Blake Long

My walk with Jesus in the last two weeks or so has been dull. I have neglected to read Scripture, or at the very least a devotional. My prayer life has been minimal; I get in the shower at the end of my day and pray, “Lord, I feel like I haven’t spoken to you at all today. Forgive me.”

Additionally, my general desire to read other books dwindled. I didn’t want to read; I just wanted to watch something on TV. I just felt lethargic, lukewarm, and lazy.

Thankfully, my walk with Jesus has improved, so to speak, in the last week. I have been more intentional about reading my Bible (currently going through Acts). I feel like I’ve prayed more. And I’ve begun to read a Christian nonfiction book.

And yet, my standing and security in the Lord is not based on whether I’m having a good or bad day—or week—as a Christian. My justification in Christ rests not in whether I’m spiritually lazy or energetic. My right standing with God lies not in whether I read my Bible each day or not. It lies solely in Jesus’s finished, substitutionary work.

My soul—as the song says—is safely bound in Jesus. We sang that at church the other day and it gripped my soul, stirred my heart, and lifted my eyes heavenward. If you’re a Christian, your soul is safely bound in Jesus. Let’s talk about that briefly and hopefully you find it encouraging.

Safely

O my soul, o my soul, is safely bound in Jesus. You are absolutely, positively safe in Jesus Christ. Nothing, and nobody, can take you from Jesus—your soul is safe. People can spit at you, curse you, persecute you—even kill you—but they cannot take away the fact that you are in Christ Jesus.

Just consider the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:38-39, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nothing can take away the love of God for you in Christ Jesus. You are eternally safe in Him.

One of my favorite quotes from the late RC Sproul echo this sentiment beautifully:

We are secure, not because we hold tightly to Jesus, but because He holds tightly to us.

Bound

O my soul, O my soul, is safely bound in Jesus. You are eternally bound in Jesus. You’re not hanging on by a thread. You’re not barely in His grasp. You’re not on His last nerve and He’s about to loosen His grip. No; you are bound to Him. Just as we are were bound to sin before Christ, now we are free from the bondage of sin and now are bound in Jesus.

Unbelievers criticize the Christian faith because it seems like being “bound” to Jesus is some type of restriction and limits our supposed freedom. They, of course, are missing the point. True freedom lies not in being able to do whatever you want to do, but rests in being able to do what you’ve been designed to do by God. Being bound in Jesus, you are truly, finally free.

If you are bound in Jesus, you will stay that way. You are forever united in and to Christ (Phil. 1:6).

Jesus

O my soul, O my soul, is safely bound in Jesus. Not Buddha; not Mohammad; not any other religious dead figure. You are bound—safely bound—in Jesus, the second Person of the holy Trinity, the eternal Son of God.

It’s vital to understand that we are bound to Jesus, for He is the one binding us. The safety and security we receive in being bound in Jesus is not because we’re just so good at being Christians. It’s not because living the Christian life is a piece of cake. It’s not because living godly lives is simple. No; being safe and securely bound in Jesus is because of Jesus.

The Christian Life

Being safely bound in Jesus is wonderful news. We don’t have to rely on how good we are at keeping everything together. We don’t have to worry if something, someone—even ourselves—will take Christ away from us. We don’t have to worry about any of that because of whom we are bound to: Jesus.