January 15, 2006

• The Evolutionist BB Warfield wrote,
  
  

  
  

  “faith … is no mere assent. … The object of Abram’s faith … was not the promise … what it [Abram's faith] rested on was God himself .. To believe in God, in the Old Testament sense, is thus not merely to assent to His word, but … to rest … upon Him. … [James] rebuke[d] the Jewish tendency to conceive faith … as a mere intellectual acquiescence. … Lest of all the New Testament writers could John confine faith to a merely intellectual act: his whole doctrine is rather a protest against the intellectualism of Gnosticism.” (BB Warfield, “The Biblical Doctrine of Faith”)
  

  
  

  
  My comment: When Jesus Christ was on earth He was rejected by the Rabbis because He promoted a Kingdom that was “merely” spiritual. Today Christ is still rejected by the popular leaders. Only now, the primary doctrine that they pervert is the doctrine of faith. They say that the “faith is no mere assent” nor “mere intellectual acquiescence”. In fact, if you were to say that faith is simply belief they’ll call you a “Gnostic”.
  
  The Apostles must have been Gnostics then, for they said that saving faith was “abiding in … doctrine” (2 Jn 9) and receiving God’s testimony/report (1 Jn 5:9-10). Nowhere do they hint that saving faith is anything more or less than believing their preaching. “So we preach, and so you believed.” (1 Cor 15:11).
  
  This is good news for believers. If saving faith is simply to believe the propositions of the gospel, then there can be no doubt in our minds that we are believers. Faith’s not mystical. It’s simply the full assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen (Heb 11:1). It’s the way you understand a report to be true (Heb 11:2).
  
  This is why the Apostles assumed that all the NT Christians knew they were believers. Paul wrote to the “saints and faithful” at Ephesus. Now, how could the Ephesian believers have known the epistle was for them, unless they knew they were saints and faithful? Could they, or any believer for that matter believe the propositions of the gospel, and not know you have believed them? Of course not. You can’t be in the light, and not realise it, unless you are blind. Thus Paul implies that anyone doubting their salvation is lost. “Know not Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are disapproved?” (2 Cor 13:5). Clearly, Paul teaches that it is impossible for someone to believe the gospel without realising it.
  
  It’s time to define our terms. What is the gospel that Paul and the Apostles preached? What do we mean by the “true gospel” in opposition to all false gospels? To begin with, Romans 1:16-17 states that the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel. Now, what is the “righteousness of God” ? Answer: “Christ is the end of Law for righteousness to everyone that believes.” (Rom 10:4). The heart of the gospel is the teaching that Christ was “made under the Law” “to redeem those under the Law”. The Law which Christ obeyed demands PERFECT PERPETUAL obedience from ALL men, and pronounces a CURSE of damnation on all who fail to keep it flawlessly. Indeed, “the soul that sins shall die.” Anyone who worships the Just God and Saviour of the Scriptures will HAVE to know about imputed righteousness. It’s OBVIOUS from the Scripture that man must be PERFECT to worship God, and since all men everywhere are sinners, it MUST be the work of SOMEONE ELSE (Christ) that constitutes the elect sinner right before God. You would have to be completely IGNORANT of God’s UTTER DISGUST with the smallest disobedience, to deny imputed righteousness. God says, “cursed is everyone who does not obey all these statues,” and “not the hearer of the Law, but the doer of the Law shall live,”. Clearly, if you are not perfect in the sight of God you will NOT enter heaven — you are under the wrath of God. You need Christ’s righteousness. Because ONLY His obedience to the Law can meet the demands of the Law. In fact Romans 3 says that the FAITHFULNESS of Christ to the Law is the way God DEMONSTRATES His righteousness. “God set forth a propitiation through faith in His blood, as a demonstration of His righteousness through the passing over of the sins that had taken place before, in the forbearance of God, (26) for a demonstration of His righteousness in the present time, for His being just and justifying the one that is of the faith of Jesus.” Anyone ignorant of IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS does NOT understand God’s righteousness. They do not believe the gospel.
  
  It’s now time to look at the other half of the gospel: IMPUTED SIN. “He who knew no sin was made sin,” and “the chastisement of our peace was upon Him.” Now, you would have to be a hardened heretic to deny that The Atonement is PLAINLY LIMITED in the Scriptures to believers. “I lay down my life for the sheep”, Christ said, not the goats who will perish. “I pray not for the world,” He said, and Ephesians 5:25 says that husbands are to love their wives like Christ loves the Church. Obviously, LOVE is ALWAYS limited to SOMEONE ( e.g. your wife, if you are a married man), or a GROUP of people in the case of Christ. To say that Christ died for some people who will perish is to deny His work was 100% sufficient to save from hell.  “The gospel” which Paul preached, included the truth “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures”. Thus, the man will know that all the sins of believers are completely atoned for. This is the whole meaning behind the Resurrection of Christ — God the Father is perfectly satisfied with the work of the Son, “to save His people from their sins.”
  
  The gospel, therefore, is God’s promise to save His people based on the atoning blood and imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. God has testified that everyone who believes the gospel, “IS justified”, “IS born of God,” “IS saved,” and “shall NOT come into judgment”. Now, if it was possible for someone to believe the gospel, but doubt their salvation, then that would mean a believer could CALL GOD A LIAR. Because if a believer doubts their salvation, they are denying God’s promise to save ALL believers.
  
  This is why John says, believers do not call God a liar. Instead, “The one believing in the Son of God has the witness in himself … And this is the witness: that God gave us everlasting life, and this life is in His Son.” So, all believers HAVE THE WITNESS in their consciences. And what is “the witness”? “God gave us everlasting life.” To believe the witness, therefore, is to KNOW that God gives eternal life to believers. It is to have a BARE BELIEF OF THE BARE TRUTH. It’s to credit the testimony of God, and to be convicted that God’s promises are sure and certain. In other words, receiving or coming to Christ is MERELY to believe the gospel. “As many as RECEIVED Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God, to the ones BELIEVING into His name”(John 1:12).
  
  It’s not like an elect sinner rationalizes their way into the gospel. They don’t gradually “find out” about the True God’s character. Conversion is a SUDDEN, totally UNEXPECTED change of mind to the DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. “Isaiah is very bold and says, “I was found by those not seeking Me; I became known to those not inquiring after Me.” … And your ears shall hear a word BEHIND you, saying, This is the way, walk in it.”
  
  Thus, the elders obtained the good report by their faith, not their works (Heb 11:2)
  
  Sadly, most Protestants do NOT base their evidence of salvation on a bare belief of the bare truth. They look to their own works. In doing so, they show a complete failure to understand sanctification. God commands us to “walk worth as children of God.” Now, how can you walk as a son of God, unless you are already fully persuaded in your mind you are a child of God? And can someone pray, “Abba, Father” without the knowledge that God is their Father? Could someone even pray “Our Father in heaven” without knowing first they are His children? Doesn’t every good work come out of gratitude for salvation? And if so, how can we even begin to do good works without full assurance of salvation first?
  
  It’s not like you do good works in order to “find out” whether or not you’re saved. In order for a work to be good, it must be out of love. And can some love God, unless they know He has loved them with everlasting love? No. John says believers “love him because he first” love them. It’s the INFALLIBLE ASSURANCE that God has justified me by Christ’s righteous and redeemed me by His blood that brings forth all my obedience. “For as much as YOU KNOW, that you were redeemed not with corruptible things … but with the blood of Christ, pass the time of your sojourning in fear.” I pass the time sojourning, because I KNOW I am REDEEMED by CHRIST’S BLOOD.
  

  
  

  
  Now don’t get me wrong. Believers DO have wicked thoughts and do wicked things. And God tells believers that they will sin. But He doesn’t stop there, does He? He also says that all believers are are JUSTIFIED from all sin, so believers never doubt that God saves sinful people, including themselves. Therefore, God can and does convince justified people that they are actually justified, and there are no believers walking around ignorant of their justification. People who doubt they are justified are not justified. Believers have the infallible testimony of the Holy Spirit witnessing to the infallible Word, and this is always 100% sufficient to convince them that God will save ALL His people based on the atoning blood and imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ alone.
  
  After all, how do we know there is a Law? Sin? Death by sin? We hear of these things by the Word. But the Word also says, “Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness for everyone that believes.” (Romans 10). So the Word is sufficient to convict my conscience of sin and death. And at the same time, the Word is sufficient to acquit (remove all concern) of condemnation.
  
  Christ says, that “the one receiving His testimony has SEALED that God is true” and the Apostles only wrote to those of “equally precious faith” to themselves (2 Pet 1:1). And since the Apostles never doubted their salvation, to have “equally precious faith” to them, would mean to have the full assurance of salvation they possessed. Therefore, if you do not have the full assurance of the Apostles, the epistles are not addressed to you. You are a child of the devil. You cannot say with Paul, “He will guard my deposit” and with John, “He has regenerated us.” You do not have the equally precious faith of the Apostles. Unless you repent (have a change of mind), you will perish eternally.
  
  Believers never thirst for the knowledge of their salvation. Christ said, “Whoever may drink of the water which I will give him will not thirst, NEVER! But the water which I will give to him will become a fountain of water in him, springing up into everlasting life.” But those that are doubting their salvation are very thirsty indeed. They are still under the curse of the Law. And James tells them they can expect nothing from God. James wrote, “For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, being driven by wind and being tossed; for do NOT let that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.”
  
  
  Full assurance is the privilege of every believer.
  
  Andrew Bain
  Sydney, Australia
  

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