Full Assurance
Aith is the milk, and assurance is the cream that rises on it. If you have milk, you are pretty certain to have cream, unless the milk be the watery London mixture.” So said Mr. Spurgeon in one of his racy discourses; and it is not often that a sanctified wit teaches as much sound theology.
There are two kinds or shades of assurance — one of faith, and one which the apostle calls the “full assurance of hope.” Faith is the soul’s trusting itself to Jesus Christ. Not an intellectual act merely, but a spiritual exercise of confiding trust. But assurance is the full confidence of a believer in his own safety; that, being united to Christ, he is delivered from the “law of sin and death,” and is for ever safe. John Wesley obtained this state of peaceful confidence when, after reading Luther’s exposition of a part of the book of Romans, and while he was walking in Aldersgate Street, he felt his heart strangely warmed within him. He says that assurance was given him that Jesus had taken away his sins and saved him from the law of sin and death. The Holy Spirit bore witness with his spirit that he was a child of God.
Man, shallow and absurd lew x oSxecv V^^ in regard to the “witness of the Spirit.” Some imaginative people declare that this “witness “has come to them in a vision, or by a voice from heaven, or in some extraordinary and sudden manner. But this is not the usual or normal experience of most sensible Christians. They obtain the witness of the Spirit by comparing the Holy Spirit’s description of the true Christian in God’s Word with their own character and experience. God’s word tells them what it is to be a follower of Christ, and sets forth the necessary traits and characteristics of the. new life in Jesus. They compare themselves with the Divine Word; and, if they find that the Holy Spirit’s description of the true Christian corresponds with the Holy Spirit’s work on their own hearts and lives, they know at once that they have their” witness” within themselves. Each work of the Spirit testifies to the other. If we take a gold eagle to the mint, and compare it with the die, we see that they exactly correspond. The same stars and head of Liberty and inscriptions are on the die and on the coin. So a child of God opens his inspired Bible and reads: “He that believeth on the Lord Jesus shall be saved.” He says to himself: “I know that I do give up all other reliance, and trust Jesus only.” He reads in his Bible: “My peace I give unto you.” Looking into his own heart, he finds that peace. Again, he reads that if any man will be Christ’s disciple, he must take up his cross and follow Him. Such crosses he knows that he has taken up more than once. “To them that believe
Christ is precious.” The believer by actual experience so finds Jesus, and is as certainly consdous that he loves his Saviour as he is that he loves his own mother or the child that plays by his side. Thus the Christian goes on, and compares his own state with the required condition of discipleship in God’s Word; and, if Jie finds a good degree of resemblance, then he has an assurance that he is Christs. There is an agreement between what the Holy Spirit has written on the Bible page and what that same Holy Spirit has written on his heart. And thus the Spirit beareth witness to his spirit that he is a child of God. This is one meaning, and a most vitally important meaning of that oft-quoted phrase: “The witness of the Spirit.”
If the gold coin does not correspond with the die in the United States’ mint, we at once pronounce it a counterfeit. So the man who finds no clear resemblance in his own heart and conduct to the standard of Christianity in God’s Word must confess that he is none of Christ’s. His public profession is a counterfeit. Cream does not rise on water. Without the life of faith there can be no genuine “assurance of hope.” Men never gather grapes from thistles.
A healthy Christian ought to have a comfortable assurance. He has a right to look for it. Good milk ought to raise cream. The reason why some truly good people do not enjoy more clear and comforting assurance is that %ss ^^r^>^^ ^cs-’t.^ their doubts and starve their faith. They never make a strong grasp of the divine promises. They are chronic doubters. “Other people may be saved, but not /.” If the life-boat rocks in the storm, they constantly “cry out for fear,” and declare that they are going to the bottom. If such desponding doubters will not exercise faith, they must blame no one but themselves. God will not build another boat, or order perpetual calm weather just to suit their timorous unbelief.
Other people are the prey of their bodily feelings. To-day they feel well, their business prospers, and they are jubilant on the mountain-top. To-morrow their digestion is bad, their nerves are shaky, bad news comes, and at once their spiritual barometer falls again. They are all “in the dumps.” Call upon them to pray, and their prayer is like a captive’s groan in his dungeon. Nervous Christians and dyspeptic Christians need a threefold supply of grace. It is as much their duty to pray against and fight against these periodic ague-fits of despondency as it is the duty of a man with strong sensual passions to battle against his lusts for liquor or libidinousness. An increase of faith, a victory over “fleshly” influences and external distractions, will bring abiding peace. These come from prayer and godly living. These come firom a closer union to Christ. As farmers bury their winter apples so deep in the ground that they are beneath the frosts of January, so a Christian ought to put his faith and his love of Jesus so deep in his heart that they shall not be frozen by every external influence of bodily distemper or adversities of condition. Perfect love keeps out fear.
Finally, let us remind our brethren in Christ that full assurance is both a right and a duty. It is a perpetual joy; for, if our Lord has given us a title to heaven, why should not we enjoy it? Why should a Christian go limping and whining along the upward road to his Father’s home in glory? Paul had a mighty assurance, founded on a mighty faith. He knew whom he had believed. He exhorts his brethren to use “diligence to the /«// assurance of hope.” The Greek word 7rTjpo(lpopia means a full lading. If applied to a tree, it signifies an abundant crop of fruit, that weighs down the branches. If applied to a vessel, it signifies a ship crammed with her cargo. But the tree must be in good soil, and be well cultivated. So a follower of Christ must be rooted in Christ, and abide in Christ, and be watered by the Spirit, and grow in grace, if he would attain to the frXfjpotfMpiaj the full assurance of hope unto the end. We must receive Christ; for “to as many as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God.’’ As we have seen a ship lie alongside of a grain elevator until the golden grain filled the hold, so must a believer keep his soul close beside the infinite Jesus, that he may be filled from the Divine fulness until he attains the “FULL ASSURANCE of hope unto the end.”