The Assurance of Salvation: Part2

In the Aldersgate experience, Wesley found assurance that God

had forgiven him and adopted him as His child. He wrote about the

Spirit’s “direct testimony” resulting in “an inward impression on the

souls of believers”. There may or may not be an outward or inner voice,

but the result is “a sweet calm; the heart resting as in the arms of Jesus,

and the sinner being clearly satisfied that God is reconciled, that all his

iniquities are forgiven, and his sins covered.”

The lack of this may result in a person seeking false assurance in a

number of ways. On the one hand, one may confuse ‘self-talk’ with the

Spirit’s witness, resulting in self-congratulation and self-delusion. One

may be running after the shadows of his own fallen imagination.

On the other hand, one may falsely depend on unreliable pillars,

such as traditionalism and formal religion. Just because one is born

in a Christian family or brought up in church does not make one a

child of God. After all, God is not our heavenly Grandfather. He has

no grandchildren, only children!

Wesley’s middle way avoids solely depending on a frozen

objectivism or a boiling subjectivism – both of which can be

misleading. Furthermore, Wesley offers a helpful sequence of events

in the believer’s experience.

First comes the witness of the Spirit, followed by an outpouring

of God’s love, and then by holy living. There is then an awareness that

one is living a holy life, which leads to his own spirit (including his

conscience) acting as a witness. This order is most helpful.

Wesley also insisted that the fruit of the Spirit follows the witness

of the Spirit. (He is silent on the gifts, presumably because they can be

quite easily counterfeited.) The fruit of the Spirit – Christlike character

– brings an indirect assurance that one is saved, but should not be

confused with the direct witness of the Spirit.

Also, if one claims he has the witness of the Spirit but does

not bear the Spirit’s fruit, his claim is questionable. The absence of

true repentance, transformation and obedience would raise serious

questions in such cases.

The direct witness of the Holy Spirit in our spirits is a distinctive

emphasis in Methodism. Wesley believed that he was recovering an old

teaching that had largely been forgotten or ignored in his days.

We do well to reflect on this teaching, for in our days we face

similar dangers: of relying on the unsteady man-made pillars of

Christendom, and of self-deception that confuses our own spirits with

the Spirit of God. Wesley offers a safe path that avoids an objectivism

without personal experience and a floating subjectivism with no anchor

on solid ground. It is a path that stays out of a religion without a living

relationship and an imagined relationship without truth.

How then would you answer the question, ‘How do you know you

are saved?’

For Reflection: Reflect whether you find helpful Wesley’s sequence of events that

follow the direct witness of the Spirit. How is the bearing of the

fruit of the Spirit an indirect testimony that we are the children of

God? Why did Wesley not mention the gifts of the Spirit?

Coming up next: Do our prayers have to be in a queue to get God's attention? How does God handle all the millions of petitions that go to Him at any given moment?