The proclamation you hear within your own heart, "I am love", may be the echo of a yearning which God alone has planted, but take heed lest it become a delusion of self-righteousness. The chosen of God are not those who simply assert their own acceptance, for the original state of every soul is to be not God's people, estranged in thoughts and ways which He cannot endure. The comfort of 1 Peter belongs only to those who have been called out of darkness, plucked as brands from the burning by sovereign grace. Until a sinner sees himself as he truly is, condemned, guilty, without strength, he may steal a promise never meant for him.
The Year of Acceptance is indeed proclaimed, but it stands inseparably bound to the Day of Vengeance! The same lips which cried, "It is finished," first drank the cup of wrath which we deserved. There is no Jubilee without the blood of the Substitute; no liberation without that great price. You cannot have the royal priesthood apart from the High Priest who offered Himself. If you would be God's special possession, you must first be taught by the Father to come to Jesus Christ as your only righteousness. The teaching of the Spirit is not a gentle suggestion but a stripping bare, a killing by the Law before the life of the Gospel begins.
Examine yourself, therefore, whether you be among that company who once were not a people but now are the people of God. The chosen are gathered from the north and the south, from snow and ice and far-off captivity, but they all come weeping, leaning upon the arm of their Redeemer. They do not come boasting "I am love," but rather crying, "I have sinned; I am vile; but Thou hast loved me with an everlasting love." The wonder is that such babes, such unlikely ones, should be taught to trust in Jesus' name and kept from falling. God's promise may tarry to your impatient senses, but it never fails; if you are His, He that began the good work will complete it, and you shall not be cast out, not because of any permanence in your feeling, but because His covenant stands firm.
Cast away, then, every ground of hope which is not Jesus Christ and Him crucified. A fearful thing it is to have the messenger deliver the truth faithfully and yet to disregard it at your peril, for the rejection of Christ's word is the rejection of God Himself. The witness of the bleeding Savior is your only safe refuge, it declares God's hatred to sin and, only in that same sight, His unspeakable love to sinners. Go not home tonight content with a half-gospel; if no heavenly fire descends upon the sacrifice of your lips, there is no acceptance. Seek grace to be nothing, that Christ may be all, and then with trembling joy you may declare, "He has chosen me, a firebrand plucked out of the flame, and I owe it all to His free mercy."