"The Fruit of This Assurance" -- Article Thirteen, First Head of Doctrine, Canons of Dort

Article 13: The Fruit of This Assurance

In their awareness and assurance of this election God’s children daily find greater cause to humble themselves before God, to adore the fathomless depth of his mercies, to cleanse themselves, and to give fervent love in return to him who first so greatly loved them. This is far from saying that this teaching concerning election, and reflection upon it, make God’s children lax in observing his commandments or carnally self-assured. By God’s just judgment this does usually happen to those who casually take for granted the grace of election or engage in idle and brazen talk about it but are unwilling to walk in the ways of the chosen.

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Contrary to a theology of fear and guilt taught by so many of our contemporaries, the assurance of our salvation is actually the only proper basis for good works. Critics of Reformed theology often charge that if you tell Christians that they can assuredly know that they will go to heaven when they die, then there is no longer any incentive for doing good works. This has long been the case with the Roman church which speaks of such assurance as a false presumption to be avoided (The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, Sixth Session on Justification, XII, XIII).

One response to this misguided argument is to ask a simple rhetorical question. “Does a dog bark to become a dog, or does a dog bark because it is a dog?” According to Ephesians 2:10, those who have been given faith in Christ as a gift by God do those good works which God has ordained of his people. Non-Christians cannot perform any good work that is acceptable to God (Hebrews 11:6), because whatever work they perform is completely tainted and stained by the guilt of sin (Romans 3:12).

Let us not forget that good works spontaneously spring forth in the lives of those who have been called by God to faith in Jesus, and who have been justified and united to Christ (cf. Galatians 5:16-26). According to Paul’s image of a tree and its fruit, once a tree has been changed from a bad tree to a good one (through regeneration), so too, good fruit (the work of the Holy Spirit) will naturally and inevitably follow. Yet, as Luther wisely counseled, we should not look to this fruit in our own lives for the primary assurance of our own salvation because we are oftentimes the worst judge of our own character and quality of the fruit which God brings forth. If, however, we are privileged to see the presence of good fruit in our own lives, that should serve to remind us of God’s graciousness to us, since his grace is the only reason why such fruit is present in the first place. Hopefully, others in the body of Christ may see true fruit in us and be moved to give thanks to God.

Although I am sure there are such people, I have yet to meet someone who is a Christian, and who asks, “how many sins can I commit and still be a Christian?” Where is the line I cannot cross? Biblically understood, the assurance of our salvation is not based upon human presumption and vanity, but upon confidence in Jesus Christ, who has promised to never leave us nor forsake us, and who prays for us, so that our faith will not fail (Luke 22:32; I John 2:1-2). Far from making us lax in our efforts, then, if we are trusting in Christ, what else can we do, but live a life of gratitude, striving to be obedient to the commands of God as revealed in his word (1 John 5:2)?

The Canons also warn us that those who reject this teaching, and who base assurance on human efforts are, ironically, the ones most apt to fall into sin. “By God’s just judgment this does usually happen to those who casually take for granted the grace of election or engage in idle and brazen talk about it but are unwilling to walk in the ways of the chosen.” How many illustrations of this are there? Too many, I am afraid.

Therefore, the assurance of our salvation is based upon the promises of our Savior (John 6:37; 10:28), and once we are in him, the Scriptures declare to us that good works will inevitably follow (John 15:16). We must be very careful here not to reverse this order, and make the good works that we do to be the basis for our assurance. To do so is to live in fear and doubt. Did we do enough good works? Did we do them for the right reasons? This conundrum is typical of American religion, often grounded in a false sense of human goodness and which, like Cain’s fruit salad offering (cf. Genesis 4:1-7), places far too much confidence in the flesh to do the works which we mistakenly think God will approve. Assurance of God’s favor in Jesus Christ, not fear or presumption, is the only proper biblical motivation for doing good works.