Assurance of Faith: The Spirit's Testimony Explained

"The Westminster Confession of Faith 18.2 says we get our basic assurance from the promises of God that is buttressed by inward evidences of grace or faith. And then, we also have this thing that's called the testimony of the Holy Spirit. The testimony of the Holy Spirit. And, this is worded in a particular way, as follows, 'The testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our Spirits that we are the children of God,' just quoting Romans 8:16, 'which Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance,' that's our down payment for what's going to come, 'whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption.'" [00:39:04]

"Now this is the most difficult part of assurance in the Westminster Confession. And, the divines knew that there was a vast amount of mystery surrounding this subject because whenever you talk about the Holy Spirit, it is a bit mysterious, isn’t it? Because we can't see the Spirit the way we can see Jesus in our human flesh. And, there's so much about the Spirit that is mysterious to us. He's like the wind who comes and blows, when and where He will." [01:40:38]

"So the other group of divines, people like Samuel Rutherford and others that were there at Westminster said, 'Yes it's true, the Spirit's testimony is needed here, but we want to talk about something else, a direct testimony of the Holy Spirit that comes with power to comfort the soul.' And so, they had in mind, not something reflective, but something direct, they called it an immediate act of faith, a direct act of faith, rather than immediate act of faith, through the means, through the means of reflection." [03:13:09]

"J. I. Packer describes it this way, 'This is a direct and immediate sense of God's fatherly love given, as kind of an immediate communication, like God saying, 'I love you,' directly, immediately, to the soul through His Word, or like a father saying to his child, 'I love you,' as a good parent sometimes does. So, with God and His children, the Spirit who comes in as a Spirit of adoption mediates to us, these high moments. This thrilling realization that God is, as it were saying to my soul, 'I am thy salvation, I am your Father. I love you.'" [05:58:50]

"Now, if you've never experienced anything like this, this should not bring you to despair. It doesn't mean you're an inferior Christian any way; this is no second blessing. But, if you have experienced it, you know what it's like. It overwhelms you. It, it masters you. It makes you bow in submission before the Triune God. The fruit, 'By their fruits you shall know them,' the fruit when it's a genuine work of the Spirit in your soul, is it humbles you before God. It makes you smaller and makes Christ bigger in your life." [06:42:24]

"Now, the important thing is that all the divines were agreed that if this was true, the direct testimony of the Holy Spirit, it was in no way superior to the other two. All would say that except for Thomas Goodwin. I won't get into that detail. Goodwin actually did think it was superior. But that's why I said these two are like your meat and potatoes, the promises and evidences, and the testimony of the Holy Spirit is like a, a sweet dessert after, after the meal." [11:05:56]

"The important thing also that they all agreed on, is that the activity of the Spirit is essential in all three kinds of assurance. Without the Holy Spirit, you don't have, according to Paul, according to the Puritans, any assurance. As Burgess said, 'As a man by the power of free will is not able to do any supernatural good thing, so neither by the strength of natural light, can he discern the gracious privileges God bestows upon him.'" [12:09:17]

"Without the application of the Spirit, the promises of God will lead to self-deceit, carnal presumption and fruitless lives. Without the illumination of the Spirit, self-examination, number 2 of the evidences, tends to introspection, bondage and legalism. The witness of the Spirit divorced from the promises of God and from scriptural inward evidences, will probably lead to unbiblical mysticism and excessive emotionalism. So, the three reinforce each other when they are given by the Holy Spirit." [12:40:57]

"Well, I want to read a quote to you. It's a bit lengthy, but it's from James Boice, who is well-respected in Reformed circles, as you know. It's taken from his exposition of Romans, where he works with this text. This is what he says, 'I'm convinced that Romans 8:16 teaches that there is such a thing as a direct witness of the Holy Spirit to believers that they are sons or daughters of God, even apart from the other proofs, I have mentioned.'" [16:36:78]

"Do not make too much of these experiences. The main thing in the Christian life is to walk every day in God's promises and precepts. Number 2, such experiences must be tested by the Word of God to avoid false mysticism, as such experiences are merely emotional, they will not be grounded in the truths of God's Word. Three, such experiences must be tested by the fruits of our lives to avoid antinomianism." [18:29:13]

"If these kinds of experiences produce the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control, the fruits of the Beatitudes, etc., you may know by their fruits that they were genuine testimonies of the Holy Spirit. If, however, the fruit of such experiences is that you become puffed up with your experiences, and you end up living a careless and presumptive lifestyle, a kind of high-minded attitude of superiority over other Christians, you can be absolutely sure, these experiences are of the devil, and not the Holy Spirit." [19:07:52]

"All Spirit-worked experiences bear God-honoring fruits. And finally, such experiences also involve the testimony of the Holy Spirit witnessing with our spirit that we are the children of God. That is made abundantly clear also by the Canons of Dort, written 30 years earlier before the Westminster Confession. Though using slightly different language, it's interesting, the Canons, Fifth Head: Article 10, provide the same primary ground of assurance and the same two secondary grounds of assurance that Westminster does." [19:57:76]