Chapter That Made Me Go "hmmm"

I've been reading Holiness, by J.C. Ryle for the past few weeks, and ran across a very interesting chapter this week. The title of the chapter is assurance. I agree with what Ryle has to say ultimately, but I never had thought about it this way. He gives four points that he expounds upon:

I. An assured hope is a true and scriptural thing. (Check, I understand that one for sure.)
II. A man may never arrive at this assured hope, and yet be saved. (Hmmm...)
III.An assured hope is exceedingly to be desired. (Yep.)
IV. Causes why an assured hope is seldom attained. (Yes.)

I followed him on the first point, then the second point is what made me think. He asserts first that a person may have saving faith in Christ, but never reach that full assurance. He says all God's children have faith, but not all assurance. I've always held to the thought that we should strive for assurance, and test ourselves to see if we are in the faith if we didn't have assurance. I can't decide if I agree with Ryle's position of a man having received grace and that he is a Christian, yet they still can never reach full assurance. I would like to think that once a person is saved, of course they will have doubts and fears about death, but ultimately they will not be afraid. Ryle says that there are degrees in our sanctification, which I agree with. In our justification, there are no degrees, once it happens it has happened. I also agree with this. Ryle quotes Romans 10:11 and says this: "'Whosoever believeth on Him'--not whosoever has a strong and mighty faith--'Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed." Of course "bare, simple faith saves a man", but shouldn't a true Christian have a degree of assurance? Maybe not all the time, but even faith as small as a mustard seed is still faith, and we can be assured with small faith.

Ryle says faith is the root and assurance the flower. You can't have the flower without the root, but you can have the root without the flower. "Faith is life. Assurance is more than life...it is health, strength, power, vigour, activity, energy, manliness, beauty." I find it hard to swallow the thought that Ryle is bringing forth here. I think that Christians of course are Christians, but I think they have some assurance to hold onto. Am I making sense? Probably not, but this was tumbling through my mind today, and I thought I'd write it down.

I have struggled with doubt, everyone has, of course. But then I overcame it, and had assurance. Doubts come again and again, but I believe that a person can get over it and find assurance, but not after struggling--which just makes us grow stronger. As it says in Acts 17, "He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead." That's assuring to me...and then again..."And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end."

I don't think I misunderstood Ryle-faith is faith, and that alone saves us, but it was just a new concept to me, I guess, to think that a Christian can never reach assurance. It's nice to run across new concepts every now and then and to think about them.

This was a quote that made me go "hmm" (in a good way) in the notes of the chapter:
"This weak faith will as truly apprehend God's merciful promises for the pardon of sin as strong faith, though not so soundly. Even as a man with a palsied hand can stretch it out as well to receive a gift at the hand of a king as he that is more sound, though it may be not so firmly and steadfastly." (William Perkins, 1612)

And I liked this one:
"Faith is not created perfect at the first, as Adam was; but is like a man in the ordinary course of nature, who is frist an infant, then a child, then a youth, then a man." (Richard Ward, 1640)

So to summarize...I know what Ryle was getting at. In the end, this is what he says, "The believer who follows the Lord most fully and aims at the highest degree of holiness will ordinarily enjoy the most assured hope, and have the clearest persuasion of his own salvation." Using Scripture, Ryle exhorted his readers to pursue assurance, and not just sit back and be afraid. In the end, this chapter was thought provoking and good.

--I'm listening to Chris Tomlin's "Mighty Is the Power of the Cross", which is a good theme song to this post. :)