THERE are two different positions occupied by Christendom on this subject of faith and assurance. Some have held that assurance is of the essence of faith, and that a man, if he is a Christian at all, will know that he is a Christian. This was a form of thinking very prevalent at the time of the Reformation.* It grew out of the fact that they were more earnest, spontaneous men than they were reflective Christian divines. It is a matter of fact that at that period of Church history there were men in whom this grace of assurance of salvation was very prominent. They did have it, and God gave it to them because He gave them a herculean work to do which demanded heroes for its performance.
In direct opposition to this, the Romanists take the position that the assurance of personal salvation is impossible, and they take it on this ground, assurance means absolute certitude grounded upon divine revelation. The Romanists point out that there is no text in the Bible where it is said that John Smith is a Christian. The fact that any man is a Christian is not a matter of divine revelation.
Now, our Confession of Faith takes a middle ground, and, I think, the right ground, that assurance is not the essence of faith. And this is very plain, because the Bible makes the distinction between the assurance of faith and the assurance of hope. Assurance of faith is strong, full faith; assurance of hope is an inference from that. Faith terminates on the ground of assurance; hope terminates upon the object desired. Faith is the foundation of hope, but faith and hope are not the same thing; they do not go in parallel lines with one another and take hold of the same object. Assurance of faith is assured faith, but assurance of hope is the conviction that we are Christians, and that we are objects of divine love and heirs of divine glory. It can be put, like any other point of reasoning, in the form of a syllogism. It is a matter of absolute revelation that he that believes in Christ is saved. This is the major proposition of the syllogism. The minor proposition is, “I believe.” That has no need of revelation; it belongs to the inner consciousness. Am I not just as sure that I believe as I am sure that my pulses beat? You put the minor under the major proposition, and the infallible conclusion is, therefore, “I am saved.”
Our Confession says that this infallible assurance springs up in the heart in consequence of three elements meeting together. The first is strong faith in the Word of God; second, the consciousness of the possession of those graces to which the promises are annexed. It is not simple faith; the Bible is full of promises, and they are addressed not to persons named, but to characters. Whosoever loveth, whosoever believeth, whosoever obeyeth, whosoever trusteth, whosoever hopeth. Well, if I hope and trust and obey and love, the consciousness of possessing these graces gives me the assurance of the promises which God has annexed to the graces. Then, in the third place there is that mysterious and royal gift, the witness together with our spirit of the Holy Spirit.
Like all similar truths, this may be abused fanatically and claimed ignorantly by very stupid persons to whom it does not apply. But it is in the Word of God; it does belong to some person, and there must be a way of finding out and testing this. It is the witnessing together of our spirit with the Spirit of God. You cannot confound these two personalities; my spirit and Jehovah’s Spirit—we are two. But if the Spirit of God, as a Person, comes to my spirit as a person, and bears witness together with my spirit that I am a child of God, I have the utmost certitude. Of course, we must guard against misconception; there is no point in which it is more necessary for us to apply critical tests. There is no state of mind which is more to be desired, which more immediately tends to sanctification, which develops more power and is, in wider sense, the precondition of great usefulness, than that which is characterised by the words “assurance of hope, and which results from the witnessing with our spirit of the Spirit of God. Per contra, there is no state of mind so dangerous and profane, which leads more to sin than that wicked, conceited assumption which we meet sometimes in unholy and godless persons, when they claim to know that they are the favourites of Heaven, because they have conceived they had the witness of the Spirit. We are all liable to this abuse; we are moved to it by the natural operation of self-love. We all want to be “the sons of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.” We all want to have the question settled.
Then, again, it is not only the tendency of an innocent self-love, but also of pride, and it may be the seduction of Satan; because when he wants to take a person into his grasp entirely, what better thing can he do than to render him morally callous and fill him with presumptuous self-assurance? How are you and I to know? I think the first essential mark of the difference between true and false assurance is to be found in the fact that the true works humility. There is nothing in the world that works such satanic, profound, God-defiant pride as false assurance; nothing works such utter humility or brings to such utter self-emptiness as the child-like spirit of true assurance. Surely this can be known. If a person is self-confident, there is self assurance; if there is any evidence of pride in connection with his claim, it is a most deadly mark; it is the plague-spot which marks death and corruption. But if there is utter humility, you have the sign of the true spirit.