Being Sure of Assurance

I've been read Peter Leithart's The Baptized Body and have found his discussion of assurance quite assuring. He takes to task that part of the Reformed tradition that seeks assurance by examining the quality of faith.

Following the Canons of Dort, Turretin attempts to explain the differences between temporary and true, saving faith.... "True faith is deep, most internal, vital, friendly and efficacious," while temporary faith "sticks to the uppermost surface of the soul (to wit, in the intellect); it does not penetrate to the heart, nor does it have true trust in Christ." Elsewhere, he says that temporary faith has only "superficial and theoretical knowledge, and that its assent is "weak and slippery, connected with perpetual hesitation and wavering."... Temporary faith resides in the "mouth" and never in the heart, and if it goes to the soul at all "it is rather in the intellect through knowledge than in the will through love." Turretin admits that temporary faith might go to the heart, but it never gets to the whole heart: "it never delivers itself wholly to God," never "gives itself absolutely and unlimitedly without any restriction."

How can I read that without concluding that I've only got temporary faith? Is my faith firm, whole, absolute, unlimited, unreserved? All the time? Doesn't true faith waver? Don't believers pray, "Help my unbelief"?

Trying to solve the problem of assurance by examining the quality of faith, hope, and love invariably leads to an abyss. And the same thing can happen with some accounts of the "testimony of the Spirit." ... How can we distinguish the witness of the spirit from the self-deception of our own hearts? ... How can I know that the Spirit is speaking to me?

Easy: I heard him.

God addressed this promise to me in my baptism; He addresses this promise to me every week when I hear a minister pronounce the absolution of sins; He renews this promise to me, out loud, every time I hear a sermon; He addresses this promise to me every week when I come to His table to eat and drink in His presence. Through these the Spirit woos me, hugs me, encourages me, kisses me feeds me, visits me, clothes me, challenges me, rebukes me, convicts me, changes me. When I hear the Spirit speak, I'm being called to believe Him.... In absolution, God says, "Your sins are forgiven." I believe that, and when my conscience strikes me, I remind myself of what God said, the God who is greater than my heart....

Apostasy doesn't sneak up on people who are keeping faith.... If we are doing all the things that Jesus means by "abiding" in Him, we can be sure that we will be in the Vine to the end. Faithful believers will not discover on the day of judgment that they were reprobate after all. Happy marriages do not end in divorce. God doesn't spring divorce on a faithful bride....

Too often the Reformed tradition has degenerated into a morbid form of self-analysis that is actually much closer to medieval piety than to the first Reformers. We are trained to stand outside ourselves and adopt a stance of objectivity in order to examine our performance, the strength of our faith, the consistency of our obedience.... "Knowing that we know" (1 John 2:3) means experiencing the assurance that we are in a relationship of love--a "knowing" relationship--with God in Christ through the Spirit. We come to this experience of assurance in the midst of our abiding in Christ, not by standing outside our relationship with Christ and evaluating it as outsiders. We come to that experience as we trustingly, believingly, remember and improve or baptisms, hear the Word of our beloved Husband, and feast as His Bride at His table.

On of my fellows said recently: "Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. I'm not sure that the examined life is much better." Luther tried to save us from medieval navel-gazing, and we have thanked him by spiritualizing our belly-button lint. "Look what I dug up everybody!"