http://rss.desiringgod.org/link/10732/14749309/individualism-and-solidarity-in-the-church

I take it that this session — in a breakout track called “Ministry in the World” — is meant to press us back into the world. Steven was assigned to address chaos and confusion, and Erik the sexual revolution. Both of these begin with our being “in the world” and help us think about how to live and minister in ways “not of the world.”

But now, in this session, the force goes the other way. In Christ, and as pastors, we are “not of the world,” and yet, as Jesus says in John 17, we are sent back in, by his commission, to win many for him from the world:

The world has hated them [Jesus prays about his disciples] because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one [keep them from the snare of the devil!]. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. (John 17:14–18)

You hear the direction in Jesus’s prayer. Instead of saying, they are in the world, help them not be of the world, Jesus says they are not of the world, and now I send them in. Jesus doesn’t just play defense; he goes on the offensive. Which, in its own way, is the thrust the final qualification for pastor-elders has in 1 Timothy 3, “well thought of by outsiders.” As Bob Yarbrough comments on 1 Timothy 3:7,

[Paul] assumes that there will be a live connection between those inside and those outside the church. In settings where church communities or their members have grown isolated from “outsiders,” this verse is a reminder that social separation . . . can be overdone and detrimental. (203)

As we take up this focus on 1 Timothy 3:7, it might be good to acknowledge that, for some, this may be the most unexpected or surprising qualification.

Hopefully we’re not surprised to hear that pastor-elders must be able to teach. Not a drunkard? Of course. Not violent? Yes, please. Not quarrelsome? Hmm, okay, that sounds freshly relevant in recent years. But well thought of by outsiders? Hold on. Does this mean that outsiders have a say in who leads the local church?

How many of us would have seen this coming if we didn’t know already that it was here? Some of us might have even assumed the opposite, that the collective disdain of unbelievers would be a great badge of honor, and show what a great weapon a man must be for Christ’s kingdom.

Holy Disregard for Disgrace

Now, clearly, we have a place in the Christian life for a holy disregard for what unbelievers think. Romans 1:18 tells us that unrighteous men “suppress the truth” of God as Creator and sustainer — how much more, then, will they deny and oppose God’s speaking (in the Scriptures) and Christ’s redeeming (in the gospel)? We know this. We should not be shocked when the world acts and responds like the world.

In fact, it is the words of Christ himself that best prepare us not to be “well thought of” (at times) by outsiders:

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” (Matthew 5:11)

“If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household?” (Matthew 10:25)

“Woe to you, when all people speak well of you.” (Luke 6:26)

Let’s make sure we have this clear: the world crucified the one we confess as Lord. Outsiders martyred the apostles, one after another. Surely, then, we might resign ourselves to put very little stock in what outsiders think, especially in what they think of pastor-elders who together teach the word of Christ as central to their calling and lead the local church.

Yet here, in 1 Timothy 3:7, as the culminating qualification for the church’s lead office, we hear that pastor-elders must be well thought of by outsiders.

Of the apostolic voices, Paul has the most to say about outsiders. Let’s try to capture how he would have us orient on outsiders, in four parts, and the fourth will bring us back to 1 Timothy 3:7.

1. Associate with Outsiders

Paul’s first mention of outsiders, in 1 Corinthians 5:9, clarifies that his previous instructions “not to associate with sexually immoral people” did not mean the immoral of the world but the immoral in the church (1 Corinthians 5:10). He was not instructing the Corinthians to separate from outsiders but from the one “who bears the name of brother” yet remains in unrepentant sin (1 Corinthians 5:11). He says in 1 Corinthians 5:12–13,

What have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

To be true to the church, and to the world, we judge within the church on clear sin issues (all the while, per Romans 14 [verses 3, 4, 10, 13], not judging each other on items of mere preference). But as Paul lays that burden on us, to judge “those inside the church,” he lifts another: “God judges those outside.” In Christ, we are liberated from the need to pronounce judgement on “the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters” (1 Corinthians 5:10). Rather, we happily (and carefully) associate with outsiders, seeking to be a means of their redemption by exposing them to the gospel of Christ and demonstrating its counterintuitive fruit in our lives.

And as pastors, and fathers, we kindly and clearly warn our families not to be like those outsiders. And we make sure that the decided influence, in our associations, flows from us to outsiders, not vice versa.

So, first, associate with outsiders.

2. Be Aware of Outsiders

Paul reckons with outsiders again in 1 Corinthians 14. This time the context is corporate worship, and far from ignoring outsiders or planning the gathering in such a way as to estrange them, Paul wants to welcome and engage them. He wants to win them, to repentance and faith in Jesus. To be sure, he does not instruct the church to orient its worship to outsiders but only to keep them in mind when considering the intelligibility of the corporate gathering.

Rather than the indecipherable terms of tongue-speaking, Paul would have the church speak prophetically in its public gatherings, that is, words understandable and clear to all. He asks, “How can anyone in the position of an outsider say ‘Amen’ to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying?” (1 Corinthians 14:16). In other words, his hope is evangelistic:

If . . . the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds [note: this is not something we’re aiming for!]? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. (1 Corinthians 14:23–25)

So, associate with outsiders, and be aware of, even welcome, outsiders.

3. Be Alert to Outsiders

Beyond 1 Corinthians, we find Paul’s pronounced concern for the gospel’s public reputation in the Pastoral Epistles. Whether it’s the conduct of widows (1 Timothy 5:14), or slaves (1 Timothy 6:1; Titus 2:10), or young women (Titus 2:5), Paul would have Christians seek “in everything [to] adorn the doctrine of God our Savior” (Titus 2:10) and not bring any justifiable reviling on the name, teaching, and word of God (1 Timothy 6:1; Titus 2:5). He would have Christians be concerned “to show perfect courtesy toward all people” (Titus 3:2) and care that our good works “are excellent and profitable for people” (Titus 3:8), within the church and outside. It is a striking theme in the letters to Timothy and Titus.

It matters to Paul, and to Jesus, that we “walk properly before outsiders” (1 Thessalonians 4:12). Christ expects his church, in the power of his Spirit, to “walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” (Colossians 4:5–6). (Interesting he moves from outsiders to speech; we’ll come back to that.)

So, associate with outsiders; be aware of outsiders; and be alert to outsiders.

4. Ask About Outsiders

Now we come back to Paul’s own explanation of the qualification in 1 Timothy 3:7.

Let me offer three observations, then, about verse 7, the one stand-alone-sentence and final qualification.

1. The qualification presses us toward specifics.

The ESV has “he must be well thought of by outsiders.” A more literal rendering would be: “But it is also necessary to have a good witness from outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace and a trap of the devil.”

Note the difference: “to have a good witness from outsiders” pushes us toward specific outsider testimonies, rather than some general, amorphous sense in the air of what outsiders think. This sounds like we would do well to ask a few particular “outsiders” to bear witness about the man — say, those who work with him, or live near him, or have played or coached with him, or went to school with him. A wise council of elders might check some references and solicit testimonies from flesh-and-blood associates, outside the church, who have known the candidate well in real-life situations.

“Mark this: a ‘good witness’ from outsiders means not just the absence of a bad witness, but an actual ‘good witness.’”

And mark this: a “good witness” from outsiders means not just the absence of a bad witness, but more positively, an actual “good witness.” He is “to have a good witness” from those outside the church, which gets at that “live connection between those inside and those outside the church.” Is the candidate’s, or the sitting pastor’s, social separation overdone or detrimental? Does he know many, or any, outsiders?

Another question we might ask is whether the Titus 1 list includes any analogous requirement. We do find the related “above reproach” (twice) that also leads the 1 Timothy 3 list. And it would be worth pondering how many of these attributes, especially the negative ones, will be evident to outsiders, not just fellow insiders: “not . . . arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain” (Titus 1:7).

Beyond those, we might point to the specifics, in Titus 1:8, “hospitable” and “a lover of good” (both phila- roots, philozenon philagathon). Hospitable, of course, is literally “a lover of strangers,” or outsiders. Jesus commends the welcoming of strangers (Matthew 25:35); Paul reminds Gentile Christians that we were once strangers to the covenants of promise (Ephesians 2:12); now we are no longer strangers, but members of God’s household (Ephesians 2:19); and in Hebrews 11:13, even now, in this age, we are strangers and exiles. We have been strangers to Christ, and in being bought near to him, we have newly become strangers to the world. We know about being strangers, and what it’s like to be welcomed with divine hospitality.

So too “lover of good” has in it a kind of outward impulse that relates to moving toward and acting honorably among outsiders. “Lovers of good” are men who are wide- and warm-hearted, maturely magnanimous. They believe in good, and look for good (among insiders and outsiders alike). They do good, and genuinely love the good. They demonstrate the broad hearts and capacious, expansive souls that, in time, become bracing evidence of a sinner’s supernatural encounter with God himself in Christ.

So, again, the qualification is not simply “well thought of” but “have a good witness from outsiders” — which presses us to ask about specifics.

And to ask ourselves, do I “have a good witness from outsiders”? Do I know multiple outsiders well enough, whether neighbors or other associates, that they could give “a good witness” on my behalf? Am I making investments in the places I live, work, and play, serving in my town or city, as to be personally known by individual outsiders?

2. The reason is to avoid disgrace.

Paul gives us his explanation for including “well thought of by outsiders”: “so that [the pastor-elder] may not fall into disgrace.” So, we have two distinct realities here: first is the life leading up to and surrounding the pastoral office, that is, the pastor’s reputation with outsiders. Then, secondly, we have the possibility of one of the church’s pastors, while in office, falling into a state of public disgrace.

Now, Paul’s concern with “disgrace” (or “reproach,” Greek oneidismos) is surely not a condemning of all possible disgrace, whatever the terms. Elsewhere this term for “disgrace” or “reproach” refers to what Jesus bore for us (Romans 15:3), or the righteous reproach, gospel reproach, Christians bear when suffering for Jesus’s sake (Hebrews 10:32–33; 11:26; 13:13–14).

A question, then, we might ask about any public reproach or disgrace that a pastor-elder endures is this: Is it “the reproach [Jesus] endured”? Is it gospel reproach? Is it, then, a necessary disgrace, because Christ and his truth is the real issue, or is this unnecessary disgrace because the pastor himself has failed the truth, or failed to exercise wisdom or failed to conduct himself Christianly, disobeying Christ’s commands?

In other words, as 1 Timothy 3:7 highlights, is it unrighteous reproach? Is it disgrace from outsiders that is deserved because of foolish and sinful attitudes and actions in the church’s leaders?

So, practically, if there is some disgrace related to a pastoral candidate, let’s say, a key question to ask would be: Why is this reproach, this disgrace, falling on him? Is it because of his own folly, just as much on Christ’s terms as the world’s? Is he a “fool for Christ’s sake” (1 Corinthians 4:9–13) or a fool in Christ’s eyes as well? Is he speaking truth but in an un-Christian way?

What if a pastor is clean of disgrace when called, and then begins to acquire a worsening reputation while a pastor? Stephen might serve as a good example for us on this. Acts 6:3 gives us the first ever officer qualification specified in the church age. Do you know what it is? Good reputation. “Brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute [“well spoken of”], full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty” (Acts 6:3). Stephen had a good reputation when he became one of the Seven. How long did that last? It doesn’t sound like very long.

So, what is the church to do when some outsiders who rose up to dispute with Stephen “secretly instigated men who said, ‘We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God’” (Acts 6:11)? The church knew what Stephen actually said and what he meant. Clearly, this is gospel reproach, for Jesus’s sake, and so you stand by your officer. Acts 6:13 says the witnesses who came against him were false. (And there may be a difference to consider between standing by your already appointed officer and newly making an officer of a man with an already disgraced name.)

In Matthew 5:11, Jesus says, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you” — and then he says, “falsely on my account.” If the reproach heaped on a pastor-elder is “false on Jesus’s account,” the outside witnesses do not carry the day. Stand by your man.

So, the qualification presses us to ask about specifics. The reason is to avoid public disgrace. And finally, what about that last phrase in verse 7?

3. The devil delights to disgrace the church.

The end of verse 7 says, “so that he may not fall into disgrace and a trap of the devil.” Here we have two nouns, connected by and: disgrace and a trap of the devil. How does the “and” work?

Does it mean that the devil’s trap is a second and additional reality beyond disgrace (like two stages, first public disgrace, then the disgraced pastor subsequently falls into a trap)? Or is the snare a second way of saying the first — that disgracing the pastor is the devil’s trap? I think the latter makes more sense, in the context and more broadly — that public disgrace is the devil’s special trap, his frequent scheme, how he draws it up and designs it. He works the angles all the time to publicly disgrace pastors. That’s exactly what he wants: publicly disgraced pastors, and their churches with them.

“The devil loves it when Christian leaders, of all people, give outsiders valid, reasonable cause for disgrace.”

A disgraced pastor — who is reproached by outsiders, not on false or gospel terms, but on the moral terms of Christianity itself — is a trap Satan loves to exploit. He squeals with delight as the jaws snap shut. And with it, he kills three birds with one stone. He renders the pastor himself less effective, if not totally ineffective; he injures or torpedoes the faith of some insiders; and he solidifies unbelief in outsiders — whom he wants to keep from the gospel. He wants outsiders to remain just that, outside the church, and in his clutches. So, the devil loves it, when Christian leaders, of all people, give outsiders valid, reasonable cause for disgrace. (And he loves to use modern media to magnify it.)

Again, it’s one thing to be a fool for Jesus, but quite another to be foolish just as much on heaven’s terms as the world’s.

Brothers, let’s know the devil’s devices and beware his schemes. He tempts leaders in the church, and aspiring leaders, into the kinds of sins that will bring reproach on them and the church. So, beware the perennial temptations related to money, sex, and power. And beware the new field of public temptations in our generation that many, sadly, are not yet taking as seriously as we will learn to in the future: online self-disgrace, with worldly outrage, hot-takes, and rash comments.

And we might take special warning as pastors, as men for whom words often come so easy. In previous generations, Satan would disgrace pastors as others spread the news about a pastor’s sins and folly. Today Satan adds to his schemes the delicious strategy that pastors can just directly disgrace themselves with public online folly.

Why Care About Outsiders

To be clear, the world does not choose the church’s leaders. The thoughts and opinions of outsiders are not ultimate. But they do matter. We ignore them to our own peril, and we should not presume public disgrace as a mark of faithfulness. To the question, “Should we care what outsiders think?” the biblical answer is just as much yes as it is no (if not more so yes; the no’s are exceptions, not the rule). But most significant is why: that outsiders may be saved. We want both to keep believing sheep in and to win more from the world, as Paul did:

Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. (1 Corinthians 10:32–33)

“The thoughts and opinions of outsiders are not ultimate. But they do matter.”

In the end, outsiders matter to us because they matter to Jesus. And he has other sheep, he says, to bring in (John 10:16). He delights to make outsiders into friends, and brothers, as he has done with us. And we hope and pray that he has many more in our towns and cities who are his (Acts 18:10).

Outsiders matter to us because such were all of us. But we have been brought in. And good pastors know, firsthand, that Christ loves to take frail, former outsiders and make us his instruments for bringing in more, and for leading his church with such hearts and dreams and prayers.

ABSTRACT: The Puritans wrote dozens of books on faith and assurance, seeking to clarify and apply these doctrines for the members of their churches, and especially for the weakest of the sheep. Among all the Puritans’ writings, chapter 18 of the Westminster Confession of Faith captures their pastoral wisdom on assurance in four clear, succinct paragraphs. Here, the Westminster divines clarify the hope of assurance, the ground of assurance, the means and fruits of assurance, and the loss and recovery of assurance — all with an eye toward offering wise pastoral counsel for all the believers in their flocks, whatever their spiritual circumstances.

For our ongoing series of feature articles for pastors, leaders, and teachers, we asked Joel Beeke, President and Professor of Systematic Theology and Homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, to offer lessons from the Puritans on assurance in pastoral practice.

With regard to Christian doctrines, the Puritans were not, for the most part, great innovators, but they were great appliers. Generally speaking, they were thoroughly Reformed and intentional in their theology. As with their theological forbears, the Reformers, the Puritans resolved to be thoroughly scriptural and happily stood on the shoulders of the Reformers and taught the same biblical doctrines to their generation. But they did so with a great deal more emphasis on application.

This ought not be surprising. The Reformers were occupied largely with hammering out great cardinal doctrines such as justification by faith alone, how to worship God publicly, God’s irresistible free grace versus human free will, and more — much of which is summarized in their five major solas: sola Scriptura, sola fide, solus Christus, sola gratia, and soli Deo gloria. Thus, the Puritans, having the luxury of the Reformers’ biblical treatises before them, could afford the time to address the “how-to” questions of application: How does Bible doctrine apply to daily life? How can I live soli Deo Gloria as a godly husband, a godly wife, a godly child?

Hence, the Puritans wrote at least thirty books on how to live to God’s glory in marriage and family life. They wrote at least forty books on how to meditate. They added more volumes on how to do our daily work to God’s glory, how to live a godly life in our secular professions, and how to live zealously for the glory of God in every area of life.

How Can I Find Assurance?

The Puritans also wrote extensively on the practicalities of living by faith, practicalities that boiled down to this: How can I live so fully by faith that I may know with certainty that I have saving faith — that is to say, how can I be assured in the depths of my soul that, in union with Christ, I have been regenerated and adopted into God’s family, and will be with Christ forever in heaven? Hence, they wrote dozens of books on faith and assurance, and called their hearers to practice self-examination to “make their calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10).

The Puritans did not write extensively on assurance of faith because they wanted to be excessively introspective or “navel-gazers,” as they have been accused by some who have, for the most part, not read their books. Rather, they wanted to trace out in detail the Holy Spirit’s saving work in their own souls in order to (1) give glory to the triune God for his mighty and miraculous work of salvation in them, (2) do good to their own souls by building up their convictions about God and their own salvation, and (3) assist weak believers who needed pastoral advice and assistance to grow in their knowledge and assurance of Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord, and through this precious Mediator, to grow in their knowledge of each divine person of the Trinity.

Look with me especially at this third point as we address the question, How did the Puritan pastors use their doctrine of personal assurance of salvation to assist believers in living the Christian life? And what lessons can we learn today from their pastoral specialization in the vast field of experiential Christianity connected with the assurance of salvation?

An exhaustive article on this subject would certainly turn into a book, as there are scores of areas that could be discussed. Rather than skate over the surface, I want to address twelve of the most important pastoral ways that Puritan pastors, as physicians of souls, assisted the members of their flocks, helping them to gain robust measures of full assurance of faith. We find the most important confessional chapter ever written on the subject in the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 18, “Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation.” I will provide three pastoral helps from each of these four paragraphs (hereafter: WCF 18.1–4).

WCF 18.1: Hope of Assurance

Although hypocrites, and other unregenerate men, may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favour of God, and estate of salvation (which hope of theirs shall perish): yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus and love Him in sincerity, endeavouring to walk in all good conscience before Him, may, in this life, be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace, and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, which hope shall never make them ashamed.

Pastoral Help 1: An important distinction exists between the false hopes and carnal presumptions of the unbeliever on the one hand, and the true assurance and well-grounded hope of the believer on the other.

To make this distinction clear, Puritan pastors distinguished for their church members the difference between what they called historical and temporary faith on the one hand, and saving faith on the other. The former ultimately rests on self-confidence born merely out of intellectual convictions (historical faith) or emotional joy (temporary faith) — as, for example, in the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:20–21) — while the latter humbles us before God and teaches us to rely wholly on the righteousness of Christ alone for salvation.

Pastoral Help 2: Some degree of assurance of salvation is biblical and normative in the lives of God’s people.

Pastorally, this helped Puritan pastors maintain in their people the conviction that though full, robust assurance of salvation may not be common to all believers, some degree of assurance is (even if it is only in seed form) and is always inseparable from saving faith in Christ. Every part of WCF 18.1 is connected with Jesus: believe in him; love him; walk before him. By maintaining this conviction, Puritan pastors sought to avoid the problem of a two-tier Christianity in which few in the first tier ever make it to the second. This emphasis also encouraged believers, whatever degree of assurance they may have possessed, always to strive for more, so that they might grow in the grace and knowledge of their Savior.

Pastoral Help 3: Assurance of salvation is not essential for salvation or for the being or existence of saving faith, though it is essential for the well-being of faith.

The Puritans made this distinction so that weak believers or newly saved believers would not despair if they did not yet possess full assurance of salvation, but also that they would not rest content without full assurance of salvation. This kept believers biblically balanced in recognizing that though it is possible to be saved without assurance, it is scarcely possible to be a healthy Christian without assurance.

In Puritan thinking, this also implies that believers may possess saving faith without the joy and full assurance that they possess it. This helped Puritan pastors deal with the reality that some believers seem to possess a great deal more faith and assurance than they realize, whereas other believers seem to more easily become fully conscious of possessing a full assurance of faith. In this, the Puritans followed Calvin, who said in his Commentary on John 20:3 that the disciples seem to have had saving faith without awareness that they had it as they approached the empty tomb.

WCF 18.2: Grounds of Assurance

This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion grounded upon a fallible hope; but an infallible assurance of faith founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation, the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made, the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God, which Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption.

Pastoral Help 4: Assurance of salvation is grounded in the promises of God and buttressed by personal sanctification and the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit.

The proper starting point for all true assurance of salvation is “the divine truth of the promises of salvation” set forth in Holy Scripture, “the promises of God” sealed with God’s own “yea and amen” in his Son, Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 1:19–20). Puritan pastors taught their hearers that though self-examination is important, they should nevertheless take ten looks to Christ for every look they take to their inner spiritual condition. They taught that as assurance grows, God’s promises become increasingly real to the believer personally and experientially, as they experience the truth and power of those promises. The promises ground our assurance, and our assurance emboldens our faith to make further appropriation of the promises, which brings us into fuller, more intimate communion with Christ.

“Though full, robust assurance of salvation may not be common to all believers, some degree of assurance is.”

Further to encourage believers pastorally, the Puritans stressed that the more we know experientially of all three kinds of assurance, the more robust our assurance will be and the more we will live entirely for God. Happily, the Puritans taught their parishioners that the Holy Spirit, upon whom we are dependent for all our assurance, is more than willing to work all three kinds of assurance in us — in fact, without him, we would lose all genuine assurance, and even faith itself.

Pastoral Help 5: Assurance of salvation is strengthened by the Spirit shedding light on the believer’s biblical marks of grace — such as the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22–23, and the various evidences sprinkled throughout 1 John — so that the believer can clearly see at least some of these saving marks of grace being worked out in his or her own heart and life by the very grace of that same Spirit, and thus cannot but conclude he or she is a child of God.

The Puritan pastor would tenderly advise the church member longing to grow in assurance of salvation, “Turn to the evidences of grace that are laid out for us in Scripture; ask the Spirit to shed light on them for you; then, as you examine yourself, if you can say with assurance that even one of these evidences is your experience, you can be assured that you are a child of God — even if you can’t see other evidences in you.”

Pastoral Help 6: Assurance of salvation is also strengthened by the direct witnessing testimony of the Holy Spirit himself speaking in God’s word.

A number of Puritans (such as Thomas Goodwin and Henry Scudder) taught that a direct witness of the Holy Spirit to the believer’s soul through the word can give a substantial increase to a believer’s assurance and comfort, especially in times of great need. For example, when the Spirit applies to the soul a special promise, such as, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee” (Jeremiah 31:3 KJV), with considerable power and sweetness — such that the believer enjoys a profound experience of communion with God and of his love and a profound sight of the beauty and glory of Christ — that immediate or direct witness of the Spirit to the believer can give a large boost to his or her assurance. At such times, the believer feels that the intimately personal application of the word to his soul seems to be the most suitable text in the entire Bible for his particular need.

WCF 18.3: Means and Fruits of Assurance

This infallible assurance doth not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties, before he be partaker of it: yet, being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of God, he may, without extraordinary revelation, in the right use of ordinary means, attain thereunto. And therefore it is the duty of every one to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure, that thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience, the proper fruits of this assurance; so far is it from inclining men to looseness.

Pastoral Help 7: Though God remains sovereign in granting various degrees of assurance, assurance of salvation usually grows by degrees within believers in conjunction with the growth of knowledge, faith, and experience, especially through trials.

To encourage young believers who struggled with acquiring larger degrees of assurance, the Puritans stated that “a true believer may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties, before he be partaker of” assurance (WCF 18.3), but the relationship between faith and assurance usually strengthens over time, “growing up in many to the attainment of a full assurance” (WCF 14.3). Grace usually grows with age, and as faith increases, other graces increase. Age and experience, however, do not guarantee assurance. And it is possible for God to plant faith and full assurance simultaneously.

By maintaining the normativity of assurance growing over time through exercises of faith and various trials in the daily experience of life, and yet allowing for young believers at times to have large dosages of assurance, the Puritans aimed to minister pastorally to their people, encouraging them to press on to make their calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:5–10).

Pastoral Help 8: God normally uses the spiritual disciplines he has appointed for his people as the means to grow assurance of salvation.

The Puritans are abundantly clear in stating that the believer “may, without extraordinary revelation [contrary to Roman Catholicism], in the right use of ordinary means, attain” to assurance (emphasis mine). Four means are predominant in Puritan thought: God’s word (read and preached and meditated upon), the sacraments (baptism and the Lord’s Supper), prayer (personal, domestic, and public), and affliction (including conflicts, doubts, trials, and temptations). By stressing these spiritual disciplines as means that the Spirit uses to grow assurance, the Puritans were teaching their people that it is every believer’s duty to pursue assurance diligently, and how best to do it.

In short, God commands us to pursue assurance prayerfully, obediently, and fervently, promising that his normal way is to bless these endeavors. Then too, the Puritan stress on duty reinforced the conviction that assurance must never be regarded as the privilege only of exceptional saints, but that at least some degree of it is normative for every believer.

Pastoral Help 9: Assurance produces God-glorifying, delightful fruit.

The Puritans conclude WCF 18.3 by stating that these fruits are such that the believer’s “heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience.” They taught that assurance elevates God-glorifying and soul-enlarging affections. It produces holy living marked by spiritual peace, joyful love, humble gratitude, cheerful obedience, and heartfelt mortification of sin.

In a word, assurance enables faith to reach greater heights, from which all other aspects of Christian character flow. This invigoration of faith results in a new release of spiritual energy at every point in a person’s Christian life. All of these fruits helped the Puritan pastor make assurance of salvation appear most desirable, and certainly worth the effort of pursuing and cultivating with all of one’s soul, mind, and strength.

WCF 18.4: Loss and Recovery of Assurance

True believers may have the assurance of their salvation divers ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted; as, by negligence in preserving of it, by falling into some special sin which woundeth the conscience and grieveth the Spirit; by some sudden or vehement temptation, by God’s withdrawing the light of His countenance, and suffering even such as fear Him to walk in darkness and have no light: yet are they never utterly destitute of that seed of God, and life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of heart, and conscience of duty, out of which, by the operation of the Spirit, this assurance may, in due time, be revived; and by the which, in the mean time, they are supported from utter despair.

Pastoral Help 10: Assurance of salvation may be disturbed, diminished, or even lost for a time, in the experience of a believer, due to his or her own fault or due to God’s sovereign withdrawal.

WCF 18.4 stresses that the reasons for a loss of assurance are found primarily in the believer. They include negligence and spiritual slothfulness, falling into sin, or yielding to some temptation. The Puritans are clear here and elsewhere in teaching pastorally that the Christian cannot enjoy high levels of assurance while he persists in low levels of obedience. They stressed this linkage between assurance and obedience in very practical ways, stating that the believer ought to lose his assurance when he backslides and starts acting like an unbeliever. For example, if you are unfaithful to your spouse, you had better lose your assurance that you have a wonderful marital union in which you both are assured of each other’s love. The Puritan pastor used this truth to encourage believers to walk in faithfulness before God in accord with his word, and to avoid every backsliding as a serious offense to God and as destructive to their own soul.

“The Christian cannot enjoy high levels of assurance while he persists in low levels of obedience.”

A second reason for the loss of assurance is not in the believer as such but in God. For the Puritans, this point is preeminently pastoral, because each minister would have believers in his flock who at times would seem to lose ground in growing their assurance even when they were diligently engaging in the spiritual disciplines. How encouraging then it was for the believer to hear from his pastor that, according to his sovereign and mysterious will, God may withdraw the light of his countenance, or permit a believer to be tried with vehement temptations or intense afflictions that do violence to his peace and joy. The Puritans taught that this may actually benefit believers, as it may have the purpose of allowing them to taste the bitterness of sin, or to grow in humility, or to treasure the gift of assurance more, or to depend more fully on the grace of Christ and endeavor after a closer walk with God. God’s withdrawals and his placing of trials in the path of the believer are motivated by his fatherly discipline, which teaches them to walk uprightly; by his fatherly sovereignty, which teaches dependence; and by his fatherly wisdom, which teaches that he knows and does what is best for his own. God ordains these trials for his glory and the benefit of his elect, so that they learn, like Job, to trust in a withdrawing God as our greatest friend, even when he seems to come out against us as our greatest enemy (Job 13:15).

Pastoral Help 11: Happily, assurance of salvation can be revived.

The Puritans stress in WCF 18.4 that even in the believer’s darkest struggles for assurance of salvation, the Holy Spirit abides in him and bears him up, keeping him from “utter despair.” Indeed, the child of God may be losing assurance even while he advances in grace. This is because the grace and essence of faith abides with the believer even though he is blind to the acts and practice of faith. This gracious preservation of faith offers hope for the revival of assurance, for the flame of God’s life within the soul can never be completely snuffed out. The embers burn, although barely and subtly at times, but can be fanned into the full flame of assurance by the persevering use of God’s appointed means.

Pastoral Help 12: Assurance is revived the same way it was obtained the first time.

“If Job and David recovered from their loss of assurance, why shouldn’t the believer today?”

Believers should review their lives, confess their backsliding, and humbly cast themselves upon their covenant-keeping God and his gracious promises in Christ, being sure to engage continually in fresh acts of ongoing conversion through faith and repentance. If Job and David recovered from their loss of assurance (Job 19:25–27; Psalms 42:5–8; 51:12), why shouldn’t the believer today? The loss here is only for a short time; soon we will have perfect assurance and perfect enjoyment of God forever in the eternal Celestial City.

Physicians of Souls

The Puritans fleshed out the doctrine of assurance of salvation in WCF 18 with pastoral precision to undeceive the false professor of faith, to awaken the unsaved, to mature the young in grace, to comfort the mature in faith, to arrest the backslider, and to provide wise pastoral counsel for all believers in their flock, tailored to each one’s spiritual circumstances. The terminology they developed, their treatises on assurance, their pastoral compassion for the weak in faith, and their pressing admonitions and invitations to grow in faith showed their great appreciation for vital union and communion with Christ.

Their laudable goals can still help pastors today to assist their church members in developing assurance, all the while recognizing the individuality of each one. As with the Puritan pastors, God calls pastors today to be wise physicians of souls who prescribe the right medicines for each believer — medicines that the Holy Spirit uses to lead them to cultivate and grow in the assurance of their salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord.