Blessed Assurance: Is Jesus Actually Yours?
Note: This is the first article in a two-part series on the assurance of salvation from The Pilgrim’s Progress. Stay tuned for Part 2 where we’ll cover the third and fourth categories of people in relation to assurance.
When it comes to true assurance of salvation:
Most want it.
Many profess to have it.
Few possess it.
Case in point: would most people readily agree with this statement? “I believe that Christ died for sinners and that I shall be justified before God from the curse through His gracious acceptance of my obedience to His law.” Do you find anything wrong with this profession of faith? (If not, please keep reading!) Also, would you agree that there are temporal as well eternal consequences of a misplaced faith?
Donald Whitney, in his book How Can I Be Sure I’m a Christian?, writes that the assurance of salvation is as follows: “A God-given awareness that He has accepted the death of Christ on your behalf and forgiven you of your sins.” Whitney also makes the following observation: “Satan knows Christians are most effective when they’re sure of their salvation, and ineffective when they’re not. The Devil’s diabolical strategy, in general, is to convince lost people that they are saved and saved people that they are lost.”
With all of the above in mind, a tinker turned theologian by the name of John Bunyan not only understood the implications of bad theology upon soteriology and doxology, but wrote a certain allegorical book whose key theme is arguably the assurance of salvation. If The Pilgrim’s Progress just came to mind, you are thinking correctly. Bunyan’s own struggle with the assurance of salvation as well as his confrontations of those who had a false assurance are seen throughout the book. Christian, the main character, encounters one well named character after another who either had assurance of salvation but certainly should not have, or who did not have assurance of salvation but should have (Matthew 7:21–23, 1 John 5:13).
In an attempt to perhaps help with your own struggle with the assurance of salvation or to help you understand and help others who struggle with assurance, let’s consider four categories of people in relation to assurance of salvation as put forth by Bunyan in The Pilgrim’s Progress.
Bunyan’s Characterizations Concerning Assurance of Salvation
1. Not Saved and Not Assured
Paralleling his earlier autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, John Bunyan characterizes himself in The Pilgrim’s Progress as a man by the name of Christian. Christian lived in the City of Destruction where Bunyan writes that he had a “Book in his hand and a great Burden on his back.” The Book of course is the Bible, and the Burden is the weight of his sin. Bunyan writes that “he was reading in his Book, as was his habit, and his mind was greatly distressed. As he read, he burst out as he had done before, crying, ‘What shall I do to be saved?’” Through reading the Bible while in the City of Destruction, Christian came to understand that he was a condemned sinner who had no assurance of salvation but only certain judgment.
Another very different character that would fall under the category of not saved and not assured, is one we encounter towards the end of Christian’s journey. You may know someone by this name: Atheist. When Christian and Hopeful tell Atheist they are going to the Celestial City, Bunyan writes that “Atheist began to laugh uncontrollably” and then said, “There is not such a place as you dream of in all this world.” After Atheist headed off to refresh himself in the things of the world, Hopeful referred to Hebrews 10:39 as he told Christian, “let us believe and thus secure the salvation of our souls.” While Christian started off his pilgrimage as one unsaved but wanting salvation, Atheist is in this category as one who was not only not saved, but scoffs at the very idea that Heaven exists. He is like the fool described in Proverbs 14:1 who “says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”
2. Not Saved Yet Falsely Assured (Isaiah 64:6; Matthew 7:13–14, 21–23; Galatians 2:21)
This second category of characters is seen throughout The Pilgrim’s Progress, reflecting the false spirituality of Bunyan’s day (as well as our own). The Puritans had enjoyed a season of religious freedom under Oliver Cromwell, but when King Charles II came to power in 1660, Bunyan was imprisoned for refusing to follow the religious restrictions (whereas some “Christians” changed their “Christianity” to keep their comforts). In fact, rather than stop preaching that he might be “free,” Bunyan is credited to have said that he was willing to suffer “till the moss shall grow on mine eyebrows, rather than thus to violate my faith and principles.” It was thus from prison that Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress, in part to confront those possessing and preaching a false assurance of salvation.
In contrast to Bunyan, who stood firm in his faith and on his principles, there were others who were willing to change their convictions based upon the “cultural Christianity” of their day. Such were Mr. By-Ends and his three friends, Mr. Hold-the-world, Mr. Money-love, and Mr. Save-all as described in The Pilgrim’s Progress. These friends had been school mates in their younger years and had a teacher by the name of Grasp-man from the County of Coveting. “This teacher had trained them well in the art of getting ahead by whatever means, whether by violence, cheating, flattery, lying, or by putting on an external appearance of religion.” In short, their argument is that becoming religious to get good things from good people is a good thing. However, in light of John 6:26–27, Christian sharply rebukes them: “For if it is wrong to follow Christ for loaves and fish—as it is—how much more an abomination it is to use Him and religion as a means to get and enjoy the world!”
Bunyan confronted many others in The Pilgrim’s Progress who were falsely assured of salvation, such as Mr. Worldly Wiseman, Formalist, and Hypocrisy, Talkative, and Ignorance. It was Ignorance who Bunyan was describing in the opening statement above: “I believe that Christ died for sinners and that I shall be justified before God from the curse through His gracious acceptance of my obedience to His law.”
Did you catch what is fatally wrong with his statement? Christian certainly did as he replied to Ignorance’s profession of faith:
First, you believe with an imaginary faith; for this faith is nowhere described in the Word. Second, you believe with a false faith; it takes away justification from the personal righteousness of Christ and applies it to your own. Third, this kind of faith doesn’t allow Christ to be the justifier of your person, but rather the justifier of your actions; it renders your person justified by your actions. This is false. Last, therefore, this faith if deceitful. It will lead you to the wrath on the judgment day of the Almighty God. For true justifying faith puts the soul, which because of the law has become perceptive of its lost condition, fleeing to Christ’s righteousness for refuge. And His righteousness is not an act of grace which makes your obedience acceptable to God. No, it is His personal obedience to God’s law, in doing and suffering for us what the law required of us.