: I was ushering at a service, when my daughter came to the back to ask me a question.

She asked, "Dad, how do you know that you're saved?"

No one had ever asked me that, but I realized at that moment how important that question really is!

We moved away from all the people, and as we were walking, it became clear to me that my answer had to be right.

I opened my Bible, which I had carried with me, to the passage that I believed on, the moment I called on Jesus to save me:)

 

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

  9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

 

(I told her that I know that I'm saved, because it says so!

I was surprised by my answer - I would have thought that I might had said something different.

Like because of the feeling that came over me when I called on Jesus, or because of the change that occurred in my life, which were true.

Instead, I pointed to the scriptures as how I know, and I don't remember even hearing that from anyone else, before, either.

I believe the answer may have helped my daughter.   -   However, it absolutely increased my faith in that book!)

"

I had been given the gospel before I was saved, but as a catholic, I was, instead, fixated on works-based salvation.

So the concept of the free gift of salvation was a stumbling block to me.

At least until the conviction of the Holy Ghost, the drawing of God, and the faith from the word of God, overwhelmed me.

Ephesians 2:8-9, in my mind, was my point of turning from self-salvation, to the gospel of the grace of God.

And in my car, in bumper-to-bumper, rush-hour traffic, on the expressway, I denounced the queen of heaven.

Then repenting of my works-based attempt to save myself, and believing the gospel, I called on Jesus to save me.

So, later on, when my daughter asked me how I knew I was saved, again, it was Ephesians 2:8-9 that filled my mind.

And since the written word of God says, "by grace are ye saved through faith", that word, "are", is proof to me.

The only sure thing on the entire earth, is the written word of God.

.