ASSURANCE

“Why do you not pardon my offenses  and forgive my sins?” (7:21)

Job believes and knows that his God is a forgiving God. His problem is that right now he does not feel forgiven. The very crux of the trial he goes through is that while he continues to have faith in God, he has no sense of peace or assurance that his faith will be rewarded. How much easier it would be if only he could have a deep inner confidence that God is on his side. But he has no such confidence. He may have had it before, but now it has vanished; or else what he had before seems curiously impotent to comfort him in his present plight. His beliefs have not changed, but now there is no feeling of certainty in his soul as to whether God is his friend or his foe, his loving Father or his executioner. As we have seen, Job knows full well that he is a sinner. But at this point in his life he cannot find any relief from the burden of his sin, and that is the real nub of his suffering. What good is all his faith if it does not take the weight of sin off his back?

Can a person who feels this way truly be said to have great faith? There are some people who, like the friends of Job, would condemn him on this score alone. If he does not have assurance of salvation, they would say, then his salvation itself remains in question. He may not have any real faith at all. How often have we ourselves let this thought cast its long shadow over our hearts? But it is a lie of Satan. The fact is, much of the purpose of the New Testament epistles is to help Christians—people who have already placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—gain assurance and thus to enter fully into the joy of their salvation. If we assume that our faith cannot be the real thing if we do not have assurance, then we have fallen for a hoax that effectively stops the gospel in its tracks. Did Jesus have assurance when He cried from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46). The true gospel is much too important to rest simply on a settled feeling of security. While assurance is a product of faith—and a product greatly to be desired—in the final analysis it is not the foundation of faith. Listen to what Richard Baxter wrote about this:

I do not ask whether thou be assured of salvation, nor whether thou canst believe that thy sins are pardoned, and that thou art beloved of God in Christ. These are no parts of justifying faith, but excellent fruits of it, and they that receive them are comforted by them; but perhaps thou mayest never receive them while thou livest, and mayest yet be a true heir of rest. Do not say then, “I cannot believe that my sins are pardoned, or that I am in God’s favor; and therefore I am no true believer.” This is a most mistaken conclusion.

Job’s point, as he argues with his friends and even with God Himself, is precisely the same. He will not allow his faith to be disqualified on the ground of subjective feeling. He will “seek peace and pursue it” (Ps. 34:14), but the proof of his faith will be in the seeking itself and not necessarily in the finding. Job instinctively grasps one of the great keys to faith: our relationship with God is neither predicated upon nor authenticated by our feelings.

Having the right sort of feelings toward God is something greatly to be prized, but it is not the bottom line of faith. Having said this, it is important to state also that any believer who does not have assurance of salvation, along with all the accompanying spiritual affections of joy and peace, should earnestly seek these rewards with all his heart. He should “hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matt. 5:6), petitioning God day and night and refusing to give up until his hunger is satisfied. For this is what Job did. He was prepared to hang on to nothing if he had to, but only because he knew instinctively that “all things are ours” in Christ (1 Cor. 3:21). His faith was such that he was able to hold these two contradictory positions in tension. Not having assurance or heart’s peace, he did not waver in his faith, but neither would he settle for a religion without assurance. His faith consisted in the fact that he would not rest until he had secured the promises of God.

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