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I recently asked a group of church members if they had ever struggled with assurance of salvation. There was an overwhelming affirmation that all had struggled in the quest for that sweet subjective assurance for which believers often long in their souls. This is not at all a strange thing in the history of the church. Many of the Reformers, Puritans, and other Reformed theologians wrote volumes to address the intricacies of this important subject.
For instance, John Owen’s The Forgiveness of Sin, William Guthrie’s The Christian’s Great Interest, John Colquhoun’s Spiritual Comfort, David Dickson and James Durham’s The Sum of Saving Knowledge, Gisbertus Voetius and Johannes Hoornbeeck’s Spiritual Desertion, and D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’s Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure were all products of pastoral concern to help believers gain and maintain the assurance of salvation.
How can a true believer commit a particular sin—sometimes repeatedly—after he or she comes to Christ?
Many who have trusted in Christ struggle deeply in their consciences over their post-conversion sins. How can a true believer commit a particular sin—sometimes repeatedly—after he or she comes to Christ? How do I know whether I have really repented of my sin if I have committed it on a recurrent basis? Have I really and truly repented if I fall into it again?
How do we reconcile the fact that the apostle John says, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning” (1 John 3:9) with the fact that the apostle James says, “We all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2)? These and a myriad of other questions are bound up with the issue of the subjective assurance of salvation.
God has redeemed us so that we would walk in paths of righteousness. Jesus died to both the guilt and the power of sin so that those for whom he died can walk in newness of life. “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,” writes the apostle, “training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2:11-12). Paul reminds believers, “for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:20). The apostle Peter explains,
And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. (1 Pet. 1:17-19)
We should have the singular goal of pursuing holiness since Christ has set us free from
the guilt of sin, and condemning wrath of God, the curse of the moral law…this present evil world, bondage to Satan, and dominion of sin; from the evil of afflictions, the sting of death, the victory of the grave, and everlasting damnation. (Westminster Confession of Faith 20.1)
The reality of indwelling sin is something with which every Christian has to grapple throughout life.
While no serious-minded Christian will ever dismiss the severity of the sin in his or her life, the reality of indwelling sin is something with which he or she will have to grapple throughout the entirety of life.
The greatest saints have been the first to acknowledge the greatness of their sin. David, on more than one occasion, admitted the variegated dimensions of his sin. For instance, in Psalm 31:10, he wrote: “For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away” (Ps. 31:10). When considering just how much sin he had committed, David concluded,
For evils have encompassed me beyond number; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me.” (Ps. 40:12)
And, when he finally came to confess his post-conversion sin of adultery and premeditated murder to the Lord, in Psalm 51 he confessed: “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me” (Ps. 51:3). The Prince of the Puritan theologians, John Owen, wrote, “As no man had more grace than David, so none had a greater instance of the power of sin, and guilt upon the conscience.”[1]
When our hearts are weighed down with a sense of the guilt of our sin, we must necessarily turn the eyes of our hearts to Christ crucified.
Owen himself battled for assurance of salvation throughout various seasons of his life. It was on account of this that he wrote his magnificent discourse on Psalm 130. Toward the end of that work, Owen wrote:
Notwithstanding all your sins, all the evil that your own hearts know you to be guilty of, and that hidden mass or evil treasure of sin which is in you, which you are not able to look into; notwithstanding that charge that lies upon you from your own consciences, and that dreadful sentence and curse of the law which you are obnoxious unto; notwithstanding all the just grounds that you have to apprehend that God is your enemy, and will be so unto eternity;—yet there are terms of peace and reconciliation provided and proposed between Him and your souls….There is a way whereby sinners may come to be accepted with God; for “there is forgiveness with Him, that He may be feared.”[2]
When our hearts are weighed down with a sense of the guilt of our sin, we must necessarily turn the eyes of our hearts to Christ crucified. Owen illustratively painted the grounds of forgiveness when he wrote, “Pardon flows from the heart of the Father through the blood of the Son.”[3] The apostle John emphasized this truth when he wrote,
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness….But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” (1 John 1:8-2:1)
When we return to God in brokenness and in confidence in Christ, we will make it our renewed aim to be well-pleasing to him.
Believers must be confident in the fact that “there shall be a fountain opened…to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness” (Zech. 13:1). David was confident in the promise of God to forgive and cleanse through the blood of Christ, when he cried out, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Ps. 51:7). Jesus holds forth the cup in the Supper to assure the hearts of his people that his blood was shed for the remission of sin (Matt. 26:28).
The more we are convinced of the truth that the Father has already provided legal forgiveness through the shedding of the blood of the Son, the more readily we will go to him for the paternal forgiveness of our particular sins. The apostle Peter explained that when growth in grace and holiness is lacking in someone’s life it is because he has “forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins” (2 Pet. 1:9).
When we return to God in brokenness and in confidence that he has already provided forgiveness in the blood of Christ, we will make it our renewed aim to be well-pleasing to him. And, we will repeat this process again and again, all the days of our life, until we are “saved to sin no more.”
Related Articles:
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3 Reasons to Be Thankful for the Lord's Discipline in Your Life
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3 Good Things to Remember When You Feel Anxious about the Future
Recommended:
Overcoming Sin and Temptation by John Owen; edited by Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor
This article is adapted from “The Hope of Forgiveness” at feedingonchrist.com.
Notes:
[1] John Owen, A Practical Exposition of the Cxxx. Psalm (Ulan Press, 2012), 6.
[2] John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold, vol. 6 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, n.d.), 516.
[3] Owen, The Works, 516.
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