HowMay I Have The Assurance That I Am A True Child Of God?

In our last article, we highlighted the importance of knowing ifwe are genuine Christians. A genuine Christian is one who has been born again(regenerated). The Lord Jesus Christ told Nicodemus: "Except a man be bornagain, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (Jn 3:3).There is no such thing as an unborn-again Christian. You are either regenerateor you are dead—spiritually dead!

Now, if you know that you are for real, you can be sure that youwill persevere in the faith. Christ our Lord said: "My sheep hear myvoice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life;and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluckthem out of my Father’s hand" (Jn 10:27-29). The author of Hebrews tellsus that the promise of God for our eternal salvation is immutable, —because Godhas cut a covenant with Abraham in which he passed through the pieces and soguaranteed with His entire being that He would keep His promise (Heb 6:13-20;cf. Gen 15:8-21). So the Apostle Paul declares confidently that nothing"shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in ChristJesus our Lord" (See Rom 8:34-39).

There are Christians of Arminian persuasion who refuse to see thatthese divine promises are absolute and not dependent on man, and so they haveno ground for assurance. They believe that they could lose their salvationanytime, and so they ought to live in fear because the human heart is so easilyswayed. Poor Arminians! But the Scripture is clear, our salvation is entirelydependent on God. Even our faith is a gift of God (Eph 2:8), and the Word ofGod teaches us unambiguously that God will preserve our faith so that we willalways remain a believer. What about apostates? They were never regenerated inthe first place. The apostle John says: "They went out from us, but theywere not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continuedwith us" (1Jn 2:19a).

Nevertheless, the question we need to ask ourselves is: How do Iknow that my faith in Christ is true? How do I know I am not just foolingmyself like Simon Magus? Conversely, how do I know for sure that I trulybelieve? "It is one thing for me to believe, and another thing for me tobelieve that I believe" (Thomas Brooks).

The WestminsterConfession of Faith, of all the Reformed Confession, has perhaps the mostinstructive and biblical confessional statement on this subject ever to bepenned. In chapter 18, entitled "Of the Assurance of Grace andSalvation," the divines taught: the possibility of assurance (§1); thebasis of assurance (§2); the cultivation of assurance (§3); and the renewal of assurancewhen it is lost (§4).

WCF 18.2,which is of particular interest to us in this article, reads: "Thiscertainty [of salvation] is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasiongrounded upon a fallible hope [Heb. 6:11, 19]; but an infallible assurance offaith founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation [Heb 6:17-18],the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made [2Pet.1:4-5, 10-11; 1Jn 2:3; 3:14; 2Cor 1:12], the testimony of the Spirit ofadoption witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God [Rom8:15-16], which Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, whereby we are sealedto the day of redemption [Eph 1:13-14; 4:30; 2Cor. 1:21-22]."

Promises of God

The first ground of assurance is the promise given in theScripture that all who repents of their sin and all who embraceChrist,—believing that He lived and died on behalf of sinful man, and that Herose again, and that He is seated at the right hand of the throne of Godinterceding for His own,—will be saved and preserved in their faith. JohnMurray’s explanation can hardly be bettered:

Every believer is assured of God’s reality and the truth of theGospel. These are the certainties which constitute the ground of faith itself[which] does not exist except as it entertains the assurance of thesecertitudes. Faith is not compatible with uncertainty as to its object, thoughit may consists with uncertainty as to the possession of the salvation which isthe result of faith. Neither does it mean that there is any insecurity in thesalvation of those who believe. The security does not rest upon the stabilityof the assurance the believers entertains of that security; the securityresides in the faithfulness of the Saviour (Collected Writings 2:266-7).

In other words, the promises of salvation are not only theobjective ground of assurance, but the primary ground as well. It is thebedrock on which the other two grounds of assurance rest. Or to put it inanother way, you may only have assurance of salvation, if you know and understandthe Gospel. A person who does a lot of work in a church, but has noappreciation of the Gospel, is,—in the final analysis,—an unbeliever trying toattain salvation by works. Such a person ought to re-examine his foundation.Similarly, a person who claims to have experiences of the Holy Spirit, but haveno desire to know what the Scripture teaches is simply fooling himself or isdeluded by an unholy spirit. On the other hand, a person who has a trustingfaith (fudicia), and not just knowledge (notitia), or a mereassent as to the truth of the Gospel (assensus), may have the confidencethat he is a child of God.

But "the heart is deceitful above all things" (Jer17:9a), and it is conceivable that a person who claims to trust in the verityof the Gospel may in fact be deluded as to the reality of his faith (cf. Jas2:18-20). The secondary grounds, therefore, provide the additional assurancethat the personal faith is real.

Evidence of Grace

The first of the two secondary grounds is that of evidence ofinward grace. The Puritans including the Westminster divines, distinguishbetween two closely related aspects of evidence of inward grace. The first hasto do with the existence and improvement of the marks of grace in the soul suchas genuine love, meekness, poverty of spirit (or humility), hatred for sin andhunger and thirst for righteousness, etc (cf. Gal 5:22-23; Matt 5:3-6). Thesecond has to do with good works which flows from a heart of love and obedience(cf. Matt 7:16; Heb 6:10). In other words, the first is invisible to others,the second is visible. The Puritans speak of these two aspects in terms of a"mystical syllogism" and a "practical syllogism."Basically, they mean that since the Scripture presents these marks as theevidences of regeneration, we may conclude that we are regenerate, if we canhonestly detect them in our lives. It is true that when the Puritans wereaddressing this aspect of assurance, they did enjoin introspection. But theydid not end there. Jonathan Edwards, for example taught that "assurance isnot to be obtained so much by self-examination as by action." In otherwords, we must not think that. wemay obtain assurance merely by inward examination. True assurance may only befound in children of God who are walking in the straight and narrow way oflife, and actively obeying the will of God given in the Moral Laws."Hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments: (1Jn2:3), says John.

In any case, how should we evaluate ourselves? Dr John H. Gerstneroffers us three steps: (1) Introspection—search your hearts prayerfully andevaluate the visible fruits of your heart. Joseph Hall articulates this ideagraphically: "Motion is the most perfect discoverer of life. He that canstir his limbs, is surely not dead. The feet of the soul are the affections.Hast thou not found in thyself a hate and detestation of that sin whereintothou hast been miscarried? Hast thou not found in thyself a true grief ofheart, for thy wretched indisposition to all good things? Without a true lifeof grace, these things could never have been" (2) Retrospection—see ifthere’s evidence of spiritual growth since your profession of faith. You mayremember the day you made a profession of faith or the day you were baptised.That may be important for your assurance, but bear in mind that it is moreimportant for you to see if there were evidence of spiritual improvement sincethen. And (3) Extrospection—what do other believers who are trustworthy sayabout you? Do ask! Have you ever examine your self critically in this way?

Of course, such inward and self-examination must never beover-emphasised so as to detract from the certainty of the promises of God,neither should they be exercised but by those who have a clear grasp of theGospel.

Testimony of the Holy Spirit

The third basis of salvation is found in the Holy Spiritwitnessing to our spirits that we are the children of God. Dr Joel Beeke hascorrectly noted that the Westminsterdivines were not all agreed on what this means. The first group with divinessuch as Jeremiah Burroughs, Anthony Burgess, and George Gillespie believed thatthe Spirit works through the conscience in the context of the syllogisms(above). The second group with divines such as Samuel Rutherford, HenryScudder, William Twisse held that the Spirit sometimes witness to thebeliever’s spirit by direct application of the Word. The third group led byThomas Goodwin held that this is an extraordinary testimony of the spirit ofGod in the spirit of believers to give them full assurance of the love of Godand to grant them joy unspeakable. Personally, I tend to agree with the secondgroup. Though I would not discount the experiences of those in the third group,I believe these experience are really heightened experience of the illuminatingwork of the Holy Spirit. I believe the Holy Spirit bear witness with ourspirits that we are the sons of God by assuring us of the Fatherly love of Godas we read the Scripture or meditate on Scripture already memorised. When thisassurance of love floods our hearts, our natural response is to cry call outunto God, calling Him "Abba, Father." We must remember that suchillumination are not "extraordinary revelation" (see WCF 18.3, WLC 81). If, then, you are would have suchadditional testimony of the Spirit, you must read and meditate on the Wordrather than expect some mystical experience.

Conclusion

As we conclude this article, I trust that you are better equippednow to know if you are indeed for real. All three aspects must be applied as athree-fold cord to test your life before you may have full assurance ofsalvation. But bear in mind that full assurance does not belong so much to the being of faith as it belongs to the well-being of faith. Believers may possess savingfaith without knowing assuredly that they do possess it. "A child of Godmay have the Kingdom of grace in his heart, yet not know it. The cup was inBenjamin’s sack, though he did not know it was there" (Thomas Watson).Nevertheless, since it is imperative for every believer to give diligence tomake his calling and election sure (2Pet 1:10), it is not only desirable, but aduty of every believer to attain assurance of faith. Think about these things.Consider the promises of God: do you find yourself believing and trusting them?Examine your life: do you find the marks of grace? Recall your reading andmeditation of the Word of God, and the occasions when you heard the Gospelpreached in purity: did not your heart burn within you (Lk 24:31)? Did yousense the love of the heavenly Fatherly shed abroad in your heart by the HolySpirit (Rom 5:5)? If you can but answer positively with some degree ofconfidence to all three questions, you may, by the grace of God, conclude thatyou are indeed a child of God. But do not grow complacent. No true child of Godwill grow complacent. But continue to seek Him, and plead with him to sustainyour assurance as you walk in obedience and diligently use the Means of Grace.If, on the other hand, you are not concerned about having assurance at all, orif you find that as you consider the three grounds of assurance, that you haveno cause to claim any one of them, then I am afraid, it is likely that you areyet in your sins, in which case, may I urge to go to the Lord in humblerepentance, seeking His forgiveness. The fact that you have persevered to readtill this point spells hope for you, I believe.