How do you know God really loves you? Nicholas Byfield on assurance - New Work!

[C. Matthew McMahon]

This was one of Nicholas Byfield's (1579-1622) most popular works. "The Assurance of God's Love."

Do you know if God loves you? Are you assured that he does?

Every Christian struggles with true assurance. This work springboards from 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” It is a treatise on assurance. Byfield covers sixteen infallible signs of a child of God as they appear by the testimony Scripture. It is an invaluable treatise to aid the Christian to grow in the love of Jesus Christ.

This work is not a scan or facsimile, and has an active table of contents for electronic versions.

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The Assurance of God's Love by Nicholas Byfield (Paperback)

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[SherlockLogic]

I know that this is a huge struggle for me. How often I call out, "Lord I believe, help my unbelief!" Assurance is of chief importance in the Christian life.

 

[ZackF]

In the end it rests on what God has said and done. When we try to "feel" Gods love is where we get in trouble. This topic is about staying basic and not getting lost in philosophy. John 3:16 and basic "for the bible tells me so stuff." That's what you hang your hat on.

 

[Jackie Kaulitz]

In the end it rests on what God has said and done. When we try to "feel" Gods love is where we get in trouble. This topic is about staying basic and not getting lost in philosophy. John 3:16 and basic "for the bible tells me so stuff." That's what you hang your hat on.

Fully agree. We trust Christ and believe we died for our sins and ALSO that He has the power to keep us persevering to the end. I have faith in His power to save and His power to keep me saved.

However, I do see that the Bible mentions in a few places 2 Cor and 1 John, James that "faith" without works is dead and so if we have no works, we probably won't have much assurance.

So I rest and trust in Christ but I also seek to not take sin lightly and "mortify the flesh" as John Owen says, but I do these things NOT FOR assurance of salvation (or that would be of works) but out of gratitude for what Christ has given me when I was yet an enemy and hater of Christ and a child of Satan, sold in slavery to my sins. So the teaching is not "Do good works" to "feel saved" but "You are saved, trust Christ" and out of gratitude and love, live your life bearing good fruit. John Piper says it great: 1 John 1:7 "Walking in the light" does not mean walking flawlessly. It means that when you stumble the light of Christ causes you to see it and hate it and confess it and move forward with Christ. The mark of love for God is joyful obedience, not begrudging obedience. 1 John 5:1-5 sermon: "Everyone Who Has ALREADY Been RE-Born of God WILL Overcome the World": John wrote 1 John to give believers fresh power to overcome sin. And part of his method in helping them overcome sin is to assure them that failures do not have to prove fatal to your eternal life.