How would you counsel this person?

[sotzo]

How would you counsel a person who said they had experiences in which they thought God was giving them opportunities to "make their calling and election sure"...but this person said they did not "make good" on these opportunities and it is causing them to doubt their salvation?

For example, this person has experiences where they feel led to share Christ with someone, but they didn't...and then they think they would have if they were genuinely a believer. Or if, while in prayer, the person says he wants Christ to rule his whole life, yet wonders if he genuinely meant that he wants Christ to rule his whole life because he knows that this could mean extreme suffering. So he doubts whether he has truly entered through the narrow door, since surely a man with saving faith would act fully and rightly on these "urges".

What would be your counsel in this instance?

 

[turmeric]

This person is a lot like John Bunyan who wrote The Pilgrim's Progress and who seemed to evperience almost constant temptation during certain periods of his life. God doesn't work this way - Satan does! The person needs to throw a bottle of ink at him! Where's the "bottle of ink" smilie?

(Rant on)
Salvation is entirely Christ's work!!! Yes, I'm yelling - at Satan! Salvation has nothing to do with going up and telling someone about Christ or not. These attempts to "make one's calling and election sure" are all based on our own works - just the worst place to go when troubled. The only person who could always act correctly in every instance would have to be perfect to do it. There's entirely too much perfectionism in modern evangelicalism and it plays into the devil's hands.
(Rant off)

 

[Herald]

We make our calling and election sure not by our perfect obedience but by the finished work of Christ on our behalf. That work, imputed to our account, does effect a change in our behavior and affections, but not a perfect change. We still sin, and in various ways. Anger, lust, laziness [fill in the blank], they don't go away just because we are born again. In fact the battle may even intensify! As the old ways war against the new nature the sparks will fly! There are many, many Christians who suffer from debilitating clinical depression. They feel the weight of their sin and it sickens them. Prior to their salvation many of these individuals didn't fight that battle for they were under the dominion of the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2).

We are to be more like Christ, but it is a process. That is why I have always enjoyed Philippians 1:6:

Philippians 1:6 6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

We are in the process of being perfected! We're not there yet.

 

[larryjf]

The context of making our election sure must be taken into account. The 2 Pet 1 passage lists the qualities that are spoken...and verse 8 tells us...

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.


So it seems that it is referring to a gradual "increase" in holiness, not a perfection that is attained. This is sanctification, not glorification.

As a believer we should be able to look over our past and say, "yes, God has sanctified me more over time."

Also, Phil 3:12 is an important verse to remember in such discussion...

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect...

 

[Pilgrim Standard]

Point them to Christ!

Example:
“I have never made my calling and election sure."

“I believe that you are right in that you are certainly not saved on the grounds that you have failed to make your calling and election sure, especially in witnessing. Furthermore you will never be saved on these grounds. If you cannot witness for the Lord unto salvation you are certainly not saved on these grounds.”

“Is the ground of your salvation dependant upon anything that you do?”

“What are the grounds for your salvation?” <-Work with Imputed Righteousness here

“Are you not placing your faith in your works instead of the work of Christ?”

“I have never made my calling and election sure. If this has been done, it has been done by Christ!”


This is a great opportunity to point them to Christ! This person seems to be looking inward for evidence/proof of salvation. I would certainly take opportunity to work with them on this. I have run into people struggling with this issue several times now.

Looking inside of ourselves for a bit and examining the cause of our failures has a purpose. I run with Human Inability in this examination. My first goal is to find these areas in which we have fulfilled some righteousness or command from the Lord. Of course it does not exist. You know of several verses that destroy this idea.

When I have met those in similar situations, there has been a bit of Pelagianism that has crept in, or has never been purged. Even though they seem to be in total realization that they are unable to fulfill the law, I have found that, most of the time, it is not true that they believe this. “I cannot fulfill [enter action here] therefore I doubt my salvation.” The attempt is actually being made to fulfill the law. Driving the truth that they are correct in the first part of the statement “I cannot” opens the door for the necessity for them to look outward, away from themselves to an external righteousness.

This is the opportunity to point them to Christ through the doctrine of imputed (not infused) righteousness. We have, will, and do fail. If and when we do that action, in this case witness, it best behooves us to thank the Lord for using us, and giving us the will to follow Him, or in other words, rightfully give credit to the Lord and take none to ourselves.

I have explained that this is not a synergistic gospel in which “God does ‘this’ and now it is up to us to do ‘that’ in order to complete salvation.” But rather this is a monergistic gospel in which “God has secured our salvation completely without our aid.” Sometimes those who I may expect to know this do not.

It may be that the Lord is slowly teaching this person to reject their own works, or it may be that the Lord has not given them the will to follow through with this witnessing because of the temptation in the persons heart to place faith in that work, as opposed to the work of Christ, and therefore they need to give up this desire to place their faith in what they do. I would ask them what they think of this.

Honestly they need to get their mind off 'making anything sure' and on Christ and what He has made sure!

 

[moral necessity]

Excellent replies, B.Brown and Benjamin!!!

Having come out of this very pit of scraping my heart in a similar way for 17 years, I truly sympathize with this person. They have not gripped the Gospel in its fulness yet, for they look inward for assurance instead of outward. Assurance of being in covenant with God is attained in justification, before any sanctification is evidenced. Jesus said, "those who come to me, I will in no wise cast out." And, Luther said to Melanchthon, something to the effect of, "Melanchthon, you cannot sin your salvation away. The gospel is outside of you!"

This person's view of his sins are too small, and his view of the grace of God is even smaller. My counsel would involve words that emphasize our acceptance being based on someone else's work that they did 2,000 years ago counting in place of my work, and on abandoning all hope and trust in anything else but his promise that he has clothed me with his righteousness before the Father, and so I am loved and treated as if I were Christ himself, for he has grafted me into his body, he being the head. So much so, that, if the Father rejects me, he rejects Christ, who is the head, for Christ has so united himself to me in oneness.

In fact, in my opinion, this verse about "making your calling and election sure," refers to sanctification. It other words, he is encouraging them to show their calling and election by the proper fruits that develop from it. For, they have to first have a calling and an election in order to make the calling and election sure. Also, those who don't evidence these fruits do so because of what the previous verse says, "they have become nearsighted and blind, having forgotten that they were cleansed (past tense) from their previous sins." They lost sight of their former cleansing and assurance, of their right standing with God. And so, they have turned inward with their eyes, and they look and labor within themselves for their assurance. Instead, cleansing must be there first. Assurance must be there first. For it is the branch from which the leaves and fruit sprout. Fruit follows assurance, not the other way around.

Blessings!

 

[greenbaggins]

Building on Charles's excellent post, I would add that the imputation of Christ's righteousness covers over both our sins of omission and commission and it covers over the imperfection of our works. So, omitting to witness to someone is a sin of omission that is covered by the blood of Christ. Lack of sincerity in prayer is a sin of omission (or commission, depending on how you view it) that is covered by the imputation of Christ's righteousness. Likewise, even our works performed in faith are not perfect, but need to be covered by the imputation of Christ's righteousness.

This being said, it is also vitally important to pray to the Lord for the strength and grace necessary to become more holy. There is the still the goal of perfection, even if we know that we cannot achieve it in this life. Rejection of perfectionism does not imply rejection of the standard. And our works are done out of gratitude for salvation already received.