Sure? Are You Sure You Are a Christian?

Steve Voorwinde, Trowel and Sword. August 1994.

Preamble: “I believe; help my unbelief!” These were the words of a father who had brought his son to Jesus to be healed of an evil spirit (Mark 9:14-27). Many, perhaps most Christians can identify with this father when faced with the question, “Are you sure you are a Christian.” This is also the question Steve Voorwinde addresses in some detail in this article. Steve declares that: “…every believer should be able to give a clear and positive answer.” And yet, most of us struggle with our faith from time to time, just as Peter did in Matthew 14:31. The conundrum may well be that we know in our heads that we are Christians but do we believe it with all our heart?

Are You Sure You Are A Christian?

Do you know you are one of God’s elect? Are you confident that you will go to heaven when you die?

These are rather searching, personal questions. They are also questions to which every believer should be able to give a clear and positive answer. Yet the fact of the matter is that these questions are often answered vaguely and evasively:

‘I think so” “I hope so.’ ‘I don’t know. But then, who does?’

It is not just the average Christian who has trouble with these questions. Theologians have often come up with conflicting answers. Church leaders have differed from one another, with the result that believers have been encouraged to look for answers in rather different directions. Some put their confidence in the strength of their conversion experience. Others emphasise good works, the fruit of the Spirit, or the active use of spiritual gifts. Still others are told to distrust their experience altogether and rely only on the direct promises of Scripture.

So where does the truth of the matter lie?

As is so often the case with issues of this kind, we would be wise to learn the lessons of history. How did earlier generations of Christians handle these questions? Can we benefit from their insights, and learn from their mistakes?

The doctrine of assurance was not an item that was high on the agenda of the ancient church. Although Augustine did touch on it, it remained largely a neglected area of theological discussion. The sad result was that during the Middle Ages it was generally believed that assurance of faith was impossible. A clear representative of the medieval viewpoint was Pope Gregory the Great. In the year 604 he wrote: “The greater our sins the more we must do to make up for them. Whether we have done enough to atone for them we cannot know till after death…  Assurance of salvation and the feeling of safety engendered by it are dangerous for anybody and would not be desirable even if possible.”

Over the years this became the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. By the time of the Reformation the church was therefore completely withholding the blessing of assurance from simple believers, reserving it only for ‘saints’ who had a surplus of merit.

The Reformers reacted strongly against the Roman denial of assurance. Both Luther and Calvin held that every believer has assurance of his salvation. In his ninety-five theses of 1517 Luther wrote: “The Gospel testifies that God is gracious, and that is objectively true; but it is the believer’s privilege to know subjectively that God is gracious to him in Christ Jesus.

Calvin agreed with Luther that assurance is an integral part of saving faith. In his Institutes he argued strongly that Christ is our righteousness by faith. From this he draws conclusions highly critical of the Roman Catholic position: “For if righteousness is supported by works, in God’s sight it must entirely collapse: and it is confined solely to God’s mercy, solely to communion with Christ, and therefore solely to faith.”

From this it follows, argued Calvin, that believers have assurance because their righteousness lies in Christ and not in themselves. Such righteousness is theirs only by faith.

The early Reformers thus emphatically maintained that faith involves certainty. No faith can be a true faith without assurance. Assurance belongs to the essence of faith.

Although both Luther and Calvin were seeking to base their doctrine of assurance firmly on Scripture, they were also reacting strongly against denials of assurance that had been entrenched for centuries. It would perhaps even be fair to say that they were over-reacting. As Reformed theology developed, these early formulations would be both modified and enriched. An early modification of Calvin’s view is found in the Heidelberg Catechism (1563). In Lord’s Day 32 it teaches that ‘we do good so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits.’

This point is developed more fully in the Canons of Dort (1618-19): “The elect in due time, though in various degrees and in different measures, attain the assurance of this their eternal and unchangeable election, not by inquisitively prying into the secret and deep things of God, but by observing in themselves with a spiritual joy and holy pleasure the infallible fruits of election…’ (1:12).

With their emphasis on the fruits of faith and election, the Catechism and Canons made a significant advance on Calvin’s view. Further developments were yet to take place. In Britain the Puritans thought long and hard about their assurance of salvation and spoke of it in the loftiest terms. For them it was ‘the pearl of great price’ and ‘heaven on earth’. The finest flower of their assurance theology is found in the Westminster Confession of Faith (1648) which devotes an entire chapter to the subject. Chapter 18, entitled ‘Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation’. is the fullest confessional statement we have of the Reformed doctrine of assurance. While the statement is too lengthy to be quoted in full in an article like this, its four paragraphs do deserve at least a brief summary:

(a) Although hypocrites may deceive themselves with a false assurance of faith, sincere believers may ‘be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace’.

(b) This certainty is based on the divine truth of the promises of salvation, the inward evidence of those graces to which these promises are made, and the Spirit witnessing with our spirits that we are children of God.

(c) This assurance does not belong to the essence of faith. At times ‘a true believer may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it’. Yet by the right use of ordinary means, and without extraordinary revelation, he may attain to it. By living a life of love and thankfulness to God, and by being faithful in the duties of obedience, it is every believer’s responsibility to make his calling and election sure.

(d) There may be times when true believers have their assurance shaken in various ways. Neglect, sin and strong temptation are cited as possible causes, and so is ‘God’s withdrawing the light of His countenance, and suffering even such as fear Him to walk in darkness and have no light.” Yet even this is no reason to despair. If they continue in their life of faith and their love for Christ and the brethren their assurance may, by the operation of the Spirit, in due time be revived.

The strength of these confessional statements lies in the intimate relationship that they establish between assurance and sanctification. This is precisely the perspective of Scripture. When in Romans 8:16 Paul speaks of the Spirit testifying with our spirit that we are God’s children, he is not speaking about some special revelation. The context is all about sanctification.

The same is true when Peter exhorts his readers to ‘be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure’ (II Peter 1:10). The context makes it quite clear how this is to be done. To their faith believers are to add goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love (vs.5-7). These are the very fruits of faith which the Catechism has in mind in Lord’s Day 32. Peter is not here giving the counsel of perfection. To have assurance it is enough for believers to ‘possess these qualities in increasing measure’ (vs.8).

The Bible’s clearest teaching on assurance comes almost at the very end. in 1 John. In fact, this entire Epistle is devoted to the subject.

In 5:13 the apostle says: ‘I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

In the course of his letter there are three basic tests to which he returns again and again:

The moral test – Do you strive to keep the commandments?

The social test – Do you love your fellow-believers?

The doctrinal test – Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh?

Clearly the Christian is not to be afraid to have a good hard look at his life. His behaviour, his experience, his beliefs are all to come under the close scrutiny of self-examination. As the apostle Paul said, ‘Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves’ (2 Cor.13:5).

As I write this article my students have just come through an intense week of exams. To get good results they toiled, they agonised, they worked long hours. To pass what might be called the Bible’s ‘tests of life’ some believers may need to toil and agonise as well. The results will certainly be worth it.

To our ears last century’s prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon, may sound little quaint and old-fashioned. Nevertheless he still makes his point very well: “Get then, Christian brethren and friends, get assurance; be not content with hope, get confidence; rest not in faith, labour after the full assurance of faith; and never be content, my hearer, till thou canst say thou knowest thine election, thou art sure of thy redemption, and art sure of thy preservation unto that Day.”

Steve Voorwinde

(Prof Steve Voorwinde is Lecturer in New Testament at the Reformed Theological College, Geelong.)