Many readers of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress remember the scene in which Christian leaves the City of Destruction and begins his journey toward the Celestial City. The story is an allegory of the Christian life, and Bunyan fills it with images that illustrate biblical theology.
After Christian passes through the Narrow Gate and comes to the Cross, the burden on his back falls away. Three Shining Ones appear, clothing him in new garments and giving him a sealed scroll. Christian is not told everything the scroll contains, but he is told to keep it close and to present it when he reaches the Celestial City. As the story unfolds, the scroll becomes a source of comfort to him. When he looks at it, he has assurance that the journey will end in welcome rather than rejection.
But then, on the Hill of Difficulty, Christian grows weary. He comes to a pleasant arbor built for the refreshment of pilgrims, sits down, pulls out his scroll, and reads it for comfort. Then he falls asleep. While he sleeps, the scroll slips from his hand.
When he wakes, he continues up the hill until he meets Timorous and Mistrust running in the opposite direction. They warn him of lions ahead. Christian is frightened and instinctively reaches for his scroll to read it and be comforted, but it is gone.
His distress is immediate. The scroll had been his comfort and his evidence of salvation. Without it, the path ahead seems dark and dangerous. He remembers the arbor, returns in sorrow, rebukes himself for his negligence, and searches carefully until, at last, he finds the scroll under the bench. Bunyan writes that Christian takes it up with trembling haste, places it again in his bosom, gives thanks to God, and resumes the journey with joy and tears.
That scene beautifully illustrates the doctrine of assurance. When Christians possess assurance of salvation, they can walk even the most difficult parts of the path with joy and anticipation. When assurance is shaken or lost, they may experience sorrow, fear, confusion, and dread. The path itself may not have changed, but their sense of security has.
The eighteenth chapter of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith addresses this very subject. It is titled “Of Assurance of Grace and Salvation.” It follows immediately after Chapter 17, “Of the Perseverance of the Saints,” and the placement is hardly accidental. The two chapters belong together. Perseverance tells us that God preserves His redeemed people. Assurance tells us that believers may know, in this life, that they belong to those preserved people.
The Meaning of Assurance
The doctrine of assurance begins with a simple but deeply practical question: Can a true Christian know that he is saved?
The Confession’s answer is yes. True assurance is possible for believers. But the Confession is also careful. Assurance is not the same as presumption. It is not mere optimism, temperament, religious confidence, or the memory of having once made a profession of faith. Nor is assurance identical to saving faith itself. A person may have true faith and yet lack settled assurance for a time.
Christian assurance is a Spirit-wrought certainty grounded in Christ, confirmed by the graces of the Spirit, and ordinarily attained through biblical means. It does not require an extraordinary revelation. The believer does not need a voice from heaven, a vision, or a special sign from God in order to possess true assurance. God gives assurance through the gospel, through the Spirit’s work, through the evidences of grace, and through the ordinary means He has appointed.
The Confession begins by acknowledging the sobering reality that temporary believers and unregenerate people may deceive themselves with false hopes and fleshly presumptions. Some people believe they possess God’s favor when they do not. Their hope will perish.
Yet the Confession does not stop there. It also insists that those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus, love Him sincerely, and endeavor to walk before Him in good conscience may be certainly assured, in this life, that they are in a state of grace. They may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, and that hope will not put them to shame.
So the doctrine cuts in two directions. It warns the presumptuous, and it comforts the sincere. It refuses to flatter the spiritually careless, and it refuses to crush the weak.
Why the Church Needs This Doctrine
Many systematic theology books discuss assurance, but not all of them devote a full chapter to it. The 1689 Confession does. The writers of the Confession were not merely arranging doctrines for academic debate. They were writing for real Christians, real churches, real pastors, real consciences. They knew that believers ask questions like these:
Can a true Christian know he is saved?
Can someone think he is saved and still be deceived?
Why do sincere believers sometimes lack assurance?
Can assurance be weakened or lost?
If it is lost, can it be recovered?
What should pastors, parents, counselors, and church members say to the presumptuous nominal Christian?
What should they say to the doubting believer?
What should they say to the Christian walking in darkness?
This doctrine is not only for anxious Christians. It is not only for the naturally introspective, the tender-conscienced, or those inclined toward constant self-examination. Every believer needs to understand assurance because every believer needs to understand both the danger of false peace and the misery of needless despair.
Assurance protects the church in both directions.
On one side, it protects against false peace. Not everyone who professes faith in Christ is truly united to Christ. A person may have religious experiences, Christian vocabulary, memories of church, and confidence about salvation without possessing saving faith.
On the other side, assurance protects against unnecessary despair. Some believers are sincere, repentant, and truly trusting in Christ, yet they are weak, fearful, and uncertain. They need comfort, not suspicion. They need to be pointed again to Christ, not driven deeper into themselves.
The doctrine of assurance teaches us to make careful distinctions between salvation itself and the assurance of salvation, between the ground of salvation and the evidences of salvation, between weak faith and false faith, between humility and unbelief, and between a tender conscience and spiritual paralysis.
Assurance and Perseverance
The doctrine of assurance cannot be separated from the doctrine of perseverance.
Chapter 17 of the Confession teaches that those whom God has accepted in Christ, effectually called, sanctified by His Spirit, and given saving faith, cannot totally or finally fall from grace. They will certainly persevere to the end and be eternally saved because God’s gifts and calling are irrevocable.
That is the foundation underneath Chapter 18.
Assurance asks a more experiential question: Can believers know that the promises of perseverance are true of them personally? Can they know that they are children of God? Can they know that they are being kept by His power?
The short answer is yes.
Perseverance and assurance are distinct, but they belong together. If assurance is detached from perseverance, it becomes unstable. How can anyone have settled assurance if salvation can finally be lost? But if perseverance is detached from assurance, comfort becomes unstable. Hope becomes little more than wishful thinking.
Perseverance is God’s preservation of His redeemed people. Assurance is the believer’s Spirit-given knowledge and confidence concerning that preservation.
A person may claim assurance while lacking true perseverance, which is nothing more than presumption. A person may truly be persevering and yet lack assurance, which can lead to spiritual distress. Chapter 18 addresses both.
Assurance in the Larger Logic of the Confession
The chapter on assurance does not appear out of nowhere. It grows out of the whole theological structure of the Confession.
Chapter 3, on God’s decree, teaches that the doctrine of predestination must be handled with prudence and care, so that those who heed God’s revealed will and obey Him may be assured of their eternal election by the certainty of their effectual calling. Assurance is not gained by prying into God’s secret decrees. It is gained by attending to His revealed will.
Chapter 8, on Christ the Mediator, gives the ground of assurance. From all eternity, the Father gave a people to the Son; in time, that people would be redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified by Him. Assurance rests on Christ’s obedience, blood, righteousness, intercession, and saving work. When a Christian asks, “How can I know I am saved?” the first answer is not, “Look deeply into yourself.” The first answer is, “Look to Christ as He is revealed in the gospel.”
Chapter 10, on effectual calling, distinguishes between true saving work and mere external religion. Some may be called outwardly by the ministry of the Word and may experience ordinary operations of the Spirit without being savingly drawn to Christ. This distinction is essential for assurance. Not every religious response is regeneration, and not every profession is union with Christ.
Chapter 11, on justification, reminds us that faith receives and rests on Christ and His righteousness. We are not justified by anything we have done. Therefore, the ultimate ground of assurance cannot be our performance. The believer’s confidence must return again and again to what Christ has done.
Chapter 12, on adoption, adds another crucial piece. Those who are justified receive the grace of adoption in Christ. They are counted among the children of God, receive the Spirit of adoption, have access to the throne of grace, and are enabled to cry, “Abba, Father.” They are pitied, protected, provided for, chastened as children, sealed for the day of redemption, and never cast off. Assurance includes the Spirit’s witness that we are children of God.
Chapter 13, on sanctification, teaches that those united to Christ are given a new heart and a new spirit. The dominion of sin is broken. Sinful desires are weakened and put to death. Saving graces are strengthened. Believers are brought into the practice of true holiness. These graces do not form the ground of salvation, but they do serve as evidence of salvation.
Chapter 16, on good works, says that good works are the fruits and evidence of a true and living faith, and that by them, believers have their assurance strengthened. Chapter 14 teaches that saving faith may be weak or strong, but may grow toward fuller assurance. Chapter 15 teaches that fallen believers are restored through repentance. Chapter 17 teaches that perseverance depends not on our performance, but on God’s preserving grace.
Put together, God saves, God preserves, God gives grounds for assurance, God commands believers to pursue assurance, God may allow assurance to be shaken, and God revives assurance in due time.
The Four Main Teachings of Chapter 18
The four paragraphs of Chapter 18 may be summarized under four headings: assurance is possible, assurance is infallible, assurance is attainable, and assurance is variable. 1
Assurance Is Possible
The first paragraph teaches that true assurance is possible.
This must be said carefully. There are temporary believers and unregenerate people who deceive themselves. They may possess false hope. They may presume upon God’s favor. They may believe they are saved when they are not. But those who truly believe in Christ, love Him sincerely, and endeavor to walk before Him in good conscience may be assured that they are in a state of grace. That assurance is not arrogance or spiritual recklessness. It is one of the privileges God gives His children.
This first paragraph forces us to avoid two opposite errors. We must not offer assurance to everyone who claims to be a Christian. But neither may we deny that true Christians can have real assurance.
Assurance Is Infallible
The second paragraph teaches that assurance is not merely a probable conclusion or a hopeful guess. It is an infallible assurance of faith.
That might sound strange, especially since true believers may lack assurance for a time, but assurance is infallible because it rests on infallible grounds.
The Confession identifies three grounds of assurance.
First, assurance rests on the blood and righteousness of Christ revealed in the gospel. This is the objective foundation. Christ has obeyed. Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ intercedes. In other words, the believer’s hope rests outside himself, in the finished work of the Savior.
Second, assurance is strengthened by the inward evidence of the graces of the Spirit. The Spirit produces real fruit in the lives of God’s people. This evidence does not save us and is not the foundation of our acceptance before God. Even so, faith, repentance, love for Christ, hatred of sin, love for the brethren, and growth in holiness all serve as signs of spiritual life.
Third, assurance is grounded in the testimony of the Spirit of adoption, who witnesses with our spirits that we are children of God. Assurance is not merely an exercise in self-analysis. It is a work of the Holy Spirit.
The fruit of this assurance is humility and holiness. True assurance does not make believers spiritually careless. It does not loosen obedience. It does not produce spiritual pride. A person who uses “assurance” as permission for sin has not understood Christian assurance at all.
Assurance Is Attainable
The third paragraph teaches that assurance is attainable, though not always immediately experienced.
Assurance is not such an essential part of faith that every believer always possesses it in full measure. True Christians may wait a long time and struggle with many difficulties before obtaining settled assurance. A lack of assurance does not automatically mean a lack of faith.
The answer for a struggling believer is not condemnation. The answer is the right use of ordinary means: hearing the Word, receiving the promises of the gospel, prayer, repentance, obedience, self-examination, fellowship with the saints, and renewed looking to Christ.
The Confession says believers should be diligent to make their calling and election sure. This diligence does not undermine grace. It is one of the ways grace operates. As assurance grows, the believer’s heart is enlarged in peace, joy in the Holy Spirit, love and thankfulness to God, and strength and cheerfulness in obedience.
Assurance makes obedience lighter, not heavier. It gives the pilgrim strength for the road.
Assurance Is Variable
The fourth paragraph teaches that assurance may be shaken, decreased, or temporarily lost.
This may happen through negligence because assurance must be preserved. Christian’s scroll slipped from his hand while he slept, illustrating how carelessness can rob a believer of comfort.
Assurance may also be wounded by specific sin. Sin grieves the Spirit and injures the conscience. A believer who walks into known sin should not be surprised when comfort fades.
Assurance may be shaken by sudden or forceful temptation. It may also be obscured when God, for His own wise purposes, withdraws the light of His face and allows even those who fear Him to walk in darkness and have no light.
Yet the Confession does not leave the believer there. True Christians are never completely without the seed of God, the life of faith, love for Christ and the brethren, sincerity of heart, or conscience concerning duty. Through these graces, by the work of the Spirit, assurance may be revived in due time. In the meantime, the believer is kept from utter despair.
Assurance can be shaken, but God does not abandon His children.
Four Errors Confronted by the Doctrine of Assurance
Chapter 18 confronts several errors at once.
The first is the Roman Catholic denial of ordinary assurance. In that view, assurance is generally not available to ordinary believers apart from special revelation. The Confession rejects this. Christians do not need extraordinary revelation to know they are in a state of grace. They may have real assurance through the gospel, the evidences of grace, and the Spirit’s witness.
The second error is Arminian instability. If salvation can finally be lost, assurance becomes temporary at best. A person may feel assured today, but what about tomorrow? Detached from perseverance, assurance loses its firmness. The Confession grounds assurance in the preserving grace of God.
The third error is antinomian presumption. Antinomianism treats God’s moral law as irrelevant for the Christian life. In some circles, this appears as a shallow version of “once saved, always saved,” detached from sanctification, holiness, repentance, and perseverance. The Confession rejects such presumption. A person who lacks holiness altogether has no biblical warrant for assurance.
The fourth error is an overly cautious denial of assurance. Some are so afraid of false assurance that they discourage true assurance. They warn the careless, but they also wound the tender-conscienced. They refuse comfort where Scripture gives it. This, too, is an error. The doctrine of assurance must warn the false professor without crushing the sincere believer.
One error gives assurance where it should not. Another refuses assurance where it should be encouraged. The Confession avoids both.
The Comfort and Discipline of Assurance
Assurance is not a luxury for unusually confident Christians. It is part of the ordinary comfort and discipline of the Christian life.
Without assurance, the believer’s obedience can become fearful. Duties become burdens. Trials become signs of rejection. The path ahead fills with lions. But with assurance, the believer can climb the Hill of Difficulty with courage. This is not because the hill is easy, the lions are imaginary, or the believer is strong in himself, but because Christ is sufficient, God preserves His people, and the Spirit bears witness that the promises of God belong to the believer in Christ.
Still, assurance must never be severed from holiness. The scroll belongs in the pilgrim’s bosom, not forgotten in the arbor. True assurance humbles and steadies the soul. It sends the Christian back to Christ, back to repentance, and back to obedience.
The believer’s hope does not rest on shifting feelings, religious performance, or private impressions. It rests on the finished work of Jesus Christ: His blood, His righteousness, His intercession, and the unfailing promises of God.
For that reason, assurance is worth pursuing. It is possible, infallible in its grounds, attainable by ordinary means, and recoverable when shaken. It warns against false peace and guards against needless despair. It teaches the church how to speak both to the careless and to the wounded. And it reminds every pilgrim on the road that the Celestial City is not entered by presumption, but neither is it approached by hopelessness.
The Christian walks with Christ, looks to Christ, and keeps the scroll close.
Headings taken from Modern Exposition of 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith by Samuel Waldron
