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Originally Posted by greenbaggins  However, I must disagree that a believer must turn the heart towards Christ as if he were an unbeliever. Of course, he must turn his heart towards Christ. However, to say that he must do so the same way as an unbeliever would seems to me to avoid using the very foundation of one's assurance in seeking assurance: the fact that one is saved. I am reminded of the West Wing episode in which much was made of the President's re-election campaign basing itself on the fact that he already was president, and what an advantage that gave him. If a believer must act as though he were not a believer, then are we not stripping him of the best advantage he can have in this struggle? |
This advantage is based on his assurance that he is in fact a believer; but if that is the very point he is doubting then he must go back to square one. If he can't find assurance through self-examination that Jesus Christ is in him, his only hope is to look again to the objective work of Christ for sinners as such. If he can't conclude he is a believer, he can at least agree he is a sinner, and hence find comfort through Christ's work for sinners. When a man suffers snake-bite, it does him no good to say he is in the hospital where a cure may be had. He must go straight to emergency and obtain the cure he desperately needs.