SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/25/2024 11:37 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-4 “The
Certainty of Christian Assurance”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 John 2:3-6
Message of the verses: “3 By this we know that
we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says,
"I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a
liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but
whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By
this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought
himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”
I begin this SD by talking about the 16th
century Protestant Reformers who recovered the true gospel from the Roman
harlot and reasserted the biblical doctrine of salvation; they also accurately
expounded the issue of assurance.
Assurance, as seen in the “Focus” part of this SD is what we have been
looking at over the past 3+ SD’s and it is a very important issue for us to
understand. Now contrarily to Roman theology,
they were convinced by Scripture that believers can and should enjoy the
confident hope of salvation. John Calvin
correctly taught that such confidence is not some addition to but is actually
the essence of faith—since those who truly trust the gospel do so because they
inherently enjoy a measure of assurance in it.
Now let me just say that when I use the word “Roman” I am speaking of
the Roman Catholic church, and not the old Roman empire. When people experience
saving faith, they recognize both the truth of the gospel and the wickedness of
their sinful condition. 4 But God, being
rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions,
made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with
Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” (Eph. 2:4-6). After seeing
the truth that these believers were sinful people they repent of their sins and
embrace Jesus Christ as their Savior and their Lord. When that divine work (of conversion and
regeneration) takes place, which is energized by the Holy Spirit, believers
sense their new-found faith and are assured of their salvation based on
Scripture’s promises. (Luke 18:13; Acts
2:37-39; cf. 8:35-37; 16:27-34.) By setting
forth the promises of God upon which salvation rests, the Word of God provides
believers with an objective source of certainty and, additionally, the Holy
Spirit gives subjective assurance through manifest spiritual fruit.
John
MacArthur writes “Nearly a century after Calvin, the writers of the Westminster
Confession of Faith (1648) composed the following paragraph:
This infallible assurance
doth not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait
long, and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it; yet,
being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of
God, he may, without extraordinary revelation, in the right use of ordinary
means, attain thereunto. And therefore
it is the duty of everyone to give all diligence to make his calling and
election sure, that thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the
Holy Ghost, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness
in the duties of obedience, the proper fruits of this assurance; so far is it
from inclining men to looseness. (Chapter XVIII, Article III).”
9/25/2024 11:59 PM
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