I tried to say before, why don’t we just all repent toward each other? Why don’t the GraceBoys confess their struggles with proud self-centeredness, and the AntiOnes confess that within their bundle of differing motivations they sometimes minimize the enduring love of Jesus?

I’m enthusiastic about trusting Christ. I did it six times in my teens, just to make sure. It was partly because the evangelist would say, I’m not asking if you’re a member of a church, or if you’ve ‘come forward’ before; no, just ask yourself are you sure right now, that if you died tonight you’d go to heaven.

Well, I sort of thought I was sure, but there were a lot of other things on my mind besides how much Jesus loves me and how much I love him. So maybe I hadn’t really trusted Christ, is what went through my mind, maybe I just thought I had. So there I went forward again.

Assurance of salvation, my assurance of my salvation, that’s crucial. What if I get all that theology right, but never actually have a deep heartfelt trust? What if I’m just fooling myself again, maybe being self-righteous about my faith, relying on my faith instead of on Jesus? That gets so complicated and heart-numbing.

But in our theological world there’s a wonderful word and reality, the word extraspective; as we trust Jesus Christ we are not looking backwards to the quality of our faith, but upwards to our loving Lord. We look away from our weak selves to Jesus!

As I’ve been thinking about what revival would look like, I know it’s about Jesus. And I know it’s about unity in the body of Christ, that we desire and love Jesus together, that when we talk about Jesus we understand each other, and that we pray the same prayers.

That’s why right now I’m so grieved and distraught about what divides us. We do agree that knowing him is the heart of everything, and we do agree that we are called to follow the one we know. Loving Jesus and obeying him belong together, we all know that. But we’ve been burnt, all of us. I tried to say before, why don’t we just all repent toward each other? Why don’t the GraceBoys confess their struggles with proud self-centeredness, and the AntiOnes confess that within their bundle of differing motivations they sometimes minimize the enduring love of Jesus?

That’s been the best I could do so far, but does it go far enough? Would it help us to look at what we think about assurance? Can we meet in the middle there?

If you look at assurance one way, there are plenty reasons why we never could be sure, aren’t there? I have sympathy for the Roman Catholic Council of Trent’s reasoning for rejecting assurance, especially since they put it together with perseverance.

“Similarly with regard to the gift of perseverance, of which it is written: He that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved, which cannot be obtained from anyone except from Him who is able to make him stand who stands, that he may stand perseveringly, and to raise him who falls, let no one promise himself herein something as certain with an absolute certainty, though all ought to place and repose the firmest hope in God’s help. For God, unless men themselves fail in His grace, as he has begun a good work, so will he perfect it, working to will and to accomplish. Nevertheless, let those who think themselves to stand, take heed lest they fall, and with fear and trembling work out their salvation, in labors, in watchings, in alms, deeds, in prayer, in fastings and chastity [my bold font] . . .

Canon 6.16. If anyone says that he will for certain, with an absolute and infallible certainty, have that great gift of perseverance even to the end, unless he shall have learned this by a special revelation, let him be anathema.”

But we know that’s not right, don’t we? This is how we hear God’s promises to us, as in our Heidelberger Katechismus:

Was ist wahrer Glaube?

Es ist nicht nur eine sichere Erkenntnis, durch die ich alles für wahr halte, was uns Gott in seinem Wort offenbart hat, sondern auch ein herzliches Vertrauen, welches der Heilige Geist durchs Evangelium in mir wirkt, daß nicht nur anderen, sondern auch mir Vergebung der Sünden, ewige Gerechtigkeit und Seligkeit von Gott geschenkt ist aus lauter Gnade, allein um des Verdienstes Christi willen.

Q. What is true faith? [CRC translation]

A. True faith is not only a sure knowledge by which I hold as true all that God has revealed to us in Scripture; it is also a wholehearted trust, which the Holy Spirit creates in me by the gospel, that God has freely granted, not only to others but to me also, forgiveness of sins, eternal righteousness, and salvation. These are gifts of sheer grace, granted solely by Christ’s merit.

Ponder that again, rejoice in that again: more than a sure knowledge, but a wholehearted trust; not just for others but for me too. We’re sure that’s what we hear in God’s Word. We know why too. It’s because the gospel is not about us, but about the Father’s love, about the Son’s obedience unto death, about the Spirit’s witness. There’s that Blessed Extraspective again!

I hope that helps us all. I hope and pray we can meet at Assurance. Maybe this would help? I just had LASIK cataract surgery, intimidating but what an astonishing result. I got up one morning and turned on the computer—and the screen came up so amazingly sharp. There must have been some update overnight, don’t you think? Then it dawned on me—it was my eye that had changed! A nurse told me about the downside of seeing clearly. Her mother had the same thing done, and then she saw how filthy her house was, something she just hadn’t seen before, leading to a grand flurry of housecleaning! That’s the ‘knowledge of sin through the gospel’ again, isn’t it?

I think that’s how it works. When we see God’s grace throughout our lives, that’s when we keep on cleaning house. Does that work for you, too?
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D. Clair Davis, is a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America and serves as Professor and Chaplain, Redeemer Seminary, Dallas