Tag Archives: William Guthrie

Edward Taylor, Am I thy gold?

29 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by in Edward Taylor, Puritan, William Guthrie

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Am I thy gold? Or purse, Lord, for thy wealth,
Whether in mine or mint refined for thee?
I’m counted so, but count me o’er thyself
Lest goldwashed face and brass in heart I be.
I fear my touchstone touches when I try
Me, and my counted gold too overly.

Am I new minted by thy stamp indeed?
Mine eyes are dim; I cannot clearly see.
Be thou my spectacles that I may read
Thine image and inscription stamped on me.
If thy bright image do upon me stand
I am a golden angel in thy hand.

Lord, make my soul thy plate: thine image bright
Within the circle of the same enfoil.
And on its brims in golden letters write
Thy superscription in an holy style.
Then shall I be thy money, thou my hoard:
Let me thy angel be, be thou my Lord.

Notes: Angel was a gold coin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_(coin)
The poem concerns the doctrine of assurance. The definitive Puritan work on this doctrine is The Christian’s Great Interest: https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/category/pastors-and-theologians/william-guthrie/

http://m.ccel.org/ccel/guthrie/interest/files/interest.html

Precious Remedies.2

26 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by in 2 Corinthians, Biblical Counseling, James, Obedience, Puritan, Reading

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Reading is doing:

Thirdly, no that is not the knowing, or the talking, nor the reading man, but the doing man, that at last will be found that the happiest man. “If you know these things, blessed and happy are you if you do them” (John 16:14). “Not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will of my father that is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Judas called Christ Lord, Lord, and yet betrayed him, and has gone to his place. Ah! how many Judas is have we in these days, that kiss Christ, and yet betrayed Christ; that in their words profess them, but in their works denying them; but now there need to him, and yet in their hearts despise him; but call him Jesus, and yet will not obey him for their Lord (1 Brooks 9).

In writing so, Brooks does no more than emphasize what is already clear in Scripture:

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. James 1:22–25 (ESV)

On this point John Calvin writes:

22. Be ye doers of the word. The doer here is not the same as in Romans 2:13, who satisfied the law of God and fulfilled it in every part, but the doer is he who from the heart embraces God’s word and testifies by his life that he really believes, according to the saying of Christ,

  “Blessed are they who hear God’s word and keep it,” (Luke 11:28;)

For he shews by the fruits what that implanting is, before mentioned. We must further observe, that faith with all its works is included by James, yea, faith especially, as it is the chief work which God requires from us. The import of the whole is, that we ought to labor that the word of the Lord should strike root in us, so that it may afterwards fructify

William Guthrie true saving faith is faith which shapes commands heart and conforms it to Christ:

And accordingly, faith, which God has appointed to traffic and travel between Christ and man, as the instrument of conveyance of His fulness unto man, and of maintaining union and communion with Him, acteth variously and differently upon God in Christ: for faith is the very shaping out of a man’s heart according to God’s device of salvation by Christ Jesus, in whom it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell’ (Col. 1: 16); so that, let Christ turn what way He will, faith turneth and pointeth that way. Now He turns all ways in which He can be useful to poor man; and therefore faith acts accordingly on Him for drawing out of that fulness, according to a man’s case and condition. As for example, The soul is naked, destitute of a covering to keep it from the storm of God’s wrath; Christ is fine raiment (Rev. 3: 17, 18); then accordingly faith’s work here is to ‘put on the Lord Jesus.’ (Rom. 13: 14.)

Thus reading, which is work to increase one’s knowledge and faith, must be aimed toward doing that which will give glory to God. As Thomas Watson writes in A Godly Man’s Picture true knowledge of God is a transforming knowledge:

“We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image” (2 Cor. 3:18). As a painter looking at a face draws a face like it in the picture; so looking at Christ in the mirror of the gospel, we are changed into his likeness. We may look at other objects that are beautiful—yet not be made beautiful by them. A deformed face may look at beauty, and yet not be made beautiful. A wounded man may look at a surgeon, and yet not be healed. But this is the excellence of divine knowledge, that it gives us such a sight of Christ as makes us partake of his nature! Like Moses when he had seen God’s back parts, his face shone; some of the rays and beams of God’s glory fell on him.

A reading which merely increases knowledge does not transform the heart is a reading which will condemn:

Reader, if it not be strong about my heart to practice what thou read is, to what end dost thou read? To increase that condemnation? If thy light and knowledge be not turned into practice, the more knowing that thou art, the poor miserable man thou wilt be in the day of recompense; thy light and knowledge will more torment thee that all the devils in hell. By knowledge will be that Rod that will eternally lash thee, and a scorpion that will forever bite thee, and that worm that will everlastingly knobby; therefore read, and labor to know, that thou may us do, or else if thou art undone forever(1 Brooks 9).

A reading which does not transform is a common thing in these days. The common course of education is for one to read and gain knowledge sufficient to pass a test, but not sufficient to change one’s life. Indeed, current education aims more at scores than virtue. As Christians, we must read with the aim to living in accordance with the rules of our King. Even the words of profane unbeliever can be turned into profit for us by demonstrating to us the folly of this world.

May we read to know and do those things which are pleasing to God, so that we can receive reward:

That man that reads that he may know, and that labors to know that he may do, we’ll have to heavens — the heaven of joy, peace, and comfort on Earth, and a heaven of glory and happiness after death(1 Brooks 9).

Mistakes About Faith.3

13 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, John, Puritan, William Guthrie

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(From Chapter 3 of The Christian’s Great Interest, by William Guthrie)

Guthrie continues with mistakes which can be made about faith. The second mistake is that one may believe that faith is too little a thing upon which to hang the great work of salvation. Surely God must demand something more than faith to grant justification and adoption.

Such people are the ones constantly hoping that enough good work can be loaded upon their faith to make their faith worth justification. They are children who hope to good enough so that their parent will finally be their parent. How ungrateful a thing! This is like insisting on paying for a present: No one gives me anything, I will earn my way!”

No, salvation is God’s gift and he can set the condition to receive the prize:

14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. John 3:14–18 (ESV)

Finally, some think that faith simply cannot be known. Yet such a thought is simply not true. First, faith can be known: surely one’s desires are knowable. Second, God has granted his Spirit to testify to us concerning such saving faith. Third, it can be evidenced by considering the various elements of thought which fill out and give substance to faith.  Guthrie provides a substantial list of such elements:

·         I am lost

·         I cannot work out my own salvation

·         There is a satisfying fullness in Christ.

·         I desire the dominion of Christ as king.

·         I see Christ as the true prophet of God

·         I “desire to resign myself wholly up to Him”.

·         Evidence of actual change in my heart, my thoughts, my desires, my actions.

Mistakes About Faith.2

12 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, James, Puritan, Romans, William Guthrie

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(From Chapter 3 of The Christian’s Great Interest, by William Guthrie)

To unknot the paradox of saving faith, Guthrie continues by explaining that faith is not principally a matter of believing a series of historical facts to be true. Yes, a Christian must believe certain facts about the world, about oneself, and about God’s action in the world in Creation and in Christ. However, such intellectual assent is not sufficient:

19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! James 2:19 (ESV)

You need more than demon faith. True saving faith lies in the affections, it lies in desire: It is an act of the will, the act of the heart:

10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Romans 10:10 (ESV)

Consider the images which Christ uses to paint this desire:

44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Matthew 13:44–46 (ESV)

(Incidentally, you can hear Mark Dever read Richard Sibbes’ sermon on this passage here: http://www.capitolhillbaptist.org/audio/2010/07/sibbes-the-rich-pearl/ I highly recommend this).

True saving faith is a matter of the most profound desire – it is a desire which so overwhelms all competing desires that one would sell all that one has to gain that desire, that pearl, that treasure.

To make sure that you understand the nature of saving faith, consider the other descriptions given in Scripture for the same event:

It is receiving – which is believing:

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, John 1:12 (ESV)

It is staying:

3 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Isaiah 26:3 (ESV)

It is also called, “ a trusting in God, often mentioned in the Psalms, and the word is a leaning on Him. It is a believing on Christ: ‘This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He has sent’ (John 6: 29), and often so expressed in the New Testament. When God maketh men believe savingly, He is said to draw them unto Christ; and when the Lord inviteth them to believe, He calleth them to come to Him. ‘All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me; and him that comes to me, I will in no wise cast out. No man can come to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him.’ (John 6: 37, 44.)”

This is a matter of desire, a matter of hunger for God:

Shall that be judged a mysterious difficult thing which does consist much in desire? If men have but an appetite, they have it; for they are ‘blessed that hunger after righteousness.’ (Matt. 5: 6.) ‘If you will,’ you are welcome. (Rev. 22: 17.)

Indeed, saving faith consists not only in such desire; but sanctification, Godward change consists in stoking this desire. John Piper writes:

I had grown to love the works of C. S. Lewis in college. But not until later did I buy the sermon called “The Weight of Glory.” The first page of that sermon is one of the most influential pages of literature I have ever read. It goes like this:

If you asked twenty good men today what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you asked almost any of the great Christians of old he would have replied, Love. You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire.

If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. [C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1965), 1–2.]

There it was in black and white, and to my mind it was totally compelling: It is not a bad thing to desire our own good. In fact, the great problem of human beings is that they are far too easily pleased. They don’t seek pleasure with nearly the resolve and passion that they should. And so they settle for mud pies of appetite instead of infinite delight.

I had never in my whole life heard any Christian, let alone a Christian of Lewis’s stature, say that all of us not only seek (as Pascal said), but also ought to seek, our own happiness. Our mistake lies not in the intensity of our desire for happiness, but in the weakness of it.

Desiring God, 19-20.

Many people go astray, because they believe true, saving faith to be a mysterious thing, a thing which cannot be known. Yes, it is a difficult thing, a thing above our natural ability – because it is a matter of desire. And yet, it is a matter of the greatest consequence and the plainest ease, because it is a matter of desire and love – which is no mystery at all.

Mistakes About Faith.1

11 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by in Acts, Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, John, Puritan, Romans, William Guthrie

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 (From Chapter 3 of The Christian’s Great Interest, by William Guthrie)

Belief is the condition upon which God grants salvation. If we believe, we will be saved. Moreover, belief is evidence that we have been saved. If we can see that we have true faith in Jesus, then we can know that we have a saving interest in Jesus.

The first thing whereby men may know it is, their closing with Christ in the gospel wherein He is held forth. This is believing, or faith, which is the condition of the covenant: ‘It is of faith, that it might be by grace.’ (Rom. 4: 19.) Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.’ (Acts 26: 31.)

However, many make mistakes about the nature of true faith. He explains that true faith is a paradoxical thing: It is both a matter beyond human ability and a thing within the grasp of any child. The reason for this paradox is that is not a mere matter of intellectual assent, faith is also a matter of desire.

We all believe, constantly and in many things. For example, we must believe that we exist, that others exist, that the speech we hear is intended to communicate information, that the universe was not formed complete with our memories three minutes ago, et cetera. Until we believe, we cannot know anything. Thus, in an important sense, belief comes before any knowledge.

Thus, in asking us to believe, God merely requires we do something we do naturally and repeatedly in all parts of our lives. God does not ask for something above us or beyond us. God does not ask us to ascend into heaven or to dig down into hell, he merely asks that we believe:

6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” Romans 10:6–11 (ESV)

Yet, at the same time, true saving faith lies beyond us. We cannot believe rightly, unless God grants us the gift of true saving faith:

44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:44 (ESV)

And:

29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, Philippians 1:29 (ESV)

How then can faith be both simple and impossible? Let me give two examples.  It is the easiest thing in the world to love another human being. Human beings do this naturally and repeatedly.  Parents naturally love their children. Children naturally love their parents.  People come to love one another and to marry with some regularity.

Yet, I cannot imagine not loving my wife and loving another woman in her place.  I cannot imagine not loving my children and loving other children their place.  At one level, showing affection is quite simple. Yet, when considered from a different direction, it is an impossible matter.

The act of driving an automobile is quite simple. Millions of people drive cars every day. However, if I were to ask (most) of these people whether they could drive their car into a crowd of children, they would say “No.”

You see, a matter may be simple as a matter of physical or emotional action, and yet impossible as a matter of desire. Since true saving faith consists of desire, it is an impossible and simply matter at once.

William Guthrie on the the Possiblity/Impossibility of Saving Faith.3

29 Thursday Mar 2012

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 The paradox of true saving faith being both a simple matter and an impossibility lies with it being a matter of desire.  A thing can be impossible  because it is a thing which cannot be done even if desired: I cannot fly like a bird or swim like a fish, no matter how greatly I would desire otherwise. I cannot be ten feet tall or hold my breath for a month. I cannot meet King Solomon nor know the actual thoughts of another human being.  Those things are impossible irrespective of my desire.

Other things are impossible because I do not desire them.  For most people, a vicious crime would impossible, because they could not desire the injury of another human being. When I was a single man, I could know a woman and yet not “love” her or desire her in any romantic manner.  Such a desire for her would be “impossible” – even though human beings romantically desire one-another all the time. Conversely, it would be equally impossible for me to not love my wife or children.  Or, many children know all about various vegetables and have no desire for the vegetable. In each of these instance, the actual behavior is perfectly possible – and yet it is impossible due to a lack of corresponding desire.

The real motor which controls the human heart is desire: We do what we want/desire to do.

The effect of God upon the heart is to convey desire, love, affection:  The propositional content of the Gospel is conveyed. In many instances, nothing happens because there is no lack of corresponding desire. However, when the Spirit operates with the words of the Gospel, the effect is to create desire for God in Jesus Christ.

As Guthrie writes:

Now, I say, this acting of the heart on Christ Jesus is not so difficult a thing as is conceived. Shall that be judged a mysterious difficult thing which does consist much in desire? If men have but an appetite, they have it; for they are ‘blessed that hunger after righteousness.’ (Matt. 5: 6.) ‘If you will,’ you are welcome. (Rev. 22: 17.) Is it a matter of such intricacy and insuperable difficulty, earnestly to look to that exalted Saviour: ‘Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.’ (Isa. 45: 22.) And to receive a thing that is offered, held forth, and declared to be mine, if I will but accept and take it, and in a manner ‘open my mouth,’ and give way to it? ‘Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it.’ (Psa. 81: 10.)

Incidentally, this is an essential element in discipleship, biblical counseling, and sanctification: Change occurs as a result of desire change. When one desires something better than sin or better than old ways of thinking and acting, the new behavior or action is effected.

William Guthrie on the Possibility/Impossibility of Saving Faith.2

29 Thursday Mar 2012

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William Guthrie explains that true saving faith is not merely an intellectual recognition:

I grant, he that believeth on Christ Jesus, believeth what God has said concerning man’s sinful, miserable condition by nature; and he believeth that to be true, that ‘there is life in the Son, who was slain, and is risen again from the dead,’ etc.: but none of these, nor the believing of many such truths, evinces justifying faith, or that believing on the Son of God spoken of in Scripture; for then it were simply an act of the understanding;

The Devil himself has such “faith” (James 2:19). True saving faith requires far more than an acknowledgement that some fact is true.

True saving faith

            is chiefly and principally an act or work of the heart and will.

It does entail a particular content, but such content becomes a predicate for a change in the relationship between God and man, it is a reception of Jesus as Savior:

So the Scripture has clearly resolved justifying faith into a receiving of Christ: ‘as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.’ (John 1: 12.) The receiving of Christ is there explained to be the believing on His name.

The Scripture, to make plain the nature of this reception, uses various images and explains. Thus in Isaiah 26:3, it is calling staying:

3 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Isaiah 26:3 (ESV)

It is also called “trusting”. It begins with invitation and leads to an unshakeable relationship:

40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:40 (ESV)

The relationship created supersedes all other concerns:

44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Matthew 13:44–46 (ESV)

William Guthrie on the Possibilty/Impossiblity of Saving Faith.1

28 Wednesday Mar 2012

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William Guthrie explains that one may lack assurance due to a failure to rightly understand what true faith entails.

Guthrie begins with the paradox of saving faith: It is both impossible for one to obtain, and it is simultaneously an easy thing.

The impossibility of faith is seen in that faith must begin with God:

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. John 6:44.

Leaving aside whether the Father in a manner draws all after a manner ( as taught by Wesley, see, e.g., http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/wesley/walk.stm, “The grace or love of God, whence cometh our salvation, is FREE IN ALL, and FREE FOR ALL….”),  or God draws only the elect (the “Calvinistic” position, see, e.g., http://www.gty.org/resources/questions/QA86  ), all agree that true coming to God in Jesus Christ begins with the act of God.

Paul thus writes, “For it has been granted to you for the sake of Christ that you should not only believe ….” (Phil. 1:29).

Yet, at the same time, saving faith is an easy, as Paul writes elsewhere:

6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” Romans 10:6–11 (ESV)

To drive home the point, Guthrie compares the content of true with faith with things which would be difficult matters to believe, such as: I am not required to believe that I am elect, or that God loves me in particular. Such things would be difficult to believe, because such things would require belief in things which I could not know. Saving faith merely requires the belief in things which can be known.

Guthrie then addresses another paradox, or perhaps an irony. For the flippant atheist, asserting that God loves me in particular or making other statement about God’s undisclosed intention is easier than believing that I am a sinner in need of a savior.

Five Mistakes About Assurance

07 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in 1 John, 2 Timothy, Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Ministry, Psalms, William Guthrie

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1. It is a mistake to believe that assurance will always result in subjective experience:  In 1 John 5:13, John explains the purpose of his letter, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.”  This implies that one may have eternal life as a possession without the subjective (often emotional/affective) knowledge of a fact.  Guthrie explains, “It is a mistake to think that everyone one who is in Christ doth know that he is in Him; for many are truly gracious [have the grace of God] and have a good title to eternal life, who do not know so much, until it be made out afterwards.”

Or, as Westcott puts it, “The eternal life may be present and yet not realized in its inherent power.”

It is as if one were the heir to a large estate, but is unaware of the inheritance until the attorney reads out the will.

A note of caution here:  the verse quoted comes in the fifth chapter of 1 John.  John has been at pains to make clear that eternal life may be present and yet there be no evidence of its existence:  John has listed many elements of true saving faith. For instance, a man who never loves, who always and only knows condemnation and guilt, who never confesses sin, who does not believe Jesus is Lord has no right to claim the hope of 1 John 5:13.

John is referring to a subjective state of assurance which flows from an objective knowledge of assurance. We might paraphrase John as saying, “I have detailed to you the objective evidences and information about assurance so that you can experience assurance as a subjective joy and hope.

2. It is a mistake to think that all who come to the knowledge about their interest in Christ do attain an equal certainty about it: We cannot make assurance as a fact dependent upon assurance as a subjective experience. Moreover, a subjective experience cannot be measured by the reported experience of another.

People have natural inclinations and differences in emotion and temperament. Some are easily made happy, some have less affective nature.  However, some expect that their experience of assurance must be the same as some other person’s apparent experience. The least reflection on the matter should show this untrue.

Imagine two people, each who have come to a true saving knowledge of Jesus. One person may revel in the fact that Christ could possibly save such a sinner. This person may be overwhelmed with joy. Another person may be overwhelmed with the greatest of the Savior and feel a tranquil awe. A third may feel broken over their sin and a grave sorrow for time lost. The one who feels sorrow cannot look at the one who feels joy and say, I do not feel like him, therefore, I am not saved.

            If there is only one song I can sing

            When in his presence I see the great King

            This will my song for eternity be

            Oh what a wonder that Jesus loves me.

3. Our emotions are variable; therefore, our subjective experience will vary: Consider the great variety of emotions and thoughts experienced and described in the Psalms – poems and songs written by men of great godliness. In some places, there is great despair (Ps. 13) or great hope in the midst of trial (Ps.3) and everything in between.  Consider the following examples: Ps. 31:22, 77:7-9, 91:2, 119:57.

Do not take a variable heart as a variable Savior.

4. The ability to answer the objections of skeptics and mockers is not the measure of salvation: Some people think that a true and settled faith must be one which can answer every question of every skeptic. This is to make assurance and salvation dependent upon one’s ability to argue.

A child may very well know that her mother loves her without being able to give a reason for everything that her mother does. Job could not answer the Why of his affliction; but that does not mean that he had no grounds for believing his security.

When troubled by a question, do not be troubled in your Savior. Many people have gone out this door, strangely thinking that their personal ability to construct and destruct an argument is a necessary proof of salvation.

Let us be content with the argument of Paul, 2 Tim. 1:12, “For I know whom I have believed.”

5. Just because some vainly believe they have are ‘right with God’ does not mean that a believer cannot have a true interest in Christ.

We have all seen those who happily claim to be right with God and yet give no interest to the contrary. We have seen people who think to have such clear knowledge of God that they are willing to commit heinous crimes in the name of God.  We have heard of some so wicked that they use the Bible to prey upon the weak – perhaps even thinking themselves to be doing the business of God.

Jesus himself told us that those who persecute his disciples will even think that they are rendering service to God, “They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God” (John 16:2).

It would be a mistake for a poor lamb to think herself without a shepherd because they are wolves dressed as sheep.  What more would the deceiver do than to sow tares among the wheat?  We know that an enemy has done this.  However, we must not take the presence of tares to mean that there will be no harvest.

Conclusion: We must not measure the truth of our salvation either by our present feelings or by the actions and questions of unbelievers.  Our strength and our hope does not rest in ourselves but in our Savior.

 

Assurance of Salvation Cannot Rest Upon Subjective Experience

30 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by in 1 John, William Guthrie

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Gurthrie provides a fourth and fifth reason that an interest in Christ may not be known:

Fourth: They don’t actually know what evidence would satisfy them. Some people seem unwilling to receive God’s promise upon God’s Word. Such people want an additional help – but they are not sure what that would be. These people wish to set up their own standard for assurance, when God has given us his own standard and good grounds (1 John 1:4, 5:10 & 13).

By demanding a standard of proof that God has not promised, there can be no other than disappointment.

Fifth: Expecting some experience to be sufficient evidence. Guthrie calls this “changeable evidence.” He provides three examples:

(1) I never sin.  Yet where in Scripture do we find a promise that we will never sin? While there is no excuse for sin, the Scripture assumes that we will and that God will forgive (see, e.g., 1 John 2:1).

(2) I always have a sensible answer to my prayer. Again, where does God promise that an angel will always come down and tell me how God intends to respond to a particular prayer.

(3) I will always have a sensible witness of the Spirit – I will always feel saved.

In each of these instances, the believer claims that an experience will suffice to provide a basis of assurance. Yet, experience is changeable: it is never as strong as the last few moments of experience. Thus, Peter tells us to place our confidence on something more solid than experience: “something more sure [than even the greatest of experiences], the prophetic word” (2 Pet. 1:19).

In short, when one seeks for assurance in something other than the manner prescribed by God, one should not be surprised that assurance is not forthcoming. Therefore, assurance made be hand – but only along the lines prescribed in the Bible.