(Letter 157 on assurance and fighting for joy...)
OVER THREE YEARS NOW ... ASSURANCE AND FIGHTING FOR JOY
For over three years now I've been writing on assurance and fighting for joy, beginning with this post. And I continue to write about it because the gift of assurance and joy which God makes available to all believers in Christ through the Holy Spirit makes all the difference in how we live our Christian lives day in and day out.
When faced with trials and temptations, when the world mocks us, when we begin to question our circumstances, when the devil insinuates doubts into our minds, are we as Christians fully persuaded, do we know Him whom we have believed, are we able to stand steadfast in the faith at any and all times? Do we have living water bubbling up and bursting forth from our hearts, testifying to the work of the Holy Spirit in us, who fills us with full assurance of faith and joy and peace in believing ~ like the Shulamite woman and the apostle Paul?
Song of Solomon 5:10 My beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand.
Romans 8:35a (adapted) Who shall separate us [who shall separate me!] from the love of Christ? . . .
When circumstances around you come crushing in, when all your plans are upended, and all your hopes are dashed... in each and every one of your so-called "prison-places" . . .
- . . . are you able to sing with Paul and Silas?
Acts 15:24 Having received this order, he [the jailer] put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them...
- . . . along with the apostle Paul, are you utterly convinced that God is working all things, even your time in those prison-places, for the advance of His Gospel?
Philippians 1:12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel...
- . . . have you known the Holy Spirit shedding abroad the love of God in your heart (going above and beyond the knowledge of His love you may possess with your intellect) during those times of tribulation?
Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
- . . . can you say with full assurance that no matter what, God is continuing to work all things for your good, in spite of all appearances to the contrary?
Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
- . . . do you profess God Himself to be your perfect portion, exceeding Joy, and great reward –– and do you continue to make the Lord God your refuge even though it seems Providence is frowning upon you.
Psalm 73:25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.
- . . . do you continue to bless the Lord for the privilege of being His child while traveling in this world as a pilgrim? Do you continue to trust Him and His ways for you, resting in His love and enjoying fellowship with Him, even in this Valley of Baca –– the thirsty and tear-laden land?
Psalm 84:5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
6 As they go through the Valley of Baca
they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
7 They go from strength to strength;
each one appears before God in Zion.
8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah
9 Behold our shield, O God;
look on the face of your anointed!
10 For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does he withhold
from those who walk uprightly.
12 O LORD of hosts,
blessed is the one who trusts in you!
- . . . is your every thought, word and deed acceptable in God's sight? Does your every thought, word and deed reflect that you are living as more than a conqueror through Him who loved you?
Romans 8:37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- . . . are you able to rejoice in the Lord –– always? When the enemy comes flooding in, have you found the Spirit of God holding up a standard, has He brought you to the Beloved's banqueting house, that you know His banner over you to be love, with the peace of God coming to envelop your soul and guard your heart and mind?
Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
In other words, what I'm asking you is this: Have you begun to know and to drink of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Living Water, through God's gift of the Holy Spirit, so living waters come flowing out of your heart, even in those "prison-places," even in the driest and thirstiest land?
Psalms 63:1: O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
John 17:3 And THIS is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
John 7:37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to ME and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
A THIRD TYPE OF ASSURANCE (MARTYN LLOYD-JONES)
Martyn Lloyd-Jones spoke about three types of assurance we as Christians can have. I most recently blogged about those three types of assurance in my post Three Years Later: Dancing & Skipping with Mrs. Durham | Letter 147 on fighting for joy:
In his book, "Joy Unspeakable," Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote about three types of assurance that are available to the Christian (I blogged about that here and here, and I would encourage you to read both those posts.) As way of quick summary, the first two types of assurance are based on: 1) deductions we make from the Bible, and 2) examination of our lives. Now here's The Doctor explaining the third type of assurance:
But there is a third type of assurance, which is the highest, the most absolute and glorious, and which differs essentially from the other two. How? Like this. You notice, in the first two types of assurance, that what we are doing is to draw deductions, as we read the Scriptures, perhaps. We arrive at the assurance by a process of reading, understanding, self-examination or self-analysis. It is a deduction that we draw from the premises given; and it is right and true. But the glory of this third and highest form of assurance is that it is neither anything we do, nor any deduction that we draw, but an assurance that is given to us by the blessed Spirit himself.
ADOPTION: THE HIGHEST PRIVILEGE (J.I. PACKER)
Over the past few months, our Sunday School class has been watching David Platt's video sermons series on Galatians. In his sermon "Free as Sons" on Galatians 3:26 - 4:7 . . .
Galatians 3:26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.
4:1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
. . . Platt read an excerpt from J.I. Packer's "Knowing God" on adoption. I was able to locate a portion of the book that included that excerpt here, but today I'd like to bring you the fuller context of that quotation. As you read Packer's words below, I plead with you to examine yourself and your life and your experience of and your relationship to the living God in light of the Scripture, and to ask God to show you what Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ML-J) called "the great and glorious possibilities" of the Christian life, so you might begin to ask, seek, and knock!
Luke 11:13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!
Have you experienced the blessedness of adoption that is available to all the saints? Do you have the Spirit of the Son crying out within you, "Abba! Father!"? Do you see yourself as a son of God –– or do you see yourself as a slave? Are you living day in and day out like the older son in the parable of the prodigal son (can we call that living?); in other words, have you never experientially/experimentally known how great the Father's love is for you, and that all your heavenly Father has is already yours?
I John 3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.
Luke 15:31 And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours...'
Are you falling back into fear –– or has the love of God been shed abroad in your heart? Have you ever really known the Spirit Himself bearing witness with your spirit that you are a child of God? Have you received directly from the Holy Spirit that blessed assurance –– that Jesus IS yours (along with the Shulamite woman and Fanny Crosby)?
My brothers and sisters in Christ, we've just finished celebrating yet another Christmas, but have you missed out once again on entering into the ultimate Christmas celebration? –– A celebration that goes above and beyond that first type of assurance, i.e. - above and beyond our professing: "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so" ... to that third type of assurance (which is always rooted in and flows from the Biblical truths and doctrine), i.e. - the Holy Spirit directly imparting to your soul the sense of the love of God which empowers you to proclaim with absolute certainty and authority: "You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart!" –– that assurance which ML-J calls the highest, the most absolute and glorious. My brothers and sisters in Christ, God sent forth His Son into the world so that all the children of God (including you!) might not only know they are justified in the eyes of God, but also know what J.I. Packer calls "the highest privilege the gospel offers": adoption as sons!
Galatians 4:4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Romans 8:14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Now, here's J.I. Packer writing on the blessedness of our adoption as sons:
Adoption: The Highest Privilege
Our first point about adoption is that it is the highest privilege that the gospel offers: higher even than justification. This may cause raising of eyebrows, for justification is the gift of God on which since Luther evangelicals have laid the greatest stress, and we are accustomed to say, almost without thinking, that free justification is God’s supreme blessing to us sinners. Nonetheless, careful thought will show the truth of the statement we have just made.
That justification—by which we mean God's forgiveness of the past together with his acceptance for the future—is the primary and fundamental blessing of the gospel is not in question. Justification is the primary blessing, because it meets our primary spiritual need. We all stand by nature under God’s judgment; his law condemns us; guilt gnaws at us, making us restless, miserable, and in our lucid moments afraid; we have no peace in ourselves because we have no peace with our Maker. So we need the forgiveness of our sins, and assurance of a restored relationship with God, more than we need anything else in the world; and this the gospel offers us before it offers us anything else. The first gospel sermons to be preached, those recorded in Acts, lead up to the promise of forgiveness of sins to all who repent and receive Jesus as their Savior and Lord (see Acts 2:38; 3:19; 10:43; 13:38-39; compare 5:31; 17:30-31; 20:21; 22:16; 26:18; Lk 24:47).
In Romans, Paul’s fullest exposition of his gospel—“the clearest gospel of all,” to Luther's mind—justification through the cross of Christ is expounded first (chaps. 1—5), and made basic to everything else. Regularly Paul speaks of righteousness, remission of sins, and justification as the first and immediate consequence for us of Jesus' death (Rom 3:22-26; 2 Cor 5:18-21; Gal 3:13-14; Eph 1:7; and so on). And as justification is the primary blessing, so it is the fundamental blessing, in the sense that everything else in our salvation assumes it, and rests on it—adoption included.
But this is not to say that justification is the highest blessing of the gospel. Adoption is higher, because of the richer relationship with God that it involves. Some textbooks on Christian doctrine—Berkhof's, for instance—treat adoption as a mere subsection of justification, but this is inadequate. The two ideas are distinct, and adoption is the more exalted. Justification is a forensic idea, conceived in terms of law, and viewing God as judge. In justification, God declares of penitent believers that they are not, and never will be, liable to the death that their sins deserve, because Jesus Christ, their substitute and sacrifice, tasted death in their place on the cross.
This free gift of acquittal and peace, won for us at the cost of Calvary, is wonderful enough, in all conscience—but justification does not of itself imply any intimate or deep relationship with God the judge. In idea, at any rate, you could have the reality of justification without any close fellowship with God resulting.
But contrast this, now, with adoption. Adoption is a family idea, conceived in terms of love, and viewing God as father. In adoption, God takes us into his family and fellowship—he establishes us as his children and heirs. Closeness, affection and generosity are at the heart of the relationship. To be right with God the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is a greater.
The point has never been better put than in the following extract from The Doctrine of Justification, by James Buchanan:
According to the Scriptures, pardon, acceptance, and adoption, are distinct privileges, the one rising above the other in the order in which they have been stated . . . while the first two properly belong to (the sinner's) justification, as being both founded on the same relation––that of a Ruler and Subject––the third is radically distinct from them, as being founded on a nearer, more tender, and more endearing relation––that between a Father and his Son. . . . . There is a manifest difference between the position of a servant and a friend–– and also between that of a servant and a son. . . . A closer and dearer intimacy than that of a master and servant is said to subsist between Christ and His people. "Henceforth I call you not servants: for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends" (John 15:15); and a still closer and dearer relation is said to exist in consequence of adoption; for "Thou art no more a servant, but a son, and an heir of God through Christ" (Galatians 4:7). The privilege of adoption presupposes pardon and acceptance, but is higher than either; for, "To as many as received Him, to them gave he power"––not inward strength, but authority, right, or privilege––"to become sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12). This is a higher privilege than of Justification, as being founded on a closer and more endearing relation––"Behold! what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God." (I John 3:1) (pp. 276-77)
We do not fully feel the wonder of the passage from death to life which takes place in the new birth till we see it as a transition, not simply out of condemnation into acceptance, but out of bondage and destitution into the "safety, certainty, and enjoyment" of the family of God. This is view of the great chance which Paul sets out in Galatians 4:1-7, contrasting his readers' previous life of slavish legalism and superstition in religion (vv. 3, 5, 8) with their present knowledge of their Creator as their Father (v. 6) and their pledged benefactor (v. 7). This, says Paul, is where your faith in Christ has brought you; you have received "the adoption of sons" (v. 5 KJV); "you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir" (v. 7 RSV).
When Charles Wesley found Christ on Whitsunday in 1738, his experience overflowed into some marvelous verses ("The Wesleys' Conversion Hymn," Methodist Hymn Book, # 361) in which the transition from slavery to sonship is the main theme.
Where shall my wondering soul begin?
How shall I all to heaven aspire?
A slave redeemed from death and sin,
A brand plucked from eternal fire,
How shall I equal triumphs raise,
Or sing my great Deliverer’s praise?
O how shall I the goodness tell,
Father, which Thou to me hast showed?
That I, a child of wrath and hell,
I should be called a child of God,
Should know, should feel my sins forgiven,
Blessed with this antepast of heaven!
Three days later, Charles tells us in his diary, brother John burst in with "a troop of our friends" to announce that he too was now a believer, and "we sang the hymn with great joy." Had you been there, could you sincerely have joined in? Can you make Wesley's words your own? If you are truly a child of God and "the Spirit of his Son" is in you, Wesley's words have already drawn an echo from your heart; and if they have left you cold, I do not know how you can imagine that you are a Christian at all.
One more thing must be added to show how great is the blessing of adoption––namely, this: it is a blessing that abides. Social experts drum into us these days that the family unit needs to be stable and secure, and that any unsteadiness in the parent-child relationship takes its toll in strain, neurosis and arrested development in the child himself. The depressions, randomnesses and immaturities that mark the children of broken homes are known to us all. But things are not like that in God's family. There you have absolute stability and security; the parent is entirely wise and good, and the child's position is permanently assured. The very concept of adoption is itself a proof and guarantee of the preservation of the saints, for only bad fathers throw their children out of the family, even under provocation; and God is not a bad father, but a good one. When one sees depression, randomness and immaturity in Christians one cannot but wonder whether they have learned the health-giving habit of dwelling on the abiding security of true children of God.
~ from: J.I. Packer's "Knowing God" (Downers Grove, Il: InterVarsity Press), Sons of God (Chapter 19), 206-209
* * *
Are you able to sing that hymn with great joy along with Charles and John Wesley?
Are you enjoying the earnest of your inheritance through the Holy Spirit of promise...
blessed with this antepast of heaven?
antepast: noun, Archaic. a foretaste; appetizer.
Origin: 1580–90; ante- + Latin pāstus food (orig. past participle of pāscere to feed), equivalent to pās- feed + -tus past participle suffix
Are you reveling in and relishing the gift of sonship that is now yours through the Gospel?
Do you know yourself to be a child of God, and do you know God as your Father?
Have you begun to experience that third type of assurance Dr. Lloyd-Jones wrote of, assurance given by the blessed Spirit Himself . . .
or . . .
have you stopped satisfied with possessing the intellectual knowledge of forensic justification . . .
and never pressed inward and never pressed upward to know that higher privilege ––
the felt knowledge of the richness of the Father's heart of family love for you as an adopted son of God ––
that nearer, more tender, and more endearing relation?
Let us ask the important question
(Brethren, be not too secure)
What it is to be a Christian;
How we may our hearts assure.
Vain is all our best devotion,
If on false foundations built;
True religion's more than notion,
–– Something must be known and felt.
(Joseph Hart)
Have you begun to enjoy the foretaste of Glory divine,
the appetizer of Heaven that is available to all the sons of God through the Gospel ––
to bask in that highest privilege of adoption,
which serves to whet our appetite
for that Day when we will put on incorruption
and begin to enjoy our Lord and Savior perfectly
and feed upon Him uninterruptedly...
"For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them,
and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters:
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."
(Revelation 7:17)
If you are already in Christ by the rich mercies and great love of God,
if you are already saved by grace through faith,
if God the Father has already adopted you as His child,
why would you delay or hesitate to seek to enter into fuller and fuller enjoyment of the highest privilege the Gospel offers?
Luke 16:16 The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.
Matthew 12:12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.
Related posts:
Advent #1 WHY HAS JESUS COME? that we might have life & life more abundantly
Advent # 5 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might draw near to God | Even a Vapor
Advent # 7 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might be satisfied with Him
Advent # 8: WHY HAS JESUS COME? "so that [we] might be WITH HIM" ~ Mark 3:14
Lenten Reflections: Why did Jesus die? ACCESS! | Letter 140 on assurance & fighting for joy
Happy Father's Day: "Only the child cries, 'Abba, Father'"
learning to run without fear
Reflections on my Dad on his 107th birthday* (Letter 33 on assurance & fighting for joy)
"Abba! Father!"
Mrs. Turner & Charles Wesley's Pentecost | letter 142 on assurance & fighting for joy
Why not pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
postcards from England: are we excited over a dead fish and a car wreck?
The flags unfurled ... Christ's eternal banner | Lloyd-Jones ~ a third type of assurance - letter 118
The Christian should not just believe the truth, and know it..." | the Father's assurance
update w/ excerpt: Lloyd-Jones' sermons on the role of experience in Christianity
five years ago ~ for your joy (AND an inheritance | Richard Sibbes & the Sealing of the Spirit)
birthday reflection: "the great & glorious possibilities" ~ "Now therefore, give me this mountain"
Our Twisted View of God
All things (even bad things) work together for good...
end of the year ... in the midst of heartache
rejoicing in the often unwanted but necessary gift
Scripture quotations from J.I. Packer, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible. Other Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Emphasis mine.
Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glaspalast_M%C3%BCnchen_1891_110b.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-70}}
antepast. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/antepast (accessed: December 25, 2012).
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