Quest for Godliness # 9

The Witness of the Spirit in Puritan Thought

The main theme of this chapter is how the Spirit works in assuring believers of their salvation as secure in Christ. They defined assurance as “faith full grown and come of age” (180). So there can be faith without assurance, but assurance cannot be separate from faith for at its essence it is a work of faith to bring about such an assurance. Faith which results from illumination begins in the mind when there is a belief in the truth of the gospel message. The certainty of faith is rooted in coming into an awareness and contact with the thing known. Therefore, faith is only attainable and actualized through a personal encounter with the living God and a deep-seated expression of faith being placed in him. Such faith only springs outwardly from the inner working of the Spirit on an individual’s heart through the divine contact of the Word of God.

Assurance is a God-given conviction of one’s standing in grace (182); of having the gospel stamped on their mind and heart creating a strong faith which trusts in the goodness and truthfulness of God their redeemer. It is when the soul (or conscience) sees himself or herself as rightly standing before God and expressed a strong conviction of security and surety in the promise and work of Christ that salvation is true and valid in their own life. Then there is a reciprocal action where faith begets assurance and the realization of assurance leads to the further strengthening of faith.

Just what is assurance? It is when the Holy Spirit applies the truth of Scripture to hearts so powerfully and authoritatively that the believer has no doubt that God has spoken to them and that they have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. It is by no means a bare cognitive assent that one will go to heaven, but it is God explaining what heaven is and offering a foretaste of what is to come. In essence it is an experience of the realities of heaven while on earth. The Spirit works in such a way to take the thoughts of man off of himself and places them into higher realms.

Many Puritans such as Thomas Goodwin believed that the sealing of the Holy Spirit as explained in Ephesians 1:13 referred to the direct testimony of the Spirit offering this assurance to the believer. Such sealing was the work of the Spirit after salvation to impart an assurance of salvation and faith. Goodwin argues that Christ at his baptism was sealed by the Spirit thus being granted an assurance of mission. This parallels the assurance which believers have when they are sealed by the Spirit and are granted assurance of salvation. The moment of salvation is thus made a distinct and separate time from the actual moment of sealing which is seen as an assurance of faith flowing out of the act of baptism.

However, John Owen comes along and while agreeing in substance alters the exegesis to align more with a biblical teaching on the subject. Owen argues that it is persons who are sealed and not promises. The Spirit in sealing believers expresses within them a safe keeping. Thus assurance becomes a spin-off from the Spirit sealing believers instead of being the actual act of sealing itself. So Packer says, “Assurance may come with the gift, but it is not to be equated with it. The seal is not any particular operation of the Spirit, but the gift of the Spirit himself” (188). Therefore all who believe have the Spirit and are sealed by him.