Faith vs Assurance

[arapahoepark]

I am getting confused on some discussions or ways of talking about assurance not being the essence of faith nor from works per se.
Mind enlightening me?
Related, how is one to seek assurance if it is separate from faith?
If one is 'almost Christian' how then would they know if they claim to possess faith without falling into the trap that a saving faith is tantamount to works?

 

[Jonathan95]

how is one to seek assurance

I seek assurance by checking my heart and seeing if I am walking according to the commands of the Lord. And I check to make sure I am doing that out of love and thankfulness and not to earn anything. If I spot any sin then I confess and repent as best as I know how while seeking counsel.

If I'm doing all of that, I'm pretty assured that I belong to Christ. Unbelievers and hypocrites do not do this.

 

[Taylor]

I seek assurance by checking my heart and seeing if I am walking according to the commands of the Lord. And I check to make sure I am doing that out of love and thankfulness and not to earn anything. If I spot any sin then I confess and repent as best as I know how while seeking counsel.

If I'm doing all of that, I'm pretty assured that I belong to Christ. Unbelievers and hypocrites do not do this.

While I would never want to undermine your assurance, the source of our assurance is outside of us, not inside. Self-examination is a good thing, but if our search for assurance stops there and never gazed outward upon the face of Christ, it falls short. (This isn’t at all a rebuke; just an encouragement!)

Regarding the OP, Louis Berkhof wrote a good booklet on assurance you might want to seek out. It might be in Monergism. I can’t remember without my Bible software what it’s called.

 

[Jonathan95]

While I would never want to undermine your assurance, the source of our assurance is outside of us, not inside. Self-examination is a good thing, but if our search for assurance stops there and never gazed outward upon the face of Christ, it falls short.

Oh no, I completely agree. Perhaps there was some confusion in my words. It's all found in Christ of course. Christ died for me, I have no doubt of that fact. I was just thinking of James arguing by saying he will show his faith by his works. I just meant to say something along those lines. Thank you!

 

[JM]

Jordan Cooper and Christian rapper Flame claim Calvinism taught them to look to their walk for assurance so they became Lutheran.

 

[Charles Johnson]

Read Beeke on assurance. He wrote his doctorate on Puritan and Continental views on the topic.
*edit: meant to write 'doctoral dissertation'. Derp derp derp*

 

[JM]

Let me observe to you something relating to experience, which you would do well to lay in your minds. It may be of use to you hereafter, when you may be tempted to doubt your interest in Christ's satisfaction. Have you any reason to believe that you have, at anytime, had communion with God, in private or in public, in your closet, or in the family, or in the house of God? Then you may be assured Christ has made satisfaction for you; or you would never have enjoyed such communion. - John Gill

 

[Stephen L Smith]

Read Beeke on assurance. He wrote his doctorate on Puritan and Continental views on the topic.

I agree with this. Actually Trent, if you read Dr Beeke's book "Puritan Reformed Spirituality", he summarises his research on Reformed Assurance. He also has chapters on godly piety. It nicely ties together questions you raised in two recent threads

 

[JM]

All things work together for good." - Romans 8:28

These words teach believers that no matter what may be the number nor how overwhelming the character of adverse circumstances, they are all contributing to conduct them into the possession of the inheritance provided for them in heaven. How wonderful is the providence of God in over-ruling the most disorderly things, and in turning to our good things which in themselves are most pernicious! We marvel at His mighty power which holds the heavenly bodies in their orbits; we wonder at the continually recurring seasons and the renewal of the earth; but this is not nearly so marvelous as His bringing good out of evil in all the complicated occurrences of human life, and making even the power and malice of Satan, with the naturally destructive tendency of his works, to minister good for His children.

"All things work together for good."

This must be so for three reasons. First, because all things are under the absolute control of the Governor of the universe. Second, because God desires our good, and nothing but our good. Third, because even Satan himself cannot touch a hair of our heads without God's permission, and then only for our further good. Not all things are good in themselves, nor in their tendencies; but God makes all things work for our good. Nothing enters our life by blind chance; nor are there any accidents. Everything is being moved by God, with this end in view—our good. Everything being subservient to God's eternal purpose, works blessing to those marked out for conformity to the image of Christ. All suffering, sorrow, loss, are used by our Father to minister to the benefit of the elect.

From “Comfort for Christians: The Christian’s Assurance” by A. W. Pink

 

[py3ak]

Assurance is a reflex act of faith. The best way to strengthen it is by strengthening the direct act of faith. If your faith is active, in exercise, and growing stronger doubts about whether it is there or not will naturally diminish. Thomas Goodwin, Christ Set Forth is perhaps the classic work on approaching things this way.

H.C.G. Moule in his article on faith from v.3 of The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth writes:

We are here warned off from the temptation to erect Faith into a Saviour, to rest our reliance upon our Faith, if I may put it so. That is a real temptation to many. Hearing, and fully thinking, that to be justified we must have Faith, they, we, are soon occupied with an anxious analysis of our Faith. Do I trust enough? Is my reliance satisfactory in kind and quantity? But if saving Faith is, in its essence, simply a reliant attitude, then the question of its effect and virtue is at once shifted to the question of the adequacy of its Object. The man then is drawn to ask, not, Do I rely enough? but, Is Jesus Christ great enough, and gracious enough, for me to rely upon? The introspective microscope is laid down. The soul’s open eyes turn upward to the face of our Lord Jesus Christ; and Faith forgets itself in its own proper action. In other words, the man relies instinctively upon an Object seen to be so magnificently, so supremely, able to sustain him. His feet are on the Rock, and he knows it, not by feeling for his feet, but by feeling the Rock.

 

[retroGRAD3]

Jordan Cooper and Christian rapper Flame claim Calvinism taught them to look to their walk for assurance so they became Lutheran.

Jordan Cooper also thinks Roman Catholics are our brothers and sisters in Christ though. I'm not sure how much of a Lutheran he really is.

 

[JM]

Jordan Cooper also thinks Roman Catholics are our brothers and sisters in Christ though. I'm not sure how much of a Lutheran he really is.

It would be Lutheran to say Roman Catholics are brothers and sisters in Christ.

 

[CathH]

I am getting confused on some discussions or ways of talking about assurance not being the essence of faith nor from works per se.
Mind enlightening me?

The essence of faith is trust in Christ. Assurance-that-I-have-trusted-in-Christ may come along with faith, but it doesn't belong to the essence of faith. Someone who has truly trusted in Christ may wait a long time and encounter many difficulties before they obtain assurance.

Related, how is one to seek assurance if it is separate from faith?

Assurance comes from three things interacting. (1) The divine truth of the promises of salvation. (2) The evidence that you have the inward graces which God makes his promises to. (3) The testimony of the Spirit witnessing with your spirit that you are the child of God.

So to seek assurance, (1) focus on the divine truth of God's promises, especially as they meet in the person and work of Christ. The stronger grip someone's faith has of Christ, the more obvious their faith will become (both to themselves, and to others in the kind of life they live). (2) Compare what you find in your heart and life with the descriptions given in the Scriptures of believers. (3) Ask for the Spirit's help so that he will show you the reality of the graces which he gives believers in your own soul.

If one is 'almost Christian' how then would they know if they claim to possess faith without falling into the trap that a saving faith is tantamount to works?

Not sure on this one. Do you mean that someone who does good things might conclude from the evidence of their good deeds that they are a real Christian when they aren't really?