in christ forever

“Once in Christ, ever in him. Having taken up his habitation in the heart, he never leaves. None can untie this happy knot.

Who will dissolve this union? Will he himself? No, he will not; we have his word for it; ‘I will not turn away from them’ (Jer 32:40). But perhaps the sinner will do this mischief to himself? No, he shall not; ‘they shall not depart from me,’ says their God. Can devils do it? No, unless they be stronger than Christ and his Father too; ‘Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand,’ says our Lord (John 10:28).

But what say you of death, which parts husband and wife; yes, separates the soul from the body? Will not death do it? No: the apostle (Romans 8:38, 39) is ‘persuaded that neither death,’ terrible as it is, ‘nor life,’ desirable as it is; ‘nor’ devils, those evil ‘angels, nor’ the devil’s persecuting agents, though they be ‘principalities, nor powers’ on earth; ‘nor’ evil ‘things present,’ already lying on us; ‘nor’ evil ‘things to come’ on us; ‘nor’ the ‘height’ of worldly felicity; ‘nor depth’ of worldly misery; ‘nor any other creature,’ good or evil, ’shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’”

—Thomas Boston, “Mystical Union”Human Nature in Its Fourfold State (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1964)

HT:OFI