Can a Calvinist be certain of their salvation?

Can a Calvinist be certain of their salvation? (internal critique)

An important thing to note is that we do not place our hope or faith in our election – we place our faith and hope in Jesus Christ and him crucified as a fulfillment of the good promises of God. He has promised good to us and by our faith in him, we cling to his promises.

Why do I have assurance? Because God is good and faithful and has given certain means of grace to his people – word and sacrament, sanctification and the inner witness of the Spirit to me. We should not conflate a strong and confident assurance with a kind of epistemic certainty that is not susceptible to solipsism. ALL views are susceptible to solipsism. I do not need to know that I know that I am elect in Christ. I need to know that God has made promises to his people and described what his people will experience upon true conversion, and have given means of grace and assurance to his people to build them up in the faith. THE GROUNDS OF ASSURANCE ARE CUMULATIVE but rooted in God’s covenant love.

We could ask, how does the Arminian or the Provisionist know that they have the right kind of faith that will finish the work of redemption and please God enough to make his provision actual for them? How do they know that they wont walk away from it tomorrow if tragedy strikes and be removed from the body forever? How do they know that they are not a butterfly dreaming?

The question before us is already a poorly formed objection to Calvinism. Inherent in the question is a kind of decisional theology advocated by semi-pelagians like Finney and company. It looks to you and your own sincerity and conviction as the grounds for your assurance and hope. This is exactly the wrong place to look. We do not look to ourselves as the final cause of our hope, but to Christ.

Tim Challis writes of this kind of baseless assurance:

“When you seek assurance of your salvation, where do you look? Will you take refuge in the sincerity of your prayer? Will you comfort yourself by saying, “I meant it with all my heart”? If you take refuge in your own sincerity or in the passion you felt years ago when you prayed a prayer, you are building your assurance on shakey ground.”

And let me add, if you look to the conviction and passion of your prayer from this morning, the ground is just as shakey. The Reformed tradition is gritty and real and true to life. It recognizes that our assurance may wax and wane. We may go through dark nights of the soul. To try and demand a kind of epistemic certainty of Calvinism that is beyond all real Christian experience, or else throw it to the waste bin, is the height of a special pleading objection – to set the standard of expectation so high, beyond what even the objector’s own theological system would permit, is an obscenely uncharitable and flat out naïve way to engage in theological reflection.

We can ask these questions of epistemology of ANY view. There is nothing special or unique about Reformed soteriology in this regard.

We can have reasonable assurance by looking to God, his promise and covenant keeping nature, his glory in the finished work of Christ, and pressed to our souls by word and Sacrament, church and Spirit. We continue to work out our salvation, or the assurance thereof, with fear and trembling, but we know that God has said that those who love him love his word, love his body, love their neighbors, mortify the flesh, grow in prayer, display the fruit of the Spirit more as they mature, and long for deeper fellowship with God. Without some kind of defeater for the faithfulness of God, the work of the Spirit in my life, and the promises that accompany them, I have no reason to doubt my inclusion in the people of God. Simply asking “yeah but do you know that you know” is not an objection. It’s posturing. Look to Christ and his life, death, burial and resurrection, and the promises of God for his people that accompany them, and you will have assurance because God cannot lie. But you can… if you navel gaze and look to your own faithfulness, you will have no reason for hope and only cause for despair.  

The Grounds of Assurance

The Westminster Confession of Faith says in chapter 18:

This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion grounded upon a fallible hope; but an infallible assurance of faith founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation, the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made, the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God, which Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption.

Similarly, the Belgic Confession says in article 24:

So we would always be in doubt, tossed back and forth without any certainty, and our poor consciences would be tormented constantly if they did not rest on the merit of the suffering and death of our Savior.

And the Canons of Dort say in articles 12 and 13 of section 1:

Assurance of their eternal and unchangeable election to salvation is given to the chosen in due time, though by various stages and in differing measure. Such assurance comes not by inquisitive searching into the hidden and deep things of God, but by noticing within themselves, with spiritual joy and holy delight, the unmistakable fruits of election pointed out in God’s Word—such as a true faith in Christ, a childlike fear of God, a godly sorrow for their sins, a hunger and thirst for righteousness, and so on.

In their awareness and assurance of this election, God’s children daily find greater cause to humble themselves before God, to adore the fathomless depth of God’s mercies, to cleanse themselves, and to give fervent love in return to the One who first so greatly loved them. This is far from saying that this teaching concerning election, and reflection upon it, make God’s children lax in observing his commandments or carnally self-assured. By God’s just judgment this does usually happen to those who casually take for granted the grace of election or engage in idle and brazen talk about it but are unwilling to walk in the ways of the chosen.

So we see several sources of assurance:

·         Westminster points to "the divine truth of the promises of salvation," and the Belgic Confession specifies "the merit of the suffering and death of our Savior" upon which those promises rest. Westminster cites these Scriptures for support:

·         Hebrews 6:17 In the same way God wanted to demonstrate more clearly to the heirs of the promise that his purpose was unchangeable, and so he intervened with an oath, 18 so that we who have found refuge in him may find strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us through two unchangeable things, since it is impossible for God to lie. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, sure and steadfast, which reaches inside behind the curtain

·         Westminster continues, "the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made," specified by Dort as "a true faith in Christ, a childlike fear of God, a godly sorrow for their sins, a hunger and thirst for righteousness, and so on," and Westminster cites:

·         2 Peter 1:4 Through these things he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised you may become partakers of the divine nature, after escaping the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith excellence, to excellence, knowledge. 10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to be sure of your calling and election. For by doing this you will never stumble into sin. 11 For thus an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be richly provided for you.

·         1 John 2:3 Now by this we know that we have come to know God: if we keep his commandments.

·         1 John 3:14 We know that we have crossed over from death to life because we love our fellow Christians. The one who does not love remains in death.

·         2 Corinthians 1:12 For our reason for confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that with pure motives and sincerity which are from God—not by human wisdom but by the grace of God—we conducted ourselves in the world, and all the more toward you.

·         Westminster wraps it up with, "The testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God," referring to Romans 8:15-16, "which Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption," citing these verses:

·         Ephesians 1:13 And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation)—when you believed in Christ—you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.

·         Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

·         2 Corinthians 1:21 But it is God who establishes us together with you in Christ and who anointed us, 22 who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.

Distinguishing True Assurance from False

The Canons of Dort say that "by God's just judgment" some "who casually take for granted the grace of election or engage in idle and brazen talk about it but are unwilling to walk in the ways of the chosen" become "carnally self-assured" rather than having an actual assurance of faith. So how can an "infallible assurance" (in Westminster's language) and this "carnal self-assurance" be distinguished?

A.A. Hodge's commentary on the Westminster Confession takes a stab at the question.

True assurance, however, may be distinguished from that which is false by the following tests:

1. True assurance begets unfeigned humility; false assurance begets spiritual pride. 1 Corinthians 15:10; Galatians 6:14.
2. The true leads to increased diligence in the practice of holiness; the false leads to sloth and self-indulgence. Psalm 51:12-13,19.
3. The true leads to candid self-examination and to a desire to be searched and corrected by God; the false leads to a disposition to be satisfied with appearance and to avoid accurate investigation. Psalm 139:23-24.
4. The true leads to constant aspirations after more intimate fellowship with God. 1 John 3:2-3.

It is common for Calvinists to cite 1 John 2:19 in the case of those who either were falsely assured or who deceived others (knowingly or not) into believing they were saved:

They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us, because if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But they went out from us to demonstrate that all of them do not belong to us.

Conclusion

Calvinists teach that to be assured of salvation, you must look first to Christ, his merits, and his promises, then to the fruits of faith that he has granted you. It is not found by inquiring into the decree of election, nor by looking chiefly to yourself. It is not necessary to be assured of salvation in order to be saved, but it is a good thing to strive for nonetheless. There are ways of distinguishing it from "carnal self-assurance," and those who have such false assurance are mistaken about their salvation.