{"id":30118,"date":"2017-11-15T10:00:04","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T10:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/\/uk\/?p=30118"},"modified":"2017-11-10T16:48:34","modified_gmt":"2017-11-10T16:48:34","slug":"understanding-assurance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.banneroftruth.org\/uk\/resources\/articles\/2017\/understanding-assurance\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Assurance"},"content":{"rendered":"

The church today is crippled with a comparative absence of strong and full assurance and, perhaps worst of all, most of us are scarcely aware of\u00a0it. We live in a day of minimal, not maximal, assurance. How do we know\u00a0this? Assurance is known by its fruits: a close life of fellowship with God;\u00a0a tender, filial relationship with God; a thirsting after God and spiritual\u00a0exercises that extol him. Assurance is not a self-given, but a Spirit-applied\u00a0certainty which moves the believer Godward through Christ. Assurance is\u00a0the opposite of self-satisfaction and secularization. Assurance is God-centred;\u00a0it evidences godliness, while not relying on personal righteousness or service\u00a0for justification. Wherever assurance is vibrant, a concern for God\u2019s honour\u00a0is present. Mission-mindedness prevails. Assured believers view heaven as\u00a0their home and long for the second advent of Christ and their translation to\u00a0glory (2 Tim. 4:6\u20138).<\/p>\n

Compared to the Reformers and post-Reformers, the church is seriously\u00a0impoverished in her spiritual exercises. The desire to enjoy fellowship with\u00a0God, the sense of the reality of heaven, and the relish for God\u2019s glory, appear\u00a0to fall short of a former day. Whenever the church\u2019s emphasis on earthly good dominates the conviction that she is travelling through the world on\u00a0her way to God and glory, assurance is at a low ebb (Heb. 11).<\/p>\n

Second, assurance of faith is sorely needed today since it is inseparable\u00a0from genuine revival and conviction of sin. Revival is sorely needed in our\u00a0day and we ought not to forget that every true revival has been connected\u00a0with the recovery of assuring faith. How true this was, for example, of\u00a0Martin Luther. Read Luther on Galatians. Did he not burn with indignation\u00a0for the way the church left people in uncertainty about salvation? Luther\u00a0teemed with the assurance that flows out of the gospel. Search his writings\u00a0nearly five hundred years later and you still feel the power of what he is\u00a0saying. In Luther\u2019s day there was a great recovery of assurance.<\/p>\n

There is, of course, another reason why assurance revives in times of awakening. The first precursor and forerunner of every revival is conviction\u00a0of sin; sinners become bowed down with the burden of need and guilt.\u00a0When guilt is a conscious experience, the most precious thing in the world\u00a0is to be persuaded of forgiveness in Christ. That is why assurance is always\u00a0brought back to the foreground in the face of real soul-need.<\/p>\n

Third, strong assurance is necessary for us in these days of great\u00a0secularization and controversy. The gospel has always been difficult to live\u00a0out in the world. But there are times and seasons when gospel-opposition is\u00a0especially intense. We are surely living in such a time. We are living in a\u00a0bruising time. We are called to be lights on the hill in the thick of spiritual\u00a0battle, while the devil is spearheading apostasy on all sides. Through satanic\u00a0impulse, the world has not only taken over colleges and universities, but is\u00a0also invading the church. If revival is to dawn, it will almost certainly involve\u00a0young people \u2013 particularly college and university students, as the history of\u00a0revivals affirms. Let us pray earnestly for revival through the power of Spirit worked\u00a0assurance in our hearts.<\/p>\n

Fourth, we live in a day when the doctrine of assurance is sorely needed\u00a0because doctrine itself is largely despised. Few understand Martin Luther\u2019s\u00a0assertion: \u2018Doctrine is heaven\u2019. Assurance is the nerve centre of doctrine put\u00a0in \u2018use\u2019, as the Puritans would say. Assurance affiliates with the work of the\u00a0Spirit in relation to the doctrines of faith, repentance, justification, sanctification,\u00a0conversion, adoption, sealing, perseverance, anointing, witnessing,\u00a0obedience, sin, grace, atonement and union with Christ. Assurance is inseparable\u00a0from the marks and steps of grace. It touches on the issue of divine\u00a0sovereignty and human responsibility, is intimately connected with Holy\u00a0Scripture, and flows out of election, the promises of God and the covenant\u00a0of grace. It is fortified by preaching, the sacraments and prayer. Assurance is\u00a0broadsweeping in scope, profound in depth and glorious in height. As Dr\u00a0Clair Davis of Westminster Theological Seminary has said, \u2018You could\u00a0almost write a systematic theology under the theme and framework of assurance\u2019.<\/p>\n

The contemporary church is undergoing a crisis of confidence and\u00a0authority and therefore of assurance. A renewal of assurance is sorely needed.\u00a0If such assurance were more widely experienced, the church\u2019s vitality would\u00a0be renewed and she would live more zealously for the kingdom of Christ in\u00a0all spheres of life.<\/p>\n

Finally, our difficulties are compounded in our culture by the powerful\u00a0emphasis on \u2018feeling\u2019. \u2018How we feel\u2019 takes predominance over \u2018how we\u00a0believe\u2019. This spirit has infiltrated the church also, which for the most part is\u00a0bowing before the shrine of human feeling rather than before the living God.\u00a0This spirit is most notable in what we call \u2018the charismatic or pentecostal\u00a0movement\u2019 which appeals to emotion in protest against a formal, lifeless\u00a0Christianity. We profit little by reacting against the charismatic movement\u00a0without understanding why it has such a worldwide appeal. Its appeal is\u00a0related to the lack of genuine assurance of faith which manifests itself in\u00a0godly living.<\/p>\n

We have a special responsibility in this regard to show a better way.\u00a0Happily, we do not have to start from scratch. Our scriptural, Reformed,\u00a0experimental faith properly marries head- and heart-knowledge, faith and\u00a0feeling. It is well-known that numerous post-Reformation orthodox theologians\u00a0and Puritan pastors wrestled in their preaching and writing with\u00a0ascertaining the precise relationship of the Christian\u2019s personal assurance of\u00a0salvation and his saving faith. Their labour for theological precision in this area gave rise to a fine-tuned technical vocabulary which included such\u00a0distinctions as assurance of faith and assurance of sense; the direct (actus\u00a0directus) and reflexive (actus reflectus) acts of faith; the practical (syllogismus\u00a0practicus) and mystical (syllogismus mysticus) syllogisms; the principle\u00a0(habitus) and acts (actus) of faith; and the being and well-being of faith. Such\u00a0terminology was used to elaborate upon addressing assurance with regard to\u00a0its possibilities, kinds, degrees, foundations, experiences, means, obstacles\u00a0and fruits.<\/p>\n

The Puritan doctrine of assurance was formally codified by the Westminster\u00a0Assembly in chapter 18 of the WCF. This chapter contains four\u00a0sections: 18.1 addresses the possibility of assurance; 18.2 the foundation of\u00a0assurance; 18.3 the cultivation of assurance; 18.4 the renewal of assurance.\u00a0For our purposes, we will limit ourselves to a consideration of 18.2, which\u00a0contains the pith of the WCF\u2019s statement on assurance.<\/p>\n

Early Puritan Thought<\/h3>\n

It will be of profit to have a summary of Puritan thought on assurance up to\u00a0the 1640s. At least twenty-five members of the Assembly had written\u00a0treatises pertinent to the doctrines of faith and assurance prior to the\u00a0Assembly\u2019s convening. By the 1640s English Puritan thought, notwithstanding\u00a0various emphases, was nearly unanimous on several distinctives with\u00a0respect to assurance.<\/p>\n

First, the Puritans taught that saving faith and developed assurance must be\u00a0distinguished. Though saving faith inherently contains trust and assurance\u00a0by definition (as there is no doubt in faith and its exercises), full assurance of personal salvation must be regarded as a fruit of faith rather than of faith\u2019s\u00a0essence.<\/p>\n

Since the Puritans did not deny that there was some assurance in every\u00a0exercise of faith, they could speak at times of all believers possessing\u00a0assurance. More commonly, however, by assurance they intended mature,\u00a0self-conscious faith that is full-grown. In this sense, assurance is not of the\u00a0essence of faith, but of the \u2018cream of faith\u2019.<\/p>\n

This dual use of the term assurance helps to explain why the Puritans can\u00a0state simultaneously that \u2018assurance is not of the essence of a Christian\u2019 and\u00a0yet it is organically of the essence of faith. R. M. Hawkes rightly notes,\u00a0\u2018While the Puritans distinguish full assurance from the initial trust of faith,\u00a0they will not allow a division between the two, for full assurance grows out\u00a0of an assurance implicit in the first act of faith\u2019. Hence they can speak of\u00a0assurance growing out of faith as well as of faith growing into assurance.\u00a0Typical is Thomas Brooks\u2019 assertion, \u2018Faith, in time, will of its own accord\u00a0raise and advance itself to assurance\u2019.<\/p>\n

This distinction between faith and assurance had profound doctrinal and\u00a0pastoral implications for the Puritans. To make justification dependent\u00a0upon assurance would compel the believer to rely upon his own subjective\u00a0condition rather than on the sufficiency of a triune God in the order of\u00a0redemption. Such reliance is not only unsound doctrine, but also bears\u00a0adverse pastoral effects. God does not require full and perfect faith, but\u00a0sincere and \u2018unfeigned\u2019 faith. Fulfilment of God\u2019s promises depends on the\u00a0matter received, Christ\u2019s righteousness, and not upon the degree of assurance\u00a0exercised in the receiving. If salvation depended on the full assurance of faith,\u00a0John Downame observes, many would despair for then \u2018the palsied hand of\u00a0faith should not receive Christ\u2019. Happily, salvation\u2019s sureness does not rest on\u00a0the believer\u2019s sureness of his salvation, for \u2018believers do not have the same\u00a0assurance of grace and favour of God, nor do the same ones have it at all\u00a0times\u2019. Pastorally, it is critical to maintain that justifying faith and the\u00a0experience of doubt often coexist.<\/p>\n

Second, the Puritans teach that though personal assurance must never be\u00a0divorced from a Trinitarian framework, its realization within the believer\u00a0may be ascribed especially to the economical work of the Holy Spirit:<\/p>\n

(1) through an application of God\u2019s promises in Christ which the believer\u00a0appropriates by faith,<\/p>\n

(2) through a reflex act of faith inseparable from the so-called syllogisms\u00a0discussed below, and<\/p>\n

(3) through the Spirit\u2019s direct witness by the Word to the believer\u2019s\u00a0conscience that Christ is his Saviour and has forgiven his sins. Thus, the\u00a0Spirit enables the believer to reach assurance in varying degrees through\u00a0a variety of means. Without the Holy Spirit, there can be no authentic\u00a0assurance.<\/p>\n

Third, Puritans assert that this assuring, sealing work of the Spirit is based\u00a0upon the sure covenant of grace and the saving work of Christ, which in turn\u00a0is grounded in God\u2019s sovereign good pleasure and love in eternal election.\u00a0Assurance flows out of the objective certainty that God cannot and will not\u00a0disinherit his adopted children. His covenant cannot be broken or annulled,\u00a0for it is \u2018fixed\u2019 in his eternal decree and promises.<\/p>\n

Consequently, the believer may plead for the fulfilment of the covenant\u00a0on the ground that God is obliged to act in accord with his covenant promises.\u00a0Many Puritans gave the same basic advice for obtaining forgiveness of\u00a0sins, sanctification, deliverance in afflictions and virtually every spiritual\u00a0need: \u2018Plead the covenant hard with God . . . Go to God now, and tell him\u00a0it is a part of his covenant to deliver thee, and . . . take no denyall, though\u00a0the Lord may deferre long, yet he will doe it, he cannot chuse; for it is part\u00a0of his covenant . . . and he cannot be a Covenant-breaker\u2019. On occasion, they\u00a0even spoke of \u2018suing God for grace\u2019. \u2018The more we urge him with his\u00a0covenant\u2019, Robert Harris wrote, \u2018and hold him to it, the better he likes it and\u00a0the sooner he inclines to us\u2019.<\/p>\n

Perry Miller emphasizes this dimension of Puritan thinking: \u2018The end of\u00a0the Covenant of Grace is to give security to the transactions between God\u00a0and men, for by binding God to the terms, it binds him to save those who\u00a0make good the terms\u2019.<\/p>\n

Miller, however, tends to exaggerate the covenant in Puritan thought as if\u00a0it weakened or even usurped divine predestination. In fact, election and\u00a0covenant ride in tandem, reinforcing each other.<\/p>\n

Puritan covenant theology offered troubled saints a double source of\u00a0assurance. It allowed them to plead the covenant with God, importuning\u00a0him to fulfil his part of the bargain by performing what he had promised;\u00a0and it encouraged them to seek comfort in the sufficiency of prevenient grace\u00a0and in the immutability of God\u2019s will in election, which underlay the\u00a0covenant itself and their own participation in it.<\/p>\n

God\u2019s absolute promises in election and covenant are solid pillars for\u00a0increasing weak faith. They help to convince the believer that even if the\u00a0exercise or acts of faith are lacking at a given moment, the principle or \u2018habit\u2019\u00a0of faith \u2018cannot be utterly lost\u2019, for faith\u2019s roots lie in the electing, covenantal\u00a0God. Consequently, not even sin can break the covenant from God\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

From the believer\u2019s side, however, there is in Puritan thought also a\u00a0conditional dimension of the covenant which plays a critical role in assurance.\u00a0\u2018The absolute promises are laid before us as the foundation of our salvation\u00a0. . . and the conditional as the foundation of our assurance\u2019. The conditional\u00a0promises are inseparable from the believer\u2019s daily renewal of the covenant by\u00a0means of prayer, meditation and worship. Particularly the sacraments serve\u00a0as important seasons for covenant-renewal. \u2018To gather up assurance from the\u00a0conditions of the covenant\u2019, wrote Thomas Blake, \u2018is the highest pitch of\u00a0Christianity\u2019.<\/p>\n

Fourth, though assurance is not perfect in this life in degree, being\u00a0subject to doubt and trial, it must never be regarded lightly, but ought to be\u00a0diligently sought after through the means of grace. Assurance so gleaned may\u00a0be considered well-grounded, however, only when it is regarded as a\u00a0sovereign gift of God and when it evidences the fruits of a new heart and life.\u00a0These fruits include humiliation, self-denial, \u2018reverent feare\u2019 for God\u2019s will,\u00a0eagerness to serve and please the Lord, a \u2018sincere\u2019 love for God and the saints,\u00a0an intense cleaving to Christ, peace and joy in receiving the Spirit\u2019s benefits,\u00a0and good works.<\/p>\n

For the Puritans, the principle or \u2018habit\u2019 of faith is never the whole of\u00a0faith. A consistently inactive faith is false faith, as John Preston affirms:<\/p>\n

A woman many times thinkes she is with childe, but if she finde no\u00a0motion or stirring, it is an arguement she was deceived: So, when a man\u00a0thinkes he hath faith in his heart, but yet he finds no life, no motion, no\u00a0stirring, there is no work proceeding from his faith, it is an argument he\u00a0was mistaken, hee was deceived in it: for if it be a right faith, it will worke,\u00a0there will be life and motion in it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Though the Puritans deny works-righteousness on the one hand against\u00a0the \u2018legalist\u2019, they also reject the notion of assurance which rests on formal,\u00a0lifeless doctrine against the cold \u2018professor\u2019 of Christianity. Works can\u00a0never merit salvation but are necessary as fruits of salvation out of grateful\u00a0obedience and in dependence upon God.<\/p>\n

\n

This article first appeared in the May 1996 edition of the\u00a0Banner of Truth<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n

\n

Of Further Interest<\/h3>\n