Chapter 25. Christians May Lose the Assurance of Their Peace with God Through the Weakness of Their
that natural way. But at that time, you could not have peace spoken to your heart. In time, however, the Lord opened the mystery of Christ to your soul, and then you sought reconciliation with Him in Christ, and you realised that it was through His blood that your peace was made.
Have you found peace in an evangelical way through Christ? Then treasure it. It is a precious jewel because it has come to you in such a manner as this; it cost God dearly, and it may have cost you dearly.
But whether it cost you dearly or not, you can be sure it cost God dearly; therefore, treasure it and do not lose it. To lose it entirely, so that God becomes your enemy again, you cannot do; but you can lose it in your perception, and you may lose the comforting assurance of it.
There are two ways in which Christians may lose the comforting assurance of their peace with God: first, through the weakness of their faith; secondly, through the sinfulness of their lives.
Chapter 25 Christians May Lose the Assurance of Their Peace with God Through the Weakness of Their Faith 1. Weakness: When they think the sin they fall into immediately causes enmity between God and them.
Objection: What need have believers, then, to be careful to avoid sin? Answered.
2. Weakness: Judging God's works as enmity against them.
Firstly, Through the Weakness of Their Faith; and That in Two Ways Weakness 1:
When, through their weakness, they think that the sin they fall into, or are overtaken by, immediately causes enmity between God and them. I have no doubt that there are many souls to whom God is reconciled and who sometimes have had some comfort in the assurance of this reconciliation. Yet, if at any time they are overcome by the sinful distempers of their hearts, they immediately think that this creates enmity between God and them again. They begin to see
God as their enemy and think that all the peace is broken between them and God. They feel that this breach undoes all that God has done, and now they think God is against them in all His ways, acting contrary to them as if He were their enemy.
It's true that carnal hearts, which do not understand the difficulty of making peace with God or the breach that sin creates between God and the soul, can sin repeatedly and still think that God will be merciful to them, never considering their sin as enmity against God or seeing God as their enemy. But take a poor soul that understands what sin is and has experienced how hard it is to make peace between God and themselves. As soon as any sin overcomes such a soul, the daily weaknesses often lead them to think that God has become an enemy to them. And however much hope they had before, they now believe that the breach between them and God is as wide, if not wider, than it ever was.
By this, know that you greatly dishonour the mighty work of God in Christ concerning reconciliation. Surely, it is one of the greatest dishonours you can cast upon Christ. When He has come to make
reconciliation between God and you, when He has undertaken it and done it so thoroughly, even at the cost of His own life, you still view this reconciliation as fragile, thinking that with every offence, all is undone again. This would indeed be a very poor reconciliation.
Suppose there were two people who were at odds with each other, and a great breach had been made between them. Another person comes and reconciles them, but only so that one keeps watch over the other to take advantage of any slight offence, returning them to being as great enemies as before. This would be a poor reconciliation indeed. So, when you think that with every sin you commit—after having had your peace made with God—you return to the same state as before, even though you can sincerely appeal to God that the greatest burden in the world to you is that you sin against Him, and you would consider it the greatest mercy to be delivered from that body of sin, what a dishonour you cast upon Christ! What sort of reconciliation has Christ made for you?
O! Therefore, believe that Christ has made a different kind of peace with God, and know that it is not a peace that can be so easily broken. If a bone-setter were to set a broken or disjointed bone in your body, and it was set right for the moment but would slip out of joint again with the slightest movement, you would conclude that this bone-setter was unskilled. Christ came down from Heaven for this very purpose—that He might unite us with God, making us one with Him. Do you think that Christ has merely set us together in such a way that with every daily infirmity, we would be estranged from God again? No, certainly, He has joined us together more strongly than we ever were before.
Adam, in his innocence, when he was without sin, did not have such a strong peace with God as you have in the midst of your sins. This is
a truth; and although we cannot speak of such things without trembling, knowing how ready carnal hearts are to misuse them, it remains true. Therefore, I would have Christians see it this way: to view the reconciliation that has been made between God and themselves as a peace firmer than it ever was between Adam and God, even though Adam had no sin and they have many. This is because Adam did not have it in Christ. So, consider this reconciliation as one that Christ has accomplished, and thereby honour and sanctify God in it.
If it were indeed no other reconciliation than what you obtained through your own prayers or tears, then you might fear that this reconciliation could be broken upon your renewal of sin. In truth, this is why those with enlightened consciences are so full of fears and doubts. Those who lack enlightenment are without fear, but the others are full of doubts and fears, precisely because the peace they have is no more than what they have obtained by their prayers, their duties, their tears, and their good intentions. They have never brought Christ into it; they have never been acquainted with that great mystery of godliness.
Now, the peace with God that you have obtained in any way other than through God's revelation of His work of reconciling Himself to the world in Christ will never last long. You will be inclined, with every temptation, suggestion, or new sin committed, to call that peace into question. But if you have been rooted in Christ, and your peace is grounded upon that which surpasses all your duties, tears, and prayers, and you can look upon God as reconciled to you in Christ, this peace will hold. This peace may endure despite the abundance of sins that remain in the soul of one reconciled to God.
Therefore, to aid you, so that you may not question your reconciliation with God upon every sin, know this: being reconciled to God, you are not under the Law such that every sin against the Law should place you under the sentence of eternal death. You are not under the curse that threatens everlasting death for those who sin. Here is the difference between one who is reconciled to God and another who is not. One who is not reconciled to God in Christ is so under the Law that every sin they commit, whether little or great, places them under the sentence and curse of eternal death; the neglect of any duty, however small, does it.
But now, here is the privilege of a believer: when you are once a believer and thus in Jesus Christ, then the sins you commit should indeed humble you, but none of them place you under the sentence of eternal death. Neither are you to obey the Law on the basis that every breach would place you under such a sentence. Others who are under the Law must look to keep it, whether they are able to or not, but the Law has no power over you in that way, and you are not bound to keep it on that basis. Therefore, the sins you commit do not place you under the sentence of eternal death as they do for others.
"There is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ," and this is true at every moment and instant of time. I will provide another scripture for this, which is just as clear, although perhaps not as often noticed: it is in Romans 7:5: "For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which were by the Law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." Note this: the motions of sin, which were by the Law, did work in our members; what did they do? They brought forth fruit—fruit unto death. This, the blessed
Apostle says, was when we were in the flesh. But now, being believers, though we still have the remnants and motions of sin, they are not such as to bring forth fruit unto death. None of the sins of
believers bring forth fruit unto death, for they are delivered from the power of the Law, and the Law cannot bring the sentence of death upon them.
This is a high privilege of believers, and a proper understanding of this would help us not to think that our peace with God is so fragile that He becomes our enemy with every sin committed through human frailty.
Objection: You may say, "What need then for believers to be careful to avoid sin? Can they not take the liberty to walk as they please?"
Oh, no; there are other arguments besides this. Indeed, if they had a slavish spirit, if they had no other arguments to persuade them away from sin but this—that sin would make God and them enemies—it would mean something. Those who object and say that believers may do as they please because their peace with God cannot be broken truly have slavish hearts themselves; they do not understand the strength of other arguments that keep them from sin.
I dare boldly affirm this: a believer should not, upon the commission of sin, think that they are now under the sentence of death, provided it is such a sin that may be consistent with a state of grace, as many weaknesses and frailties might be. For there are certain sins, such as living after the flesh, which the Scripture speaks of, where, if believers live in them, they shall die. You may ask, "What, can they perish eternally?" While this is presented as a means to keep them from living after the flesh, should they ever live in such a way (which God's grace will keep them from doing consistently), they shall die.
To that extent, they may apprehend that eternal death would be due to them if it were possible for them to fall into such a state. But it is not true that a believer, upon every sin committed, is under the
sentence of death; for once they are believers, they are freed from the Law.
Therefore, the Apostle, after speaking of the Law of God for this same purpose in Romans 5, addresses this objection: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid: how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?"
And then it follows: "Even as sin hath reigned unto death, so grace must reign through righteousness to eternal life." The grace of God reigns, it dominates over all things that come to oppose it, even over all our infirmities, over all our sins, and over whatsoever might seem to contradict it. The grace of God reigns; there is a dominating power in the grace of God over all things that would contradict it, but this is through righteousness.
You have sin within you that might oppose God's reconciling grace, but grace reigns despite that sin of yours, and it reigns unto eternal life. It has a reigning power to carry you through all difficulties and hindrances to eternal life, and all this is through the righteousness of Christ. Therefore, believers, in order to maintain their peace with God, are to regard all duties required by the Law as obligations; they are not freed from the duties that the Law requires. Their relationship to God as their Redeemer does not remove their relationship to God as Creator; still, they are bound to God as Creator as well as Redeemer. However, they should view the Law as coming to them in the hand of Christ.
Luther's statement on this is excellent: "Oh, how sweet," he says, "are the commandments of God to us when we receive them not as they are in the Book, but as they are in the wounds of Christ. When we read the commandments of God in the wounds of Christ and receive them there, oh, how sweet are they then!" Then we obey them from
sweet principles, not from legal considerations, as if every breach would bring us under the sentence of eternal death, as we did before.
This, I believe, is the meaning of Romans 8:15: "For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear." What is the spirit of bondage? The spirit of bondage that causes fear at first, before one becomes a believer, is this: "Either perfectly obey the Law or perish," says the spirit, even the Spirit of God, whether you are able or not; you must obey everything or die. If you have sinned against the Law, you are now accursed despite all your duties. The Spirit of God says this to all unbelievers, and it causes fear. But, as the Apostle says,
"You have not received the spirit of bondage to fear again." Though you might fear due to your weakness, thinking that God will turn against you upon every breach, the Spirit of God does not say you are therefore accursed. Rather, that Spirit enables you to go to God as a Father, to heal your weaknesses, and to give you strength against them.
The contrary belief is a significant misunderstanding and dishonour to the work of God's reconciliation in Christ. We must place much emphasis on this great work, which God values so highly, and if we did, we might walk through the world with immense comfort, and it would increase our sanctification.
Indeed, to deny all kinds of obligations to the Law and say that men are not bound to keep it as God being their Creator, and so forth, is an extreme vanity. But to grant the Law what it deserves and to grant the believer their due as well, to show how far we are bound to it and how far we are delivered from it, this is a great mystery of the Gospel.
People should labour to understand it correctly and take heed, lest, in a desire to grasp the grace of God in Christ, we do not go too far in overthrowing our obligations to God by the Law.
One might think that what I have stated (if people were not so inclined to be wanton) would be enough—that we are not under the sentence of condemnation, though we are not freed from the Law and its duties as God is our Creator. We should consider the grace of God magnified in this, and therefore, take hold of and make use of this grace of God in Christ so as not to lose the comfort of it.
This is the first weakness that prevents people from maintaining the comfortable assurance of their peace with God.
Weakness 2.
The second weakness is this: When godly people are inclined to interpret God's works, due to their weakness, as acts of enmity against them—not only viewing their own ways towards God as evidence that God and they are at enmity, but also interpreting all aspects of God's providence as if He were acting as an enemy towards them. They see God as walking contrary to them. This is a great weakness and dishonour to God. Let the wicked and ungodly judge this way if they will. As God says, "Fury is not in me; who would set the briars and thorns before him? He will go through them." When God approaches in outward ways of suffering, the ungodly may see these as God acting contrary to them. They may view all His works as the actions of an enemy who intends their ruin and destruction. They might interpret every trouble, even the smallest illness, as the beginnings of eternal wrath and a path toward eternal misery, as far as they know.
However, for those who are reconciled to God, it is their weakness if they view even the greatest affliction they face as God coming towards them as an enemy. No, you must understand that your reconciliation with God in Christ carries this power:
Firstly, there is nothing that God does towards you that leads to everlasting wrath—nothing, whatever it may be. Here is your comfort, and you may build upon this: even if your affliction is severe, and even if it lingers upon your body or your possessions, perhaps you lose all you have, and it may be that God hands you over to your enemies, and they trample upon you as dirt; yet none of this leads to eternal wrath. On the other hand, although a wicked person might receive many favours from God and experience His patience, no wicked person has grounds to interpret any blessing they enjoy from God as something that leads to their eternal good.
Similarly, those who are believers, no matter how great their afflictions, do not have sufficient grounds to interpret these afflictions as leading to their ultimate destruction. One might think that this would be sufficient for believers to trust that whatever afflictions they face in this world, the wrath of God in all those afflictions has been removed; they shall not lead to their ruin and eternal misery. Even though the afflictions themselves may persist, the poison in every affliction—the wrath of God—has been removed by Christ. Indeed, whatever happens to us in this world is, through the love of God, working towards our good. That which appears most opposed to your desires is, in reality, intended for your everlasting good in Christ. One would think that this understanding should be sufficient to bring satisfaction to our hearts regarding afflictions.
Just as what was previously stated should be enough concerning our freedom from the Law, what I have now written should suffice regarding our being chastened for our sins.
Consider just these two points: that no evil or chastisement that befalls us will lead to our everlasting misery; and, moreover, that nothing will happen to us but what comes from love and works