God's Hammer

The following remarks are written by Sean Gerety of the God's Hammer blog. His introductory remarks to Assurance of Salvation, by Horatius Bonar are worthy of your consideration. You might want to read Bonar's article as well.

Last night while skimming through Against the Churches: The Trinity Review, 1989-1998, I had occasion to reread an April ‘94 Trinity Review that featured a selection from Horatius Bonar’s (1808-1889) book, The Everlasting Righteousness,* entitled “Assurance of Salvation.” I enjoyed reading it so much I decided to reprint it here below. What struck me is Bonar’s insistence that assurance of salvation does not and cannot rest on anything found in us. According to Bonar a Christian’s assurance is not result of good works, our progress in sanctification, any imagined feeling of God’s favor, private revelation, our faithfulness to some imagined “demands of the covenant,” our obedience to ecclesiastical authorities, or even faith in our own belief. That’s because as Bonar argues echoing Luther; “All the works of men, even the most sanctified, are sin.” Assurance for the Christian can only be found in the objective truths of the Gospel and in the doctrine, as opposed to the fruits of, election. While Bonar takes aim at the Roman Catholic church stating, “If assurance be the right of every man who believes, then the priest’s occupation is at an end; his craft is not only in danger, but gone,” he also takes aim at ersatz-Protestants who likewise have abandoned the biblical doctrine of assurance. While he focuses on the Arminian the same can be said of the false Christians and teachers of the Federal Vision now disturbing Presbyterian and Reformed churches. Bonar concludes:

To an Arminian, who denies election and the perseverance of the saints, the knowledge of our present reconciliation to God might bring with it no assurance of final salvation; for, according to him, we may be in reconciliation today, and out of it tomorrow; but to a Calvinist there can be no such separation. He who is once reconciled is reconciled forever; and the knowledge of filial relationship just now is the assurance of eternal salvation. Indeed, apart from God’s electing love, there can be no such thing as assurance. It becomes an impossibility. Assurance does not save us; and they have erred who have spoken of assurance as indispensable to salvation. For we are not saved by believing in our own salvation, nor by believing anything whatsoever about ourselves. We are saved by what we believe about the Son of God and his righteousness. The Gospel believed saves; not the believing in our own faith.

*Bonar’s Everlasting Righteousness is now included in the volume Not What My Hands Have Done which also includes Justification by Faith Alone by Charles Hodge.

You can read the article, Assurance of Salvation, by Horatius Bonar by clicking here: Assurance of Salvation.