Assurance of Salvation Gained by Examining your Works/Feelings/Faith.

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