Tom Nettles on the Doctrine of Assurance

Godly assurance of salvation rests upon the Doctrines of Grace. The certainty of unconditional election bequeaths great security to the one who truly discerns the movement of God’s grace in his life; the rigorous demands of the doctrine of perseverance eliminate false hopes built on an inadequate foundation; the intensely convicting doctrine of total depravity destroys all rest based on personal merit; the power of the doctrine of effectual call prompts earnest efforts to walk in the Spirit; and the completeness of the doctrine of particular redemption holds out the certainty of a reconciled God to one who truly credits the faithful saying, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”

Perhaps the most succinct yet sensitive treatment of the doctrine of assurance was constructed by the divines of the Westminster Assembly in chapter 18 of the confession they produced. Following their lead virtually word for word, seventeenth-century English Baptists and eighteenth-century American Baptists approved the same view by adopting the Second London Confession and Philadelphia Confession respectively. Although full exposition of the doctrine of assurance is distilled into one chapter, its important place—indeed, its pervasive and strategic connections—appears eloquently if only subtly in virtually all the soteriological chapters.

In effectual calling (Chapter X of the Second London Confession), a man is “enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the Grace offered and conveyed in it” (X.2). In justification, though God continues to forgive sin, justified persons may fall under God’s fatherly displeasure; however, through humbling themselves, confessing sin, begging pardon, and renewing faith and repentance, the “light of his Countenance [may be] restored unto them” (XI.5). In adoption, those who are justified “are enabled to cry ‘Abba Father’ ” (XII). In sanctification, the lusts of the body of sin are more and more weakened so that the saints grow in grace, “perfecting holiness in the fear of God, pressing after an heavenly life” (XIII.3). Although saving faith, “whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls” may be weak or strong, it is different in kind from the faith of temporary believers, and it may grow up in many to the “attainment of a full assurance through Christ, who is both the Author and Finisher of our Faith” (XIV.1, 3). Good works, actions done in obedience to God’s commandments, not only evidence a true and living faith, demonstrate the believer’s thankfulness, and edify the brethren, they also strengthen the assurance of the believer (XVI.2). Even the section elucidating the decrees of God reflects on the concept of assurance: “The doctrine of this high mystery of predestination, is to be handled with special prudence, and care; that men attending the will of God revealed in his word, and yielding obedience thereunto, may from the certainty of their effectual vocation, be assured of their eternal election” (111.7).

Although the doctrine of assurance is present in piecemeal fashion throughout the Second London Confession, one welcomes its clear and systematic presentation in chapter XVIII, which treats four major aspects of assurance in its four paragraphs. If they were titled according to subject matter, the paragraphs might well bear the following headings: (1) The Reality of Assurance, (2) The Foundations of Assurance, (3) The Duty to Seek Assurance, and (4) The Temporary Loss of Assurance.

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