Assurance of Saving Faith
From Studies on Saving Faith by A.W. Pink
“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man,
but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Proverbs 14:12)
The different states through which the professing Church passes, calls for different ministry. There is such a thing as “a word spoken in due season” Proverbs 15:23: O that it may please God to open the eyes of many to see what is most “seasonable” for the degenerate times in which our lot is cast, and grant them spiritual discernment to recognize that even many portions of Divine truth may prove highly injurious to souls if given them out of season.
On every side are people full of assurance, certain that they are journeying to Heaven; yet their daily lives show plainly that they are deceived, and that their assurance is only a fleshly one. Thousands are, to use their own words, “resting” on John 3:16, 5:24, and have not the slightest doubt they will spend eternity with Christ. Nevertheless it is the bounden duty of every real servant of God to tell the great majority of them that they are woefully deluded by Satan. O that it may please God to give us the ear and serious attention of some of them.
Now dear reader, you too may be quite sure that your faith in Christ is true . . . and yet, after all, be mistaken. The danger of this is not to be fancied, but real. The human heart is dreadfully deceitful (Jer 17:9). God’s Word plainly warns us that “There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness” (Proverbs 30:12). Do you ask (O that you may, in deep earnestness and sincerity), How can I be sure that my faith is a genuine and saving one? The answer is, Test it. Make certain that it is the “faith of God’s elect” (Titus 1:1). Ascertain whether or no your faith is accompanied with those fruits which are inseparable from a God-given and Spirit-wrought faith.
Probably many are ready to say, There is no need for me to be put to any such trouble; I know that my faith is a saving one, for I am resting on the finished work of Christ. But dear friend, it is foolish to talk like that. God Himself bids His people to make their “calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10). Is that a needless exhortation? O pit not your vain confidence against Divine wisdom. It is Satan who is striving so hard to keep many from this very task, lest they discover that their house is built on the sand. There is hope for one who discovers his illusion, but there is none for those who go on believing the Devil’s lie, and rest content with the very real but false peace which he gives to so many of his poor victims.
God Himself has supplied us with tests, and we are mad if we do not avail ourselves of them, and honestly measure ourselves by them. “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe (more intelligently) on the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13). The Holy Spirit Himself moved one of His servants to write a whole Epistle to instruct us how we might know whether or not we have eternal life. Does that look as though the question may be determined and settled as easily as so many present-day preachers and writers represent it? If nothing more than a firm persuasion of the truth of John 3:16 or John 5:24 be needed to assure me of my salvation, then why did God give a whole Epistle to instruct us on this subject?
Let the really concerned soul read slowly and thoughtfully through this first epistle of John, and let him duly observe that not once in its five chapters are we told “We know that we have passed from death unto life because we are resting on the finished work of Christ.” The total absence of such a statement ought, surely, to convince us that something must be radically wrong with so much of the popular teaching of the day on this subject. But not only is there no such declaration made in this epistle, the very first passage which contains the familiar “we know” is quite the reverse of what is now being so widely advocated as the ground of Christian assurance “And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 Jo 2:3). Is not that plain enough? A godly life is the first proof that I am a child of God.
But let us observe the solemn declaration that immediately follows. “He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” (1John 2:4). Do these words anger you? We trust not: they are God’s, not ours. Do you refuse to read any more of this article? That would be a bad sign: an honest heart does not fear the light. A sincere soul is willing to be searched by the Truth. If you are unable to endure now the feeble probings of one of His servants, how will it fare in a soon-coming day when the Lord Himself shall search you through and through? O dear friend, give your poor soul a fair chance, be willing to ascertain whether your faith is real wheat, or only chaff. If it prove to be the latter, there is still time for you to humble yourself before God and cry unto Him to give you saving faith. But in that Day it will be too late!
“He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth notHis commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4). How plain and pointed is this language! How awful its clear intimation! Do you not see, dear reader, this verse plainly implies that there are those who claim to know Christ, and yet are liars. The father of lies has deceived them, and he is doing everything in his power to keep them from being undeceived. That is why the unregenerate reader finds this article so unpalatable, and wishes to turn from it. O resist this inclination, we beseech you. God has given us this very verse by which we may measure ourselves, and discover whether or not our “assurance of salvation” will stand the test of His Holy Word. Then act not like the silly ostrich, which buries his head in the sand rather than face his danger.
Let us quote one more verse from this first “we know” passage in John’s Epistle’ “But whoso keepeth His Word, in him verily is the love of God perfected’ hereby know we that we are in Him” (1 John 2:5). This stands in sharp contrast from the preceding verse. The apostle was here moved to set before us some clear scriptural evidences of spiritual faith and love, which constitute the vital difference between sheep and goats. In 1 John 2:4 it is the empty professor who says “I know Christ as my personal Saviour.” He has a theoretical, but not a vital knowledge of Him. He boasts that he is resting on Christ’s finished work, and is confident that he is saved; but keeps not His commandments. He is still a self-pleaser. Like Solomon’s sluggard, he is “wiser in his own conceits than seven men that can give a reason” (Proverbs 26:16). He talks boldly, but walks carelessly.
In 1 John 2:5 it is the genuine Christian who is in view. He does not say “I know Him,” instead he proves it. The apostle is not here presenting Christ as the immediate Object of faith, but is describing him who has savingly fled to the Lord for refuge, and this, by the effects produced. In him Christ’s Word is everything: his food, his constant meditation, his chart. He “keeps” it, in memory, in heart, in action. Christ’s “commandments” occupy his thoughts and prayers as much as do His promises. That Word working in him, subdues his carnal desires, feeds his graces, and draws them into real exercise and act. That Word has such a place in his heart and mind that he cannot but give proof of the same in his talk and walk. In this way the “love of God is perfected”: the Family likeness is plainly stamped upon him; all can see to which “father” he belongs-contrast John 8:44.
“Whoso keepeth His Word … hereby (in this way) know we that we are in Him.” Keep His Word perfectly? No. But actually, characteristically, in deep desire and honest effort to do so. Yes. Regeneration is that miracle of Divine grace wrought in the soul which enlists the affections God-ward, which brings the human will into subjection to the Divine, and which produces a real and radical change in the life. That change is from worldliness to godliness, from disobedience to obedience. At the new birth, the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit, and that love is manifested in a dominating longing and sincere purpose to please in all things the One who has plucked me as a brand from the burning. There is a greater difference between the genuine Christian and the deceived professing Christian than there is between a living man and a corpse. None need remain in doubt if they will honestly measure themselves by the Holy Word of God.
About the Author
A.W. Pink (1886-1952) has become recognized as one of the most able and most prolific Evangelical writers of the 20th century. Born in Nottingham, England, to Christian parents, but attracted as a young man to satanic religion and phenomena, he was dramatically converted in 1908, and proceeded after some Bible training to pastor Baptist churches in the U.S., Australia and England, before “retiring” in Scotland to devote himself almost solely to writing. His view of the visible church in his day remains apt today: “The vast majority of the churches are in a sorry state. Those that are out-and-out worldly are at their wits’ end to invent new devices for drawing a crowd. Others which still preserve an outward form of godliness provide nothing substantial for the soul.” His most popular book has continued to be The Sovereignty of God; other notable works include his Exposition of Hebrews, and lives of Elijah and Elisha; and his monthly magazine, Studies in the Scriptures, published without interruption for three decades despite a world war and many other trials, was the source of material for most of his later works. He has been falsely accused of hyper-Calvinism, though he held to the same historic, evangelistic Calvinism as Matthew Henry and C.H. Spurgeon; and of isolationism, though in his secluded later years, he wrote some 20,000 ministerial letters in corresponding with the many who sought his godly counsel.