Journal: Masters Seminary Journal
Volume: TMSJ 05:1 (Spring 1994)
Article: Does Assurance Belong to the Essence of Faith? Calvin and the Calvinists
Author: Joel R. Beeke

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MSJ 5:1 (Spr 94) p. 43

Does Assurance Belong to the Essence of Faith?
Calvin and the Calvinists

Joel R. Beeke1

The contemporary church stands in great need of refocusing on the doctrine of assurance if the desirable fruit of Christian living is to abound. A relevant issue in church history centers in whether or not the Calvinists differed from Calvin himself regarding the relationship between faith and assurance. The difference between the two was quantitative and methodological, not qualitative or substantial. Calvin himself distinguished between the definition of faith and the reality of faith in the believer’s experience. Alexander Comrie, a representative of the Dutch Second Reformation, held essentially the same position as Calvin in mediating between the view that assurance is the fruit of faith and the view that assurance is inseparable from faith. He and some other Calvinists differ from Calvin in holding to a two-tier approach to the consciousness of assurance. So Calvin and the Calvinists furnish the church with a model to follow that is greatly needed today.

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Today many infer that the doctrine of personal assurance—that is, the certainty of one’s own salvation—is no longer relevant since nearly all Christians possess assurance in an ample degree. On the contrary, it is probably true that the doctrine of assurance has particular relevance, because today’s Christians live in a day of minimal, not maximal, assurance.

MSJ 5:1 (Spr 94) p. 44

Scripture, the Reformers, and post-Reformation men repeatedly offer the reminder that personal assurance of salvation is recognizable by its fruits: a close life of fellowship with God; a tender, filial relationship marked with childlike obedience; a thirsting after God and spiritual exercises that extol Him; a longing to glorify Him by the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Where assurance abounds, mission-mindedness prevails. Assured believers pray for and anticipate revival, view heaven as their home, and long for the Second Advent of Christ and their translation to glory (2 Tim 4:6–8).

Assurance, like salvation, is double-sided. It is the summit of intimacy by which the believer both knows Christ and knows he is known by Him. Assurance is not a self-given persuasion, but a Spirit-applied certainty which moves the Christian Godward through Christ.

Today these God-glorifying fruits are often seriously lacking. The desire to fellowship with God, the sense of the reality of heaven, the relish for God’s glory, and intercession for revival all fall short of a former day. Whenever the church’s emphasis on earthly g...

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