Assurance
of Salvation gained by examining your works/feelings/faith.
First, I do believe that all
Christians will bear “good fruit”. I have absolutely no contention with those
who say that good works will be manifest in the life of every believer. My
difficulty is with the thought that we ought to meditate on our own good works,
“religious feelings”, self denials, and so forth in order to gain assurance of our own salvation from
them. There was a time when I whole heartedly believed that assurance of
salvation was to be obtained from thinking about my own character, whether I
truly loved God with all my heart, and my neighbor as myself or not. However,
recently I’ve begun to question that line of thought, and would suggest that
the only place that perfect assurance can come from is not our own works, but
the work of Christ on the cross, which we know
was perfect. I do not intend to be dogmatic on this issue as though I think I
“know it all”. Any comments in agreement or disagreement with what follows are
readily welcome, and in fact encouraged. I want to grow in my understanding of
this issue, which is honestly one of the reasons I’m posting this blog. Anyhow,
I find the line of reasoning that assurance of salvation is to be obtained by
consideration of a professing Christian’s own moral performances for a number
of reasons, three of which will be discussed very briefly here (though in terms of a blog this will be lengthy):
1. This
line of thought is at odds with another equally commonly held belief, which I
affirm; namely, that good works (with
godly motives, not just outward observances) cannot be performed but out of a
present knowledge of acceptance with God through Christ.
2. Drawing
assurance from your own works, even if ascribing your good works to the Spirit,
promotes a form of self- righteousness.
3. You
will find that those who try to draw assurance from their own character and
good works are constantly doubting their salvation, and as a result living in
fear and frustration, frequently depressed, “heavy laden” and “weary”, judgmental of others, not able to serve God
joyfully out of gratitude, but rather laboring under a heavy yoke of guilt and
fear.
So, first
a common paradox I’ve heard recently. The same people who preach that you ought
to think about your own good works, or lack of to ascertain whether or not you
are saved often say things to the effect of, “Your good works will only flow
out of a sense of your acceptance with God through Christ”, or restated
differently, “You can’t do good works until you know that you are accepted by
God”. If you can’t know that you are accepted by God until you have enough
“good works” to prove that you are in fact accepted, and you can’t even perform
any good works except out of a present knowledge of this acceptance, then you
will never be able to have assurance of acceptance, nor good works, because
they both simultaneously depend upon one another. To make things more plain,
here is a possible dialogue concerning the subject currently under discussion:
Question: How can I know that I am saved?
Answer: Examine whether or not you have good works,
religious feelings, sorrow for sin ect.
Question: If I find that I lack these
qualities, how am I to attain them?
Answer: They only flow from knowledge of the
loving acceptance of God in Christ. (Basically, you will do good works when you
know that you are saved.)
Question: So in order to know I’m saved, I must have good
works, but in order to have good works, I must first know I’m saved?
Hopefully the point here is clear. If you need good works
to have assurance, and you need assurance to have good works, you’re in quite a
predicament.
“Uncertainty as to our
relationship with God is one of the most enfeebling and dispiriting of things.
It makes a man heartless. It takes the pith out of him. He cannot fight; he
cannot run. He is easily dismayed and gives way. He can do nothing for God. But
when we know that we are of God, we are vigorous, brave, invincible. There is
no more quickening truth than this of assurance.”
-Horatius Bonar
Secondly,
drawing peace from your own work rather than Christ’s robs Him of the glory due
Him, even if we ascribe our goodness to the Spirit’s work within us. Horatius
Bonar explains something to that effect in the following words:
“One man might say, My sins are not very great or many; surely I
may take peace. Another might say, I have made up for my sins by my good deeds,
I may have peace. Another might say, I have a very deep sense of sin, I may
have peace. Another might say, I have repented of my sin, I may have peace.
Another might say, I pray much, I work much, I love much, I give much, I may
have peace. What temptation in all this to take the most favorable view of self
and its doings! But, after all, it would be vain. There could be no real peace;
for its foundation would be sand, not rock. The peace or confidence which come
from summing up the good points of our character, and thinking of our good
feelings and doings, or about our faith, and love, and repentance, must be made
up of pride. Its basis is self-righteousness, or at least self-approbation.
It
does not mend the matter to say that we look at these good feelings in us, as
the Spirit's work, not our own. In one aspect this takes away boasting, but in
another it does not. It still makes our peace to turn upon what is in
ourselves, and not on what is in God. Nay, it makes use of the Holy Spirit for
purposes of self-righteousness. It says that the Spirit works the change in us,
in order that he may thereby furnish us with a ground of peace within
ourselves. No
doubt the Spirit's work in us must be accompanied with peace; but not because
he has given us something in ourselves to draw our peace from. It is that kind
of peace which arises unconsciously”
There is an account given in Luke 18
that will really help shed some light on our point of discussion.
“He
also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were
righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple
to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing
by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men,
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice
a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far
off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying,
‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house
justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be
humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14 ESV)-did
we not prophecy In your name
Notice who the Pharisee was thanking that he was
not like other men. He was thanking “God”. The Pharisee was drawing peace from his own
moral performance and character, and was thanking
“God” for his religious performances; mock humility. We see that in the
end, the sinner was justified rather than
the Pharisee.
Richard Lovelace notes, “Only a fraction of the present
body of professing Christians are solidly appropriating the justifying work of
Christ in their lives. Many…have a theoretical commitment to this doctrine, but
in their day-to-day existence they rely on their sanctification for
justification…drawing assurance of acceptance with God from their sincerity,
their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance or
the relative infrequency of their conscious, willfull disobedience” (Lovelace).
One more Scripture
concerning this point, then I will move on:
“Not everyone who
says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who
does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me,
‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your
name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them,
‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
(Matthew 7:21-23 ESV)
Here we see some who
probably had been assuring themselves that they were Christians, and they
turned out to be false. However, according to the “think about your
good works to know whether or not you are saved” philosophy, they had every
reason to believe that they were saved. More so than most Christians today,
even if they actually are saved. They were “casting out demons and prophesying!"
That makes your works look like poop! If assurance was to come from works, they
had every reason to believe that they were saved. How reliable was the “works
test”? Do you want to employ it in your own life like they did? Do you want to
see if you “measure up”, and think about how good of a person you are, so that
you can feel safe, all the while giving God
credit for how great you are? “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6:29). “Everyone who believes in him
will not be put to shame.” (Romans 10:11.)
Our assurance is not to
come from our good works, but Christ’s. Not from our love, but Christ’s. Not
from our “giving our lives to Jesus”, but his “giving his life a ransom for
many”. This kind of thinking is called “faith”; looking outside of ourselves,
to Jesus only for our ground of acceptance with God. Not thinking about the
fact that we are looking outside of ourselves, as though our looking and our
faith were somehow meritorious, but acknowledging that all that was needed to
bring us to God was accomplished on Calvary 2000 years ago. It is not our faith
that saves us. Faith accepts the only work that can save, the “finished” work
of Christ. Faith doesn’t say, “Jesus died for sinners, now I just need faith.
Faith says, “Jesus died for sinners, so I trust that though I am a sinner, His
death was enough to earn my salvation”.
Lastly, we all know that
people who try to draw assurance from thinking about anything that has to do with their own character will be filled
with fear and doubt. Most people know it by experience, whether they admit it
or not. “Are my works really pure enough to prove I’m a true Christian? Is my
repentance deep enough? Do I love God enough? Am I too in love with the world?
Do I deny myself enough? Is my faith
strong enough?” Assurance that comes by works produces the same kind and amount of uncertainty as salvation that comes by works.
“The object of the Spirit's work is to make us acquainted
with the true Jehovah, that in him we may rest; not to produce in us certain
feelings, the consciousness of which will make us think better of ourselves,
and give us confidence toward God. That which he
shows us of ourselves is only evil; that which he shows us of God is only
good. He does not enable us to feel or to believe, in order that we may be
comforted by our feeling or our faith. Even when working in us most powerfully
he turns our eyes away from his own work in us, to fix it on God, and his love
in Christ Jesus our Lord.” –Horatius Bonar
I will not elaborate much on this point because I know
that anyone who has seriously tried to draw assurance from their own works and
life already knows what I’m talking about. However, I want to end by pointing
out how absurd and self-righteous it would be if someone were to actually conclude themselves saved, and be fully assured of their salvation
after consideration of their own character and works. Lately iv'e needed to
branch out in my reading, but here’s Horatius once again:
"I
am not satisfied with my repentance," you say. It is well. What should you
have thought of yourself had you been so? What pride and self-righteousness would
it indicate, were you saying, "I am satisfied with my repentance,--it is
of the proper quality and amount." If satisfied with it, what would you do
with it? Would you ground your peace upon it? Would you pacify your conscience
with it Would you go with it instead of the blood to a holy God?
If not, what do you mean by the desire to be satisfied with your repentance
before having peace with God?
In
short, you are not satisfied with any of your religious feelings; and it is
well that you are not so; for, if you were, you must have a very high idea of
yourself, and a very low idea of what both law and gospel expect of you. You
are, I doubt not, right in not being satisfied with the state of your feelings;
but what has this to do with the great duty of immediately believing on
the Son of God? If the gospel is nothing to you till you have got your feelings
all set right, it is no gospel for the sinner at all. But this is its special
fitness and glory, that it takes you up at the very point where you are at this
moment, and brings you glad tidings in spite of your feelings being altogether
wrong.”
-Horatius
Bonar
