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Kevin DeYoung has tackled a two part series on assurance in light of the reformed confessions of the Canons of Dort (1618-19) and the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646). Part one, the Canons of Dort is good stuff.
“Dort’s theology of perseverance and assurance is just as relevant today as it was four hundred years ago. Consider some implications for us:
- Believers should not look only to their holy living for assurance, but this should be one place they look. When we see evidences of God’s grace in us, we should have confidence that God is at work. And he who begins the good work will be faithful to complete it.
- While we must affirm the continuing imperfection of our obedience, we should not so disregard it that we can no longer find real evidences of assuring grace at work.
- God’s relentless love and the legal standing of our justification do not nullify the real consequence of our sin. We can grieve the Spirit and offend God. His face may turn away from us for a time, until we are led by his grace to repent once again.
- Exhortations, threats, and promises are all part of the proclamation of the gospel and instrumental in God’s plan to grow us in grace. We should not neglect any of the three in the overall diet of our counseling, preaching, and teaching.
- The sacraments are essential in the cause of gospel confidence. They remind our eyes, our hands, our noses, and our mouths of the good news we hear with our ears.
Praise God for old confessions. And praise God for mercies which are new every morning–unto the very end.”
Of course, one wonders about the level of appreciation from other Coalition members, such as Tullian Tchividjian, seeing he apparently has quite a different (read New Calvinist) take on assurance:
Assurance never comes from looking at ourselves. It only comes as a consequence of looking to Christ.
But when the Bible specifically speaks about assurance, it’s addressing the question, “How then can man be in the right before God?”
DeYoung’s article is quite beneficial and a good read. Tchividjian still wants justification to be ongoing rather than a completed act, which is common in the New Calvinist camp.
You know what? When I see evidence in my own life, in my thinking, which is, biblically speaking the renewing of my mind, I get a glimpse of God working in me, and that is most definitely reassuring.
“Praise God for old confessions. And praise God for mercies which are new every morning–unto the very end.”
As a young man, coming to the reformed confessions for the first has been an amazing experience. They are such a good expression of biblical truth, and a great starting point for figuring out how great men in the past have understood Biblical truth, good for keeping you on the straight and narrow theologically. Praise God for Kevin DeYoung for keeping on bringing them up!
Yes , praise God for old confessions , but only if the’re biblical. I see very little biblical evidence that suggests that we employ our own judgement as a means of gauging assurance. What a minefield the mind can be it comes to this very question. How many people have tortured themselves trying to find an answer within themselves. I would suggest that an absolute truthful assurance is only found in what God has promised, and is the only assurance that anyone can have total confidence in . Such a verse that springs to mind would be Hebrews 10:14
For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
There is assurance!