Assurance fills our hearts with love for Christ. He is not only the foundation of assurance, but he is himself the fountain from which we daily drink. He quenches our thirst. Assurance of salvation is assurance of Jesus. He becomes everything to us.
Assurance of salvation is one of the most precious Christian doctrines, but in some ways also one of the most difficult. Why? As Sinclair Ferguson so aptly explains, because some outstanding Christians experience it only through the greatest struggles while others never fail to experience it. In this brief excerpt from his book Maturity, Ferguson explains four distinguishing characteristics of truly Christian assurance.
Some come to experience assurance only after a long struggle. That has been true of many outstanding Christians. Others have never known what it is to be without it. For some it comes through sorrows. For others it emerges through joys.
